Martyrs of Nepal (Shahid): The 4 Shahid, Shahid Diwas & Memorial

The four martyrs of Nepal, popularly called the 'char shahid' (four martyrs), are Shukraraj Shastri, Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Gangalal Shrestha and Dashrath Chand. All four were put to death by the autocratic Rana regime of Prime Minister Juddha Shamsher Rana in Magh 1997 BS, corresponding to late January 1941, for demanding an end to hereditary Rana rule and the introduction of civil liberties and democracy in Nepal.

Three of the four — Mathema, Shrestha and Chand — were members of the Nepal Praja Parishad, an underground pro-democracy party. Shukraraj Shastri, a Sanskrit scholar and social reformer associated with Arya Samaj ideas, was not a party member but was executed in the same crackdown for publicly rousing people against the regime. Their refusal to apologise in exchange for their lives turned them into enduring symbols of the democratic movement.

Because of their sacrifice, the four are honoured together as the founding martyrs of Nepal's freedom struggle. Their statues stand at the Shahid Gate (Martyrs' Gate) in central Kathmandu, and their names are recited every year during Martyrs' Week. Their deaths are widely credited with igniting the movement that ultimately toppled the 104-year Rana oligarchy in 1951 (2007 BS).

The most durable way to remember the executions is by the Bikram Sambat dates, which anchor Martyrs' Week. Shukraraj Shastri was hanged first, on Magh 10, 1997 BS, at Pachali near Teku in Kathmandu. Dharma Bhakta Mathema was hanged from a tree at Sifal on Magh 13, 1997 BS, reportedly at midnight. Gangalal Shrestha and Dashrath Chand were shot dead together at Shobha Bhagawati, on the bank of the Bishnumati River, on Magh 15, 1997 BS.

In the Gregorian calendar these dates fall in the last week of January 1941. English-language sources most often place Shastri's hanging around 23–24 January, Mathema's around 26 January, and the shooting of Shrestha and Chand on 28 January 1941. Small one-day discrepancies appear across sources because of BS–AD conversion and because some executions were carried out at night; the BS dates (Magh 10, 13 and 15) are the ones observed officially in Nepal.

The contrast in method was itself a mark of the regime's caste and status calculations: Shastri and Mathema were hanged, while Shrestha and Chand were shot. Two other Praja Parishad leaders sentenced at the same time, Tanka Prasad Acharya and Govinda Prasad Upadhyaya, were spared execution and imprisoned instead, because prevailing law barred the killing of Brahmins.

Shukraraj Shastri (born 1894, 1950 BS) was a Sanskrit scholar and social reformer influenced by Arya Samaj. He openly criticised superstition and Rana autocracy and urged people to demand their rights, which led to his arrest and hanging at Pachali. He is often remembered as the first of the four to be executed.

Dharma Bhakta Mathema (born 1908, 1965 BS) was a bodybuilder and physical instructor who served as a trainer to King Tribhuvan, giving him access to the palace. He used that position to carry pro-democracy ideas into royal circles and worked underground with the Praja Parishad before being hanged at Sifal.

Gangalal Shrestha (born 1919, 1975 BS) was the youngest of the four, a student activist from a Ramechhap family who joined the Praja Parishad while still in his early twenties. He was shot at Shobha Bhagawati and is remembered for his composure before death. Dashrath Chand (born 1903, 1960 BS), a leader from Baitadi in the far west, had taken part in India's independence movement and co-founded the Praja Parishad; he was shot alongside Gangalal at the same site.

The Nepal Praja Parishad (Nepal People's Council) was Nepal's first organised political party of the modern era, founded on 2 June 1936 (20 Jestha 1993 BS). It was formed by anti-Rana activists including Tanka Prasad Acharya and Dashrath Chand, with the idea reportedly conceived at a hotel in Bhimphedi. Its members also included Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Gangalal Shrestha, Ganesh Man Singh and other reformist intellectuals.

Operating in strict secrecy under the repressive Rana system, the Parishad printed and distributed handwritten leaflets and pamphlets exposing the arbitrariness of Rana rule and calling for civil rights and representative government. The party smuggled in a printing machine and published critical articles, and some members contemplated more direct action against regime figures.

In 1940 the network was betrayed and its leaders were arrested. Juddha Shamsher's government tried them and handed down death sentences to several members. The executions of Shastri, Mathema, Shrestha and Chand in Magh 1997 BS were meant to crush the movement, but instead they gave the democratic cause its first martyrs and a powerful rallying memory.

Shahid Diwas, or Martyrs' Day, is Nepal's national day of remembrance for those who died in the struggle for freedom and democracy. It is observed every year on Magh 16 of the Bikram Sambat calendar, which usually falls on 29 or 30 January. The Government of Nepal designated Magh 16 as the common day to honour all martyrs, not only the four of 1941.

The full commemorative period is Martyrs' Week (Shahid Saptaha), running from Magh 10 to Magh 16. The span is deliberate: it opens on Magh 10, the day Shukraraj Shastri was hanged, and closes on Magh 16, the day set aside for all martyrs. Through the week, schools, political parties, the army and civic groups hold memorial functions, garland the martyrs' statues and organise talks on Nepal's democratic history.

On Martyrs' Day itself, senior state officials pay homage at the Shahid Gate in Kathmandu. By long-standing custom, newly appointed Prime Ministers and other office holders visit the monument to pay respects after taking their oaths of office, underlining the martyrs' place at the symbolic heart of the Nepali state. The topic is a fixture of school curricula and Loksewa (Public Service Commission) general-knowledge questions.

The Shahid Gate, or Shahid Dwar (Martyrs' Gate), is the principal national memorial to the four martyrs. It stands at the southern end of Tundikhel, the large open ground in central Kathmandu, near the Bhadrakali temple. The arch-shaped monument was inaugurated on 13 April 1961 and was designed by architect Shankar Nath Rimal.

The memorial features busts or statues of the four martyrs — Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Gangalal Shrestha, Dashrath Chand and Shukraraj Shastri — set into the gate. Crowning the structure is a statue of King Tribhuvan, who returned from exile in India and, in 1951 (2007 BS), sided with the popular movement that ended Rana rule, linking the monarch's role to the martyrs' sacrifice in the official narrative of democratic Nepal.

The Shahid Gate is the focal point of state ceremonies each Martyrs' Day, when wreaths are laid and guards of honour are mounted. It remains one of the most recognisable historical landmarks in Kathmandu and a common reference point in exam questions about who the four martyrs are and where they are memorialised.

The word 'shahid' in Nepal is not limited to the four of 1941. Over the decades, the state has conferred martyr status on many others who died in the anti-Rana movement, the 1950–51 revolution, the 1990 People's Movement (Jana Andolan I), the 2006 People's Movement (Jana Andolan II), the Maoist conflict and various regional struggles. Magh 16 was fixed as the shared day precisely so that all such martyrs could be honoured together.

In March 2016 the Government of Nepal formally granted martyrdom status to 22 additional people from across the country. The list included figures such as Bhimdatta Panta of the far-western peasant uprising, Durgananda Jha (often described as an early republican martyr), Ratna Kumar Bantawa and Captain Yagya Bahadur Thapa, among others drawn from many districts. New declarations have continued periodically, so there is no single fixed total number of martyrs.

For students and general readers, the practical distinction is this: the 'four martyrs' (char shahid) always refers to the 1941 group commemorated at the Shahid Gate, while the broader category of 'martyrs of Nepal' is an evolving national honour roll spanning the whole freedom and democracy movement.