Raxaul, India – Ranjeet Kumar considers himself to be lucky to get any business from Nepal with the recent spate of violence in the neighbouring country.
The 50-year-old runs a century-old shop of religious items in Raxaul in Bihar state in eastern India, barely 800 metres (about 2,600 feet) short of the country’s border with Nepal, and the last market in the area.
Kumar sells items used mostly during daily prayers in Hindu households on both sides of the border, like sacred thread and a fire pit for ceremonies. But sales have dipped from across the border since mass anticorruption protests broke out in Nepal on September 8.
The protests, led by the country’s Gen Z, left 72 dead, including an Indian national, and more than 2,000 injured in the Himalayan nation.
Even though the border was closed for a week when violence broke out, residents near the border could get permission to make quick shopping runs into India, helping ensure Kumar’s business was not deeply hit. “They came and went back quickly,” he said.
But most others have not been as fortunate.
Arun Kumar Gupta, 55, a cloth trader in Raxaul, told Al Jazeera that his business came to a standstill during the violence, making it difficult to fund the salaries of his three employees.
“Over 90 percent of the businesses in markets bordering Nepal depend on Nepalese citizens,” Gupta said.
India shares an approximately 1,750km-long (1,088-mile) porous border with Nepal that goes through five Indian states: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, all of which provide multiple entry points between the two countries, and citizens of both sides are allowed to travel freely across the open border without a passport.
India is Nepal’s largest trading partner and biggest source of foreign investment. It also accounts for about two-thirds of Nepal’s merchandise trade and one-third of services.
India sends petroleum products, chemical fertilisers, salt, sugar, rice, vehicles, copper and cotton, among several other items, to Nepal. It imports hydroelectric power, resin, yarn, and handicrafts from the smaller country.
The total trade between India and Nepal stood at $8.5bn in 2024-25, which included exports from India worth $7.3bn and imports of about $1.2bn during the period.
Major blow
The protests in Nepal forced the government of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign, after youth agitators set the parliament building and the homes of several politicians on fire. Nepal’s president has since appointed 73-year-old Sushila Karki, a former Supreme Court chief justice, as interim prime minister after the Gen-Z movement picked her for the role — and elections have been announced for March.
Since then, the violence has eased, and movement across the border has resumed.
But business is far from back to normal, traders complained.
“The political turmoil has left people too scared to go back to spending money normally. They are worried the violence could erupt again,” said Suresh Kumar, who runs a shop of ladieswear in Raxaul. “They have restricted their shopping to daily requirements.”
Even though Dashain, Nepal’s biggest festival, is coming up, traders fear that they are staring at severe losses. This year, it is going to be celebrated from October 2 to October 15.
“People generally come here to buy new clothes and other items during the festival, but the current situation will certainly reduce the magnitude of the grand celebrations, which will affect our business badly,” said Raj Kumar Gupta, secretary of Raxaul Chamber of Commerce and Industries, a trade body.
“The markets normally start bustling with buyers around 15-20 days ahead of the festival, but till now it is completely vacant,” he added.
The repercussions of the violence are being felt even in far-off cities that supply goods to shopkeepers in the border areas.
Muzzaffarpur in Bihar, about 140km (88 miles) from the Raxaul border, is a hub of lac bangles, or lahati, as they are known locally.
The city supplies these bangles – made from the lac resin in a range of colours and patterns – in large quantities to businesses in border areas for sale in Nepal.
“The impact is 100 percent as we have not sent any supplies to the border areas since the violence broke out,” said Ehtashamul Haque, 37, a bangle trader in Muzzaffarpur. “We had increased our production, expecting sales during the upcoming Dashain festival there, but our plans have suffered a major jolt. The holding of stocks has blocked our investment, and it would take several months to clear them.”
Shyam Sundar Bhimseria, president of North Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, shared with Al Jazeera that the upcoming festival in Nepal is a major event that draws a lot of buyers from there, but the current political turmoil has certainly affected the businesses of those who depend on the neighbouring country.
“It is difficult to estimate the total loss due to the tension, but it would have a huge impact on those businesses that depend on it completely.”
Tourism hit badly
Tourism in Nepal is taking a big hit due to the turmoil. The country’s largest industry, it contributes about 8 percent to its economy, welcoming nearly 1.2 million foreigners each year. However, visuals of hotels like the Kathmandu Hilton being looted and vandalised, along with hundreds of travellers stranded when the international airport shut temporarily, are bound to scare away travellers, say industry insiders.
“The violence couldn’t have come at a worse time as the season was starting, and the bookings were already at their peak. The cross-border tourism to countries like Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh was already affected last year due to political tension in Bangladesh, and now Nepal has also joined the list,” said Debjit Dutta, chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IOTA), West Bengal chapter.
Dutta expects the drop in travellers to affect business in India, as well as tourists, especially Buddhist monks who travel to both Nepal and India to visit the holy places of Gautam Buddha.
KP Singh, founder of Pashupati Nath Tours and Travels, a travel company in Uttar Pradesh, said the damage has already been done.
“The images of hotels being looted and vandalised will remain hooked in the minds of the tourists for a long time, who would feel reluctant to travel to Nepal. We already had five-six tour bookings in September, but those had to be cancelled due to the current situation. We don’t know what lies ahead.”
