‘Too scared’: How Nepal violence is still hurting India border trade

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 (2,625 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 antigovernment protests, which were led by the country’s Gen Z , left 72 dead, including an Indian national, and more than 2,000 injured in the Himalayan nation