King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was the king of Nepal

King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was the king of Nepal from 1972 to 2001 AD. He was born in 1945 AD in kathmandu. He was the eldest Son of King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. Birendra was educated in India and England before taking degree from the University of Tokyo in Japan and Harvard University in the United States. He ascended to the throne as King of Nepal in 1972, following the death if his father, and was formally crowned in 1975.

Birendra inherited a political system that banned the formation of political parties and allowed for the autocratic rule of the King though a non -party system of councils known as panchayats. 1980 In, in the face of general unrest and political demonstrations called for a referendum king Birendra to allow people to choose between the the existing panchayat system and a multiparty system. The referendum returned a slight majority for maintaining the panchayat system with certain modifications. Birendra allowed a number of democratizing reforms, such as the direct popular election of the Rashtriya Panchayat. In 1990 a coalition of opposition forces, including a number of political parties operating unofficially, began an agitation against the panchayat system. When the protests turned violent, Birendra conceded democratic sovereignty to the people in a new constitution, ending the panchayat system and allowing for general elections and the emergence of political parties.