title: Diamond Shumsher Rana
text: # Diamond Shumsher Rana
  
  Diamond Shumsher Rana (5 July 1918 – 11 March 2011) was a Nepali writer and political activist known for his acclaimed novels Basanti and Seto Bagh.
  
  ## Life and career
  
  He was born at Tansen Durbar in Palpa, where his grandfather, Sher Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, was governor. His father Buddha Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana was a colonel in the Royal Nepal Army. Rana enjoyed a privileged upbringing and was a captain in the Royal Nepal Army.
  
  In 1948 Rana travelled to Benaras, India and had his first novel Basanti published. In Nepal, he had aligned himself with an anti-establishment faction of the Rana regime and was arrested, court-martialled and sentenced to death but was later freed after members of the Rana family pressured the regime for his release. Rana later joined the political opposition and was a member of the Nepali Congress Party from 1954 to 1987.
  
  