This is an account of a relationship between rumours and conspiracy theories on the one hand and the production and consumption of Nepali popular literature on the other. It focuses first on the rumours that circulated in Nepal during 2001 as alternative explanations for the Narayanhiti Palace massacre that took place on 1 June that year. It then describes how believers in these rumours seized upon ‘errant data’ in the official account of the massacre and built them up into conspiracy theories over the years that followed. Finally, it examines the way in which a number of Nepali authors capitalized on the Nepali public's fascination with this event and its continued scepticism of the official account.

Rumours and Conspiracy Theories

Rumours are ‘claims of fact’. They possess credibility not because they are supported by direct evidence but because other people seem to believe them and because they fit with people's prior convictions (Sunstein, 2009, 6). They spread through two interrelated processes. The first is a social or information cascade in which people believe the views passed on to them by others because they have no information of their own. If they are predisposed to believe in a particular rumour, the rumour will spread ever more rapidly. This is especially true in conditions of social stress or unrest or in the aftermath of a crisis, when numerous speculations will be on offer:

Thus, a rumour about the ‘truth’ of a terrible event that provokes anger and outrage may be believed because it not only relieves the ‘primary emotional urge’ that is the person's reaction to it, but also offers an explanation for the event itself that is in line with that person's biases and preconceptions.