For Krishna Khanal, professor of political science at Tribhuban University, it was like taking class on Monday afternoon in Kirtipur. The only difference was there were over 1,000 people sitting in the slopes below the town and he had to use a loudspeaker.

But in just about every other way, the good professor was speaking on a subject he has always felt deeply about: how non-violent resistance against tyranny is the most effective way to bring about its downfall. Khanal is not a starry-eyed Gandhian, although he does idolise Nelson Mandela. This week's pro-democracy agitation has been a chance for him to test the political science theory he has always taught in class and see if it works in real life. It worked better than he ever expected.

When the Kirtipur demonstrations showed signs of turning nasty, Khanal stood on a large boulder grabbed the loudspeaker and in his deep professorial voice called on the crowd to calm down. The demonstrators sat down, and began to listen to protest poetry and satire. There was laughter, clapping and more laughter. At one point a huge armoured car tried to drive through the to enforce the curfew in the town, but the people spontaneously lay down on the street and blocked its path forcing the vehicle to turn back. In the end even the security forces seemed relieved that a confrontation was avoided. Pretty soon, the policemen down the road were laughing along with the people they came to control.

"Ridiculing those who lust for power is more powerful than throwing bricks at them," muses Khanal (first from left in picture taken on Monday in Kirtipur). Indeed, the government hasn't yet found a reason to arrest the 73-year-old democracy activist. "This is the kind of movement that should be held all across the nation," says Khanal's daughter Suchitra, 22, who suggests that all leaders should follow her father's peaceful path to empowering the movement.

Krishna Khanal strongly believes that a non-violent movement will ultimately triumph over any kind of repression, no matter how extreme. But the professor is modest about his accomplishment and shies away from media interviews. Still we managed to wrest this out of him: "All I'm doing is a citizen's duty to establish a free and democratic nation."

Dhruba Simkhada