Gurkha Veterans' Narratives of Mental Health, Activism, and Justice

Gurkhas are soldiers from Nepal who have served in the British Army for over 200 years. They form a unique yet historically marginalised part of Britain’s military legacy (Caplan, 1995; Des Chene, 1991). Despite being celebrated in service, they have faced longstanding inequalities such as pension rights and welfare provision. Activism has become central to Gurkha public life with the ongoing pension disparity remaining a key focus (British Gurkha Case, 2024; Thurley, 2021). Little is known about how Gurkha veterans experience activism, despite its significance for their collective identity. There is a growing UK Nepali community, which includes a significant number of Gurkha veterans and their families (Office for National Statistics, 2023). Evidence shows that this population underutilises mental health services, highlighting the need to understand their lived experiences (Thake, 2014; Simkhada et al., 2021; Jones, Palmer & Bhui, 2022). This study explored five Gurkha veterans’ narratives of mental health, activism, and justice, analysed through Narrative Analysis (Riessman, 2008) through the lenses of Postcolonial and Critical Race Theory. Three collective storylines emerged: stories of awakening, stories of enduring, and stories of holding on. The key finding was trauma, which was experienced as historical, intergenerational, and ongoing. For Gurkha veterans, distress was cumulative and moral rather than confined to discrete events. This shaped how participants remembered, grieved, and sought justice. Consistent with critical trauma theorists, these findings highlight how suffering reflects structures of power and oppression (Herman, 1992; Fanon, 1963; Brave Heart, 1998). Clinical implications include the need for culturally meaningful, trauma-informed models of care and the recognition of activism as a site of both psychological burden and healing. Recommendations are made for individual, policy, and community-based responses in working with this community.