From ancestral conflicts to local empowerment: two narratives from a Nepalese community

Abstract

This article concerns the first region that the Maoists declared to be their base area, in the western part of Nepal. It examines how the 10 years of insurrection are reconstructed through two narratives by non-aligned villagers from the same community. These accounts concern two different phases of the conflict. In the first account, the violent irruption of the security forces into the village turned a spotlight on the structural features and historical conditions which made the community vulnerable to the outside intervention, whether by the rebels or by the state. The second narrative illustrates the obverse side of the same community: its capacity to stand up to oppression on the occasion of a Maoist ban on a sacrifice to the local god. The juxtaposition of the two narratives reveals a process of political maturation characterised by a critical analysis of the past and a nascent confidence in the expression of needs and rights.