Nepali State Research Articles

On the Way to Heaven: Memorial Benches, State Integration, and the Coming of Religion Among the Kulung Rai (Nepal)

Alongside guiding the departed on a ritual journey to their place and time of origin, the Kulung Rai of Nepal have added the construction of stone memorial benches along the pathways to honour their deceased. However, both the representations and material aspects of the deceased and the pathways associated with these memorial constructions and ritual techniques differ. I delve into the past to reconstruct the reasons and conditions for the emergence of these benches, arguing that they are linked to substantial changes resulting from the gradual integration of the Kulung into the Nepalese state. This integration fostered the development of Hindu and Buddhist ideas, materialised in the form of these memorial benches. Consequently, I establish a connection between the arrival of the state, the expansion of pathway and road, and religious practices among the Kulung.

The Intersection of ‘Hindu’, ‘Independence,’ and ‘Sovereignty’ in the Nepali Public Discourse of the 1920s

This study analyzes the public discourse on Nepal around the 1923 treaty which rested on its central theme of reassuring Nepal’s independence and sovereignty in the comity of nation-states, studying Nepali national imaginative elements of statehood that unravels intricacies of history for the present discourse of Nepali state in a substantial way. The aim is to unpack the treaty’s reception and assess its consequences in shaping Nepali ‘state’ discourse, shedding fresh light on a historical event that has remained largely understudied. Once a treaty is signed, it becomes public property, capable of igniting change in the behavior of the signing nations or the lives of their citizens, or both. Examining how such changes manifested in the public discourse in Nepal and beyond after the 1923 treaty provides valuable insights into the formative democratic space in the country. For this, it employs a triangulation of primary sources from Nepal's domestic discourse as chronicled in the Gorkhapatra. The second set of data is drawn from the sporadic and emergent Nepali media landscape of the 1920s, primarily based in India. Furthermore, a third set of sources is assembled from English-language newspapers from India and the United Kingdom that reported on the 1923 treaty as it unfolded. This approach, hitherto unapplied in the study of this treaty, provides a comprehensive understanding of the public discourse surrounding it.

Beyond masters: women’s shifting roles in Nepal’s new neoliberal garment industry

ABSTRACT The late 20th century saw a phenomenal integration of the production and consumption of clothing between the Global North and the Global South. While global integration of mass manufactured garments has been discussed at length, this paper investigates the gender subjectivities within artisanal production of globally-oriented ethnic wear within the garment value chain. This ethnographic case study focuses on the women entrepreneurs animating the large-scale Nepali garment subcluster. This subcluster, with its origins in fringe tourism and development expatriatism became so integrated with its global counterparts that some entrepreneurs became prominent national names. The market conflated female and male designers and entrepreneurs. In this process of symbiotic absorption, and the dominance of garment production in the national economy, female entrepreneurs saw their careers sidelined and their contributions overlooked. This paper draws on an extensive ethnographic fieldwork encompassing the period from 1990s to the first quarter of the twenty-first century to explore the evolving dynamics of the Nepali public sphere in response to profound changes within the Nepali state. These transformations encompass the shift from a Hindu monarchy to a Maoist revolution, resulting in a secular, republican and federal state. The paper further examines the implications of these shifts for the female entrepreneurs in Nepal who have played a substantial role in Nepal’s industrialisation.

The Changing Dynamics of Nationalism: A Reading of Select Fiction from Nepal

The monarchy, Nepali language, and Hinduism have been instrumental in the development of Nepali nationalism, and issues related to ethnicity, language, race, and region have been systematically ignored in the formation of the Nepali state. Likewise, the national literature of Nepal until the 1990s was dominated by writers from the Hindu upper caste who spoke primarily of and for the ruling class, often undermining the diversity of an otherwise heterogeneous nation. However, the political upheavals witnessed by Nepal in the 21st century have led to an upsurge of groups searching for ‘national identities’ on ethnic and regional grounds. This has also brought key changes to the literary landscape of Nepal, and contemporary writers have been increasingly drawn to the emerging new voices and identity movements aimed at questioning the prevalent notion of ‘inclusive nationalism’ with its central axis on the monarchical base and Parbatiya supremacy. Against the backdrop of a renewed debate on nationalism and the structure of the state in Nepal, this paper seeks to examine the changing dynamics of Nepali nationalism as encapsulated in contemporary fiction from Nepal. The paper examines the rising ethnocultural and regional nationalism in Nepal in two contemporary novels, Karnali Blues (2010) and The Wayward Daughter (2018), by two prominent Nepali writers, Buddhisagar Chapain and Shradha Ghale, respectively. Karnali Blues has been hailed as a pioneering work in introducing ‘new regionalism’ in the context of Nepali literature. It narrates the story of mid- and far-western Nepal and aptly captures the lives of groups belonging to the margins. Shradhe Ghale’s The Wayward Daughter focuses on a Janajati family and portrays a rich cross-section of Nepali society influenced by the lived realities of class and caste. The paper explores the diversity of life, region, and population in Nepal as depicted in both novels, thereby validating the necessity to understand Nepali nationalism in terms of region, class, religion, and ethnicity. This is also reflective of the changing narrative of Nepali nationalism.

Unity in Diversity: Federalism in Multiethnic Country Nepal

Federalism, in general and multiethnic federalism, in particular is supposed to be a device to create unity in diversity in multiethnic country. Multiethnic federalism, a form of federalism, in which the territorial government or state is carved out based on nation or ethnic category to enable national minorities to exercise indigenous and ethnic minority rights like self-rule and autonomy is supposed to be a device to create unity in diversity in multiethnic country like Nepal. In Nepal, indigenous nationalities, and Madhesi communities who, historically, have been excluded in state’s institutions, have demanded multiethnic federalism, identity-based federalism on their own term, as an institutional device for their inclusion in the state. They have argued that it is a device to generate unity in diversity through accommodating diversity in the state. But there was no consensus on this issue while making the constitution through the constituent assembly. Some have argued that it would be a 'castist' (Jatiya) state if ethnic-based federalism is adopted. In this article, I have argued that multiethnic federalism is a device to end the nature of the age-old exclusionary Nepali state and an institutional mechanism of healing the inter-ethnic rupture of Nepali society. Indigenous nationalities in Nepal have demanded separation within a state to protect and promote their identity based on democratic values rather than separate from a state of their own. For this purpose, I have reviewed theoretical articles and critically analyze how it creates unity in diversity in a multiethnic country like Nepal.

The Nepali Army’s Contribution to Nation Building


 The nation-building process involves various approaches such as democratization, inclusiveness, promotion of nationalism, unification, internal restructuring for cultural promotion, and developmental activities to build the loyalty of peripheral people towards the centre. The Nepali State has been employing the Nepali Army as a strategic means to build the Nepali Nation. However, how the Nepali Army has contributed to nation building since its establishment is area that is under-explored. Hence, this article focuses on some of these important strategies using nation-building theories. It is argued that the Nepali army has been significantly contributing to nation building through territorial unification, internal restructuring, and developmental activities in support of nation building since the unification of Modern Nepal. This study initially discusses the contribution of the Nepali Army in territorial unification by conquering principality states and internal restructuring through consolidation of administration and promotion of nationalism. Thereafter, it delves into the integration of local folk cultures to build the Nepali Culture and inscription symbols. Finally, the article analyses developmental works in support of nation building that connects peripheral remote places with the capital city Kathmandu. A conceptual framework based on Saunders' Research Onion Peeled Method is applied with purposive sampling and document study from John Galtung and Stein Rokkan's theoretical lenses has been applieed. The article finds that the Nepali Army initially contributed to the nation building through a unification campaign before consolidating nationalism in the 1950. Further, the Nepali Army continued participating in development activities to link the periphery to the center.

Social Inequality and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal

Equality is perceived as the backbone of a democratic society. But inequality, whether horizontal or vertical and objective or perceived, exists even in a democratic society and Nepal is not an exception. The political mission of the Nepali state is to create an equal and inclusive society by eliminating all forms of discrimination and oppression created by the feudal, autocratic, centralized, and unitary state on the ground of origin, race, religion, caste, class, language, gender, and geographical specificities and protect and promote unity in diversity, social solidarity, and cultural harmony. To achieve its mission, the government has introduced various laws/bylaws and pursued various policy measures and development programs, such as social inclusion and affirmative action, as remedies for discrimination and inequality. However, these laws, policies, and programs have not led discriminated and marginalized communities to equality and social justice as they continue to remain discriminated against and unequal. In this paper, I argue that discrimination and inequality in Nepal is a structural problem, for Nepal is a hierarchically stratified society based on caste. In such a caste-based hierarchically stratified society, discrimination, inequality, and injustice cannot be removed easily without the state’s strong intervention with appropriate social measures. In this context, all laws/bylaws, policies, and programs initiated and introduced by the government are to mask the problems of discrimination and inequality and disguise indigenous peoples and marginalized communities. They are part of remedies, not an end-all cure. These partial remedies are neither adequate nor effective and appropriate to address grievances of historically discriminated indigenous and other marginalized communities. As a result, Nepal is still in a state of ethnic conflict. I have substantiated my arguments with empirical evidence (primarily qualitative data), which I have collected from ethnographic field research. I have also used quantitative data from secondary sources which is essential to supplement my qualitative data.

Governing caterpillar fungus: Participatory conservation as state-making, territorialization, and dispossession in Dolpo, Nepal

Protected areas account for nearly a quarter of the total area of Nepal and over eighty percent of its Himalayan region. National parks—which are governed by top-down policies enforced through militarized infrastructures—have become a crucial avenue and site for the Nepali state to expand its authority and territorialize its peripheral spaces. But such state-forming effects of the park are obscured by the stated goals of biodiversity conservation which are often implemented through participatory conservation policies that claim to promote local participation and development. Through a case study of Shey Phoksundo National Park and the contested governance of caterpillar fungus in Dolpo, Northwest Nepal, this paper examines the role of participatory conservation in state-making, territorialization, and the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in the Himalayan borderlands. After a brief background on the relationship between Dolpopa and the Nepali state, I introduce state-making, territorialization, and dispossession as corollary processes that define the experiences of conservation for Dolpopa. I conceptualize state-making and territorialization as intertwined state efforts and strategies to systematize local spatial practices and reorder socio-natural relations in ways that justify state authority and establish state territory in Dolpopa spaces. I approach dispossession as an ongoing, relational process of domination and removal, particularly of Dolpopa's ability to access and govern their collective land including caterpillar fungus. In so doing, I neither reify the state as a monolith nor assume dispossession to be totalizing. Rather, I show how “the state” is constituted in moments by a range of actors, institutions, and processes; as well as how Dolpopa contest dispossession by asserting their claims to collective land both within and beyond state structures.

Sphere pressure: When Politics Contends with Geopolitics

Nepal’s strategic vulnerability owing to its location between two giants of Asia has risen and fallen with the status of India and China relations, the quality of their bilateral relations, and the principal external variables influencing them. In recent years, Nepal’s boisterous domestic politics has emerged as an additional source of instability. In the past, the internal fundamentals, regardless of the political system of the day, were sturdy enough to cope with often-competing pressures emanating from the north and south. The improvisation that has become the defining feature of the contemporary Nepali state, has made today’s geopolitical spasms far more ominous. While it may be outlandish to suggest that Nepal’s politics and geopolitics have become antithetical, there is sufficient basis for probing that question.

Scalar politics of Indigenous waterscapes in Navajo Nation and Nepal: Conflict, conservation and development

We use case studies of the Diné in the United States of America, and the Musahar people in Nepal, to understand how indigeneity is enacted in relation to the developmental and conservationist impulses of the dominant American and Nepalese states. We mobilize the concept of ‘waterscapes’ as assemblages of practices, technologies, emotions and worldviews, to unpack how geographical scales are produced and contested through symbolic and material practices. We find that the Diné of the Navajo Nation have socially differentiated engagement with the techno-legal assemblages embedded in the US Western water law and the water development infrastructure, e.g. the Glen Canyon Dam, that enables the tourism economy. The Musahar people, much like the Diné, have been excluded from their customary livelihoods as global-scale conservation was enacted in their waterscapes through techno-legal assemblages including the Chitwan National Park and water development and conservation policies for the Narayani River. In both the United States and Nepal, centralized agencies of the US federal government and the Nepali state tend to perpetuate exclusionary geographies of access to water and Indigenous livelihoods in the waterscapes. The national and international scales, at times, violently constrict local-scale Indigenous spaces. But the oppositional symbolic and material practices, of both the Diné and the Musahar, destabilize the dominant ontologies on local waterscapes. This paper demonstrates that across vast distances of history, geography and wealth, indigeneity does not just get repressed or occluded by the dominant state but is instead constantly reimagined and re-enacted in creative ways by the Indigenous People themselves.

Linked Lives: Exploring the Narratives of Second-Generation Migrants in Nepal

This article describes the narratives of second-generation migrants in Nepal. The paper explores the reasons for migration as shared with their offspring by first-generation migrants. The article also shares the narratives by second-generation migrants on experiences of family, school, community, and the State. Second-generation migrants or adult offspring of first-generation migrants from Tibet and India comprised the sampling frame for the qualitative study. Data were collected through a non-probability sampling technique, and in-depth semi-structured interview schedules were used. Nine in-depth interviews were conducted for the study. Thematic analysis was employed to examine the data. Key reasons to migrate to Nepal featured in the narratives of the migrants were opportunities for business, availability of good education, and a suitable climate in Nepal. Furthermore, lack of opportunities for employment and education and instances of violence at their place of origin pushed the migrants towards Nepal. Most of the interviewees shared having solid bonds with their families. They shared mixed experiences (both encouraging and humiliating) at school and varied experiences in their interaction with the broader society (both supportive and conflicting). Furthermore, all interviewees shared challenges in dealing with or receiving help from the Nepali State.

About the Contributors

About the Contributors

Nation Building and Social Values in Nepal

Social norms play an important role in the state-building process. If the time of formation of Nepal is considered as the period of unification, then some important facts regarding the formation of the state of Nepal and the structure of the society here can be recounted. Regarding the formation of the nation-state, the structure of the Nepali state, and the position of the Nepali society are not of the same nature. From the pre-unification states of Limbuwan, Khumbuwan, Kirat, Khas, Baisi, Chaubisi, Shen, etc. to the restructuring period of the state, the state structure has not been formed in the recognition of the nation-state. Because the small and big states before unification were states built on power. Due to power, the great form of the Gurkha state had built a unitary Nepal. There is not general recognition of the state-building process of the nation-state. In the same way, even when restructuring the state, that recognition was not accepted. The foundations of federal-state formation, such as language, religion, and the basis of equality and plurality of the population, were also not accepted, which is a form of recognition of the nation-state. In such a situation, this article attempts to study a state-building and social tradition which is already coming together in Nepali society

Muslim Cultural Practices in Nepal

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cultural practice of Muslims in Nepal. Culture is a shared beliefs, arts, attitudes, values, and socially transmitted behavior patterns of a group or organization. Muslim culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam, Muslims are rich in culture like other religions in Nepal and they developed a stronger identification with the Nepali state. This paper is based on both primary and secondary data sources followed descriptive method under qualitative approaches.

Madhesis’ Consciousness of Geopolitics of the Tarai: A Resource for the Collective Identity Assertion

This article examines the broader political and economic historical contexts within which the centralTarai was incorporated into the Nepali state since the so called national unification in the second half of the eighteenth century and subsequently how the relationship between the successive rulers and the Madhesi people has been remaining confrontational. Based on the data drawn from the historiography of Nepal vis-à-vis the central Tarai and the perceptions and experiences of Madhesi people regarding their identity issues, it is argued that historically evolving geopolitics of the centralTarai and the contingent Madhesis’ self-consciousness have provided the cause and context for organizing and mobilizing them for the assertion of distinct collective identity. The strategic geopolitical location and significant cultural distinction and economic strength of the central Tarai provided Madhesi people a leverage in the struggle for the recognition of their distinct identity.

Quest for Identity: Re-Examining the Process of Federal Restructuring of the Nepali State

The agenda of restructuring the state has been the most deliberated issue for all intellectuals, political leaders and civil society activists in Nepal. The restructuring of Nepali state became a central component of the 2006 peace deal. Federalism was, however, included in the interim constitution as a binding principle for the Constituent Assembly on the verge of violent protests in the Tarai in 2007. The fundamental question during the Maoist insurgency remained whether federalism based on ethnic affiliation will be materialized. But after the Madhesh mutiny, the question that dominated the public discourse was whether “ethnic federalism” can be materialized as a mean to achieve more inclusive, institutionalized and sustainable democratic polity in Nepal. This article re-examines the process of federal restructuring of Nepali State on the backdrop of contemporary politics of identity.

The Limbu People in the Ethnosocial Structure of Nepal (1774–1968)

This article describes some specific features of the ethnosocial status of the Limbus in Nepal. Since the annexation by Royal Nepal, the Limbus have retained a certain degree of autonomy which is centered around maintaining their own traditional system of land ownership. This was the only ethnicity based type of land ownership in Nepal. The rest of the land was originally state-owned and the state put it out to lease or sold it to tenants. However, the Limbus’ autonomy gradually decreased as time passed, the amount of clan-owned lands was reduced, and gradual integration into the Hindu society was begun. The Limbus were included into the caste system, in which they were placed in between the upper-caste and the untouchable Parbatiya. Hindu practices supplanted traditional ones, for example, ground burial was replaced by cremation and some rites were performed by Brahmins instead of Shamans. Gradually the Limbus started to worship Hindu deities, make occasional offerings in the Hindu temples, and to celebrate Nepali state holidays. The intensification of Sanskritization led to the consolidation of ethnic movements among the Limbus. In the middle of the XX century, the Limbu alphabet was rediscovered and Limbu ethnic associations emerged. These associations tried to increase the political influence of the Limbus and to retain their traditional culture and beliefs, which they considered to be the core of their ethnic identity. There was also an attempt to create a new syncretistic religion on the basis of Hinduism and traditional beliefs of the Limbus. These multidirectional processes formed the basis of the transformations occurring nowadays among the small nations of South Asia.

Brokering labour: The politics of markets in the Kathmandu construction industry

Although there is a rich tradition for labour studies in anthropology, little attention has so far been paid to the markets that connect prospective employees with places of work. In this article, I show that places of labour mobilization become sites of brokerage that index the complicated politics through which labour is rendered available to industry, particular in the context of non-formalized employment relations. Utilizing a political economic framework, I locate contemporary informal construction labour within the larger histories of employment that have characterized the Nepali state’s integration into the global economy. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Kathmandu, the article traces processes of dislocation and differentiation for construction labourers as they struggle to secure work and argues for the role precarious workers themselves play as brokers of their labour power as a protection mechanism against experiences of exploitation.

Where Interests Collided: Examining the Conflictual Relationship between the Nepali State and Its Citizens through the History of Public Libraries

This paper looks at the conflictual relationship between the Nepali state and its citizens through the history of the public libraries of Nepal. It seeks to explain the causal factors that led to the birth, growth and subsequent decline of Nepal’s public libraries. And it shows that the libraries set up and run by citizens were, apart from and more than performing a supplementary role in the country’s education system, also part of the nascent public sphere where ‘private people came together as public’. But since the country’s autocratic regimes wanted no social formations outside their direct purview, and the libraries were involved in creating ‘public opinion’, they were targeted by the state.

Multi-Ethnic Citizens in a Multi-Ethnic State: Constructing State–Citizen Relations Through ‘Difference’ in the Adivasi Janajati Scholarship Programmes in Nepal

In 1990, the Constitution of Nepal declared Nepal a multi-ethnic (bahujatiya) country. This newly transformed state promised better inclusion of marginalised groups through special provisions. How has this been operationalised, and what does this mean in practice for the members of the groups concerned? Drawing on fieldwork in the Nepal Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN), this paper argues that the Nepali state’s moral and political obligation to address long-standing concerns about group-based inequalities has opened up intriguing new spaces to perform and redefine state–society relations. Within these new spaces, categories of difference are constantly invoked and experienced, where both the state and citizens come to co-constitute each other in a variety of new ways.