Nepali State Research Articles

The State-Society Relationship and Political Conflicts in Nepal (1768-2005)

For nearly a decade, from the declaration of Maoist ‘people's war’ in January 1996 to the formation of new alliance for the restoration of democracy in December 2005, Nepal has experienced a three-way power struggle between Maoist insurgents who want a republic based on egalitarian principles, elected politicians who want an unfettered role in policy making and a monarch bent upon a return to pre-democratic Nepal. This article attempts to explain this crisis from a structural-historical perspective and argues that fundamental to the understanding of this crisis is the state-society relationship. The article contends that the complex use of the constructed Hindu identity to provide cultural legitimacy to the monarchical political order, that has existed since the inception of the state in the 18th century to the democratic revolution in 1990, has contributed to the political alienation of substantial segment of ethnically, socially and economically marginalized population from the Nepalese state. By examining complex interactions among political and economic factors, this article further contends that the unrepresentative process of state formation and the tradition of governance have contributed to the alienation of the citizens from the state and created a political space for violent rebellion and state terrorism undermining fragile but emerging democratic institutions.

The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal

The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is a new development in the politics of South Asian insurgencies. It has emerged and grown in the socio-economic and political conditions of Nepal, and in a decade has become a major political force with the capacity to challenge the state and the country's socio-economic fabric. With its wide ranging domestic, regional and international support base and ideological and material linkages, the Maoist movement is not an isolated phenomenon. The Nepali state has tried to find a military solution to the problem of insurgency. It is, however, a moot question whether the movement can be dealt with by force, which has failed to prevent the insurgency from becoming increasingly violent. Resolution of the conflict will depend upon the perspective of the Nepali ruling elite. The attitude of the present government does not appear to be sufficiently broad based.

Invitations to love: Literacy, love letters, and social change in Nepal

Laura Ahearn , Invitations to love: Literacy, love letters, and social change in Nepal . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. Pp. xvi, 295. Pb $24.95. “Sarita, I'm helpless….” Laura Ahearn begins her ethnography with a love letter, 21-year-old Bir Bahadur's first to Sarita, “whose long, black hair, fashionable Punjabi outfits, and demure giggles had caught his eye” (p. 3). Ahearn ponders the increasing use of such letters amid changes in literacy and marriage practices, understandings and expressions of emotions, and efforts of the Nepali state and other organizations to develop places like Junigau, the village in which most of the book's action takes place. By the book's conclusion, Ahearn has provided the means to understand the subtle paradox in Bir Bahadur's letter – that he asserts that he is “helpless” at the same time that he initiates an invitation. Ahearn demonstrates in exquisite detail that such expressions must be considered within the wider, shifting context of practices through which they emerge: that which instantiates the expression, literacy in all of its guises, and that which makes the expression meaningful, the emergence of a discourse of development that characterizes people, places, and activities.

Anti-Child Labour Rhetoric, Child Protection and Young Carpet Weavers in Kathmandu, Nepal

TThe reputation of the Nepalese carpet industry as one in which youngchildren are forced to labour is persistent, even after efforts by both the Nepalese state,industry organizations and non-government organizations to eradicate it. In this paper,I reflect on ethnographic field research to discuss the aftermath of adverse publicity inEurope and North America about child labour practices in the industry. In particular,the claim that children are debt-bonded, misled or otherwise coerced to weave carpetscontinues to be made both locally and internationally, and has contributed to a declinein carpet exports. Recent data, however, collected with the collaboration of the NepalIndependent Carpet Worker's Union, indicates that these forms of coercion are notnecessarily experienced by most young—but not child—carpet weavers, who werevictimized not so much by traditional labour practices, but by the capricious cycles ofglobal capitalism. Efforts to protect children from the risks of hazardous carpet workcontribute to the ongoing decline of the industry, making it more difficult for youngcarpet weavers to earn a sustainable wage from their labour.

Ecopolitical battles at the Tarai frontier of Nepal: an emerging human and environmental crisis.

"In Nepal, the drama of human and environmental ills is increasingly being played out in the form of peasants' ecopolitical battles over common land access and control, such as in the Tarai frontier, a region bordering the Gangetic Plain of India. This is a complex battle, pitting peasants' day-to-day survival against environmental security on one front, and against the Nepalese State and its dominant class interests on the other. This article critically dissects this raging battle to gain a clear understanding of its complexities as well as its diverse roots."

Geography and History in the Solukhumbu Landscape, Nepal

Geography and the flow of history have served to separate the Sherpa populations ofJunbesi Khola and the Bhote Kosi valley for close to fifteen generations, giving rise to a group allied by language, livelihood, and long-term bonds of marriage and trade, yet distinguished by an array of differences explicit in the cultural landscape of each place. This example of internal variability within a group that calls itself by a single name illuminates the processes of cultural adaptation and differentiation so strikingly apparent among many peoples of the Nepal Himalaya. Differences in local history and the consequent political, economic, and social alignments of each Sherpa community to different central states help to explain regional variations. In particular, contrasts in resource tenure and livestock management appear to be influenced by continuing ties to the Tibetan cultural world for Bhote Kosi Sherpa, and to the greater importance of Kathmandu in the lives and history of the people ofJunbesi. Communal control of grazing resources exercised through a variety of mechanisms and institutions helps to mitigate the negative impacts of grazing in the area linked more closely to Tibet; privatization of resources and owner-driven decision making allow for rangeland damage in the lower area, which has long been more closely controlled by the Nepalese state.

From tribe to peasant? The Limbus and the Nepalese state

This article's context is the distinction inform and meaning of land tenure systems as between tribes and peasants, and the role of the state in the transformation of traditionally inalienable tribal lands into alienable private property. The historical circumstances which have shaped and transformed the economy and culture of a particular tribal population ‐ the Limbus of east Nepal ‐ are examined. There is analysis of the programme of land reform introduced by the Nepalese state, whose chief outcome for the Limbus was the abolition of their kipat tenures and the conversion of their lands into private property. The implications in terms of land and identity are considered, and the outcome of heavy dependence on a small class of high caste Hindus who are now their landlords, creditors and employers is outlined.