(Translated into English) Asika is a folk tradition current in the Central Himalayan region of Nepal and India anciently known as Manasa Khanda and Kedara Khanda. Though it was practiced in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Garhwal and Kumaon, its influence in Doti and Kumaon is deeply felt where it has maintained its time honoured regional character. The Manasa Khanda and Kedara Khanda region under reference is also known as the cradle of the Katyuri culture. The Katyuris ruled from Kartikeyapur in Garhwal, and once upon a time their territories also included Kailas-Manasarovar region. Thus, the eastern part of their kingdom was known as Manasa Khanda and the western Kedara Khanda. People inhabiting the region under study have been practicing the Asika traditions for generations. The term Asika denotes ‘blessings’. In the…

According to the Central Himalayan pauranic traditions the geographical area extending from the Kali-Karnali in the east to the Tons in the west consists of two divisions, namely, Mānasakhaṇḍa (roughly modern Far Western Nepal, Kumaon and adjoining eastern Garhwal up to the Pindar) and Kedārakhaṇḍa (roughly remaining part of modern Garhwal up to the Tons). Inscriptional evidence coupled with the Katyūrī traditions indicates that the area under reference was ruled by the Katyūrī dynasty from about the seventh century through thirteenth century of the Common Era. The Katyūrī kingdom was liquidated by the so-called ‘Khasa’-Malla/Challa of the house of Saiṁjā (western Nepal) in the thirteenth century CE. Consequently, there arose several petty independent principalities in the geographical area under reference. Eventually, the Later Katyūrī-s, the Chandra-s and the Paṁvāra-s emerged…

This paper examines the concerted erasure of the word ‘sukumbasi’ by governmental and nongovernmental agencies in the context of Kathmandu’s urban politics, linking it to a process of de-politicization of a land-rights based movement. This paper argues that sukumbasi identity and political agendas are deeply rooted in issues of land reform and ownership. ‘Sukumbasi’ refers to both a population of people as well as a recognized physical space claimed and inhabited by the group. Starting 1998, sukumbasi groups began to organize under an umbrella organization whose primary objective was to obtain titles (lalpurja) for its sukumbasi constituents. Their slogan – “Bhumisaahitko baas adhikar” articulated the radical politics of their movement in no uncertain terms. Drawing upon ethnographic and archival research, this paper argues that as the sukumbasi movement intensified across…

This paper examines the concerted erasure of the word ‘sukumbasi’ by governmental and nongovernmental agencies in the context of Kathmandu’s urban politics, linking it to a process of de-politicization of a land-rights based movement. This paper argues that sukumbasi identity and political agendas are deeply rooted in issues of land reform and ownership. ‘Sukumbasi’ refers to both a population of people as well as a recognized physical space claimed and inhabited by the group. Starting 1998, sukumbasi groups began to organize under an umbrella organization whose primary objective was to obtain titles (lalpurja) for its sukumbasi constituents. Their slogan – “Bhumisaahitko baas adhikar” articulated the radical politics of their movement in no uncertain terms. Drawing upon ethnographic and archival research, this paper argues that as the sukumbasi movement intensified across…

This paper examines aspects of Nepal’s changing political economy by tracing the relationship between political elites and agrarian structures in the central Tarai since the first democratic revolution in 1950. Based on a review of existing literature on land reform and land distribution, as well as ethnographic material from Dhanusha district gathered during 2013 summer research, it tentatively argues that the political importance of land decreased significantly over the three decades of Panchayat rule between 1960 and 1990. In the 1940s and 1950s, land was the major economic and political resource; all top political leaders at the time came from landlord families. After the introduction of a land ceiling in 1964, however, access to patronage resources distributed through the royal palace, and later the democratic government, in Kathmandu seems to…

The divide between nature and culture is demolished in anthropology. Rather than continue to view nature as a backdrop or resource for human meaning making, scholars today move to consider the complicated ways nature is imbricated in the creation of systems of value and the formation of social experience. Inherently, the selection of value and meaning from environmental entanglements entails a political choice. This panel brings together four current anthropology graduate students whose research focuses on questions of the relationship between land and the state in Nepal. Through an array of ethnographic, historical, and discursive methods, the panelists demonstrate the ways the concept of land can be used analytically to approach topics of national interest, including citizenship, land reform, state infrastructure, and federalism. Various anthropological subfields inform the panelists’ diverse…

Planners and IT experts usually argue that a high-level, centralized, and powerful body overseeing the IT sector is what required for unleashing the revolutionary power of IT in Nepal. This idea is generally evoked for all sorts of technology development. This paper criticizes this polemic by presenting the story of the rise and fall of High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) established in Nepal in 2003. The HLCIT was the apex body formed under the chair of the Prime Minister to provide crucial policy and strategic direction to the Nepali IT sector.  Located at the Prime Minister’s Office, the HLCIT had a powerful vice chair, secretaries of two line ministries (Science and Technology, and Information and Communications), and the President of the Computer Association of Nepal as its members.…

The major components of an ICT infrastructure is hidden to the general public which creates a false perception that the ICT sector is energy efficient and a significant underestimate in its total energy consumption. This work is a preliminary investigation into the energy demand of the Nepali ICT sector. We present a statistical model to analyse the contribution of the ICT sector in the national energy consumption scenario with a specific focus on the telecommunication sector. Although the model leaves out some important dimensions due to lack of publicly available data, the stable regression model can easily be expanded to accommodate new dimensions (indicators). The results show that even with the most lenient assumptions regarding the behaviour of the ICT sector, it is a (statistically) significant consumer of energy. The…

There are over 3000 MHPs of different size and capacity contributing approximately generating 32 MW of electricity in Nepal. Over the next 20 years, the government wants to expand the share of electricity generated from micro and mini-hydro plants to 15 percent of total electricity demand. The apex government body for promoting the renewable energy technologies in Nepal, the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) wants one MHP every village [1]. In the absence of a national census, both the number and significance of MHPs becomes little unreliable. There are, however, good indicators which suggest that MHPs have brought substantial changes in the quality of life and in the social capital formation in the project sites. Besides, the MHPs have created a whole array of forward and backward linkages in the…

The proposed panel will investigate technology-society linkages in Nepal. It aims to be a blueprint for similar productive enquiries into the changes in material and natural endowment of poor societies all over the world. Standard accounts frame the relationship within tools-and-transfer approach, which assumes that technologies (not all, but ‘sexy’ ones thought as typically linked to modernity) were instrumental in bringing revolutionary changes in these societies and that the most fruitful research is the question about dynamics of their introduction and diffusion in the host landscape. The approach suits those modernising elite, which wish to understand the ‘barriers’ and ‘constraints’ in order to remove them and usher their poor fellow countrymen into (post)modern world. The papers in the panel contrastingly, focus on existing use and not merely on innovation or…