Jagannath Adhikari Over the past two decades, Nepal has undergone two distinct processes of agrarian transformation – growing participation in non-farm economy through migration, remittances, and urbanisation, and a change in rural community lives as seen in creation of new community structures and new challenges for institutions to look into the problems of left-behind members like the children and elderly. This transformation calls for a new approach for community-based resource management and other development.  Even though the practice of moving out of national border is not a new practice in Nepal, the present form of globalisation that is seen, especially after early 1990s, has changed the magnitude and direction of mobility across national borders. This process of globalisation in Nepal is seen in different flows across space – economic (remittances…

Neel Kamal Chapagain Opening of the Upper Mustang region to foreign visitors since 1992 has not only made it a popular trekking destination, but also a complex laboratory for research into various socio-cultural aspects of historic and contemporary lives in Upper Mustang as well as field site for a number of conservation and development projects. In the same context, various literatures have emerged to cover a broad spectrum of knowledge and practices. The region, most of which was known as the kingdom of Lo or Lso Tshyo Dhun, has been discussed in oral literature, including the religious stories, as well as recording of oral histories, through what is called karchyags. While the earlier or pre-modern literatures deal with religious and political matters, the latter or modern literatures primarily attempt to…

Sascha Fuller In Nepal, the term thulo manche (big person) connotes a person’s authority, influence, and status, and demands deference. Today’s thulo manche culture can be seen as a legacy of the Panchayat period that impacts upon Nepali everyday life, yet a detailed critical analysis of thulo manche culture remains absent from much of Nepal’s anthropological literature. Drawing on ethnographic material collected during fieldwork in a Bahun hill village in Gorkha, I will demonstrate that the cult of the thulo manche is ever present in daily village life and underlies village level decision-making. In defining what it means to be a village thulo manche in the context of a changing Nepal, this paper aims to highlight the extent of the thulo manche influence and the effects it has on village,…

Shamik Mishra and Deepak Aryal Focusing on the referendum of 1979-80, one of the most important political events during the Panchayat era, the paper will explore the use of political ephemera (posters & pamphlets) during the period in Palpa district. Based on the study of the production, distribution, and consumption mechanism of such ephemera, this work will trace how different and effective this form of communication was as compared to the mainstream media, particularly in a place like Palpa where the presence of print media was rather weak. Further, the research will delve into how the process of writing, editing, printing, and consumption occurred under the domineering presence of the state-controlled radio and newspapers as well as the backdrop of the laws of the time. The resources at the Madan…

Shyamu Thapa Magar Ethnic politics became visible after 1990s peoples’ movement following thirty years of Panchayat political system as well as the ten years of Maoist conflict in Nepal. Various indigenous ethnic groups that had established their ethnic social organisation to work for the cultural development turned into political movements. They established a Federation for all indigenous ethnic groups in order to bring them together for their collective voices. Among them, the Magars, the largest minority group in the country, are constructing their Magar identity through the establishment of the Nepal Magar Association by imagining representing the whole community by themselves. Nepal Magar Association works as a common forum for all Magar activists who represent their district chapters in the central committee. Their affiliation provides them not only the primordial…

In 2012, a three-member team consisting of Pitamber Sharma, Bal Gopal Baidya and Dwarika Nath Dhungel was commissioned by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare to prepare a comprehensive strategic plan document of a Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in Nepal, which would serve as ‘an apex institution devoted to the promotion and support of quality research in the social sciences’. The team was mandated to prepare a situation analysis that would include: i) an overview of the policy, social and political context that identifies all the stakeholders, the state of art of social sciences in Nepal and concrete lessons or practices that needs to be mainstreamed; ii) a strategic plan consisting of an overview of the vision, mission, values, goals and objectives of the proposed SSRC; and…

Youba Raj Luitel Nepal’s adult men have been migrating to India in pursuit of seasonal labour since long. While India (from Bombay to Kalapahad) had traditionally been the popular destination for such labour migration, Gulf countries have attracted Nepalese men more since the last couple of decades. Labour migration is no longer confined to the conventional epicentre of mid-west hills (comprised of Achham to Jumla) either. Rather, it has embraced the whole country, from Mountains and Hills to Madhesh-Tarai, although in varying degrees.  Not only is there a spatial expansion of labour migration, it cross-cuts every segment of life. While, conventionally, labour migration had been a male domain, despite many ups and downs, Nepalese women too have begun to grasp such an emerging global opportunity. The gendered terrain of labour…

Vikas Paudel, Naomi Saville, Joanna Morrison, Dharma S Manandhar, Bhim P Shrestha, Kristen Ormston Background Poor nutrition is believed to be the underlying cause of 35-50% of all child deaths, and 20% of maternal deaths.  It is also a large contributor to ill-health in these groups.  Dhanusha district in Nepal suffers from particularly poor nutritional outcomes, contributing to high maternal and child mortality rates. 40.7% of reproductive age women have low body mass, and 43% are iron-deficient. While children under two years have high levels of anaemia, stunting, wasting, 37.2% of them are also underweight. Traditional food beliefs and practices in pregnancy and postpartum could further exacerbate under-nutrition, with additional negative impacts on neonatal and maternal outcomes. Hence, we sought to understand the local context and prevailing beliefs about food…

Thomas Robertson For most outsiders, Nepal evokes the soaring peaks of the Himalayas—Everest, Annapurna, Kanchenjunga.  But, surprisingly, much of Nepal’s history has been shaped by a lowland disease and the insects that carry it: malaria.  Malaria plagued the entire Himalayan area—especially the Tarai, but also the valleys between mountain ranges. Its eradication, although not 100%, radically re-configured the country’s economic, social, political, and environmental history.  Today, we cannot understand the history of Nepal’s lowlands or its uplands without understanding the history of this disease.  And yet, we actually know very little about the malaria of the Nepal Himalayas.  Misunderstandings are common.  Even well educated people think of malaria as a single disease that comes from dirty water and that affected just the Tarai and did so equally.  But in fact,…