This study examines why under-representation of marginalized groups continued in Nepal during the 1990s even after repeated competitive elections. Democratization is supposed to include more people and groups progressively when polities become more competitive (Dahl 1971).  Periodic competitive elections are said to increase representation of previously under-represented groups as electoral competition pushes political parties to recruit more groups for support and votes, or new political parties emerge to represent the previously under-represented groups. Recent studies have pointed out that repetitive periodic elections have led to democratization in Africa (Lindberg 2009; Gyimah-Boadi 1999) and elsewhere (Eisenstadt 1999; Schedler 2002). Countries like India went through further democratization through increased representation of formerly under-represented ethnic/caste groups after repeated elections (Yadav 1999; Jaffrelot 2003). However despite universal adult franchise and three competitive parliamentary elections…

This paper explores the politicization of ethnicity in Nepal since 1990. In particular it looks at how ideas of indigeneity have become increasingly powerful, leading to Nepal becoming the first and to date only Asian country to have signed ILO 169. The rise of ethnic politics, and in particular the rise of a new kind of ethnicity on the part of the ‘dominant’ groups, Bahuns (Brahmans) and Chhetris (Kshatriyas), is the key to understanding why the first Constituent Assembly in Nepal ran out of time and collapsed at the end of May 2012, despite four years and four extensions of time, following historic and unprecedentedly inclusive elections in April 2008 and a successful peace process that put an end to civil war.

Party switching, or changing political party affiliation, is a surprisingly widespread and persistent phenomenon among political leaders in all democracies. Why would political leaders risk careers, prestige, and chances for re-election for uncertain payoffs, thereby giving voters the impression of legislators lacking accountability and representation? Existing research argues that political leaders’ decisions are individually rational vis-à-vis electoral, career, or policy ambitions, and that switching declines as democracy matures. The restoration of democracy in 1990 however established the democratic practice; the Nepalese democracy never consolidated and became mature over the past two and half decades. The emergence of strong sense of ethnicity and regionality among the political leaders and relative absence of political space for marginalized communities in the major political parties namely NC and UML are often reported as major…

Armed conflicts and other humanitarian crises impact mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. In contexts of overwhelming need and overstretched government health systems, nongovernmental organisations may play important roles. In this paper, we reflect on the role of Nepali nongovernmental organisations in providing mental health and psychosocial support services. In Nepal, nongovernmental organisations have provided a range of trainings, implemented interventions, organised awareness raising campaigns and conducted research on mental health and psychosocial issues in the context of political violence and natural disasters. Some have been able to capitalise on the emerging interest of humanitarian donors in mental health to strengthen the platform for sustainable mental health reforms. Nongovernmental organisations taking on such tasks have demonstrated strengths as well as presented challenges. Strengths included easy access to local communities, better understanding…

In Nepal the history of museums does not go back very far. It dates back to 1939 with the opening to the public of a collection of arms and other trophies at the residence of Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa. This museum, commonly known as Chauni Silkhana, subsequently became the Nepal Museum (Rashtriya sangrahalaya). From 1951 onwards, several national museums and art galleries opened, most of which were housed in the precincts of the three former royal palaces of Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kathmandu, and at archaeological sites. These museums came under the Ministry of Culture and their aim was to preserve and display to the general public cultural vestiges of the past. They have contributed to a general movement towards the patrimonialization (the process of turning cultural features into a people’s…

Post-conflict Nepal is politically and socially fragile, and retains the roots of conflicts emanating from its history. On the other hand, the lack of uniformity between the theory and the practice of regulation and organization of the trade union movements has sustained effects on the industrial relations in the tourism industry of Nepal. What is the interlinking nexus between these two factors? Earlier work by Paul Edwards (2003) presented a model to analyse the industrial relations by examining the interrelationships among employees’ representatives, employers, employees and the state. The engagement of the trade unions with the employees are related to the organization and mobilization of the employees’ demands; whereas, their involvement with the employers and the state are related to taking part in collective bargaining, and legislation making and lasting…

Can literary genres offer the corpus necessary for social scientists to explore alternative views on nationalism? This paper reads Nepali fiction and poetry to make sense of the histories of exclusion and inclusion on Nepali borders. What have poetry and fictions been saying about a transborder way of life? How are pre-national memories reconciled within nationalist discourses to make way for a post- or trans-national future? How can anthropology to borrow from and lend to these literary imaginations? Although Nepal was unified as a nation-state over two and half a century ago, it underwent several national transitions questioning what it meant to be a Nepali. I try to make sense of such national dilemmas through an anthropological reading of a selected body of novels penned by two of Nepal's most…

This paper seeks to underscore the fact that much before the arrival of Western feminism in Nepal with its vocabulary of protest and polemics, the discourse of right and fight, the Nepali women have a long complex and ambivalent genealogy of protest in the genre of Teej songs. However, such discourses have been rendered invisible by the dominant epistemology that derives its ideological sustenance from the Eurocentric and Enlightenment paradigm of knowledge production. The collusion of native patriarchy with the dominant epistemological system can be located in the absence of any systematic engagement with the Teej songs in the indigenous academia. Through Nepali women’s complex and highly nuanced conceptualization of the maita (the parental home) and the ghar (the house where women get married into), the paper seeks to show…

By a count it is estimated that hand-written Manuscripts of a total of 153 dramas (26-30 in Newari; 5-6 in Bangla and Braj Bhāsā/Avadhi/Hindi; and more than 115 in Maithili) and a host of collections and/or anthologies of Maithili verse compositions penned by Newar kings of Nepālamandala in Newari script are stored and preserved in the National Archives of the Government of Nepal in Kathmandu. This paper begins with a state-of-the-art historical overview of a meager number of such highly invaluable literary works published thus far across the globe and moves on to provide information on poet-king Jagatprakāśamalla's life and works based on historical documents and inscriptions. Bārahamāsā 'song of the twelve months' is an extraordinarily popular and prototypical genre of poetry – folk or literary, secular or devotional, but…

This paper attempts to expand the debate around democratic exclusion of minority communities, such as the Dolpo, by examining how and why or in what ways communities anticipate and resist the democratization process in the context of the impending local elections. Nationalized forms of governance are often perceived as directly undermining Dolpo traditional practices and culture, while increasing social and economic exclusion. While electoral democracy is widely believed to promote inclusiveness, some scholars, e.g. Dahl (1998), Lawoti (2008) and Collier (2009) have countered that models of electoral democracy do not necessarily benefit ethnic people, as they might invite ethnic conflicts or could exclude several communities. Based on both published sources and the ongoing research, I will analyze the different forms and impacts that local elections might have at local level…