Dan Hirslund
The democratization of political culture in Nepal has resulted in the rise of youth as political actors and slow but steady changes to the dynamics and structures of politics. Accompanying this trend has been a new stress, and discourse, on youth identities as particular privileged positions from which to contribute to nationwide aspirations for a post-conflict transition to a more just and prosperous society. What is readily obscured in these optimistic scenarios of generational inclusion are the new lines of conflict that the discourse and politics of youth gives rise to, and which may end up entrenching, rather than unsettling, existing social and economic hierarchies. In this paper, I trace some of the class divisions that are embedded in everyday uses of ‘youth’ among entry-level cadres of the UCPN-M and the ways in which socioeconomic difference between middle and lower classes are mapped onto ideas of youth. Based on fieldwork I conducted in 2009, I discuss the proletarianization of livelihoods among young migrant labourers and the mixed realization that while one belongs to the potent category of youth, one continues to be marginalized even within the party ranks. Rather than being experienced as a new form of inclusion, ‘youth’ comes to serve as the rebranded name for a disadvantaged position – of a democratized proletarianization so to speak – and the very notion of youth is shown to offer a language of criticism and differentiation. As such, the paper concludes, youth has become a marker of class and a contentious language through which to re-imagine positionality among the younger generations in post-conflict Kathmandu, inscribing it with relations of morality, economy, and – ultimately – politics.