Conference Year: 2015

Despite the fact that anyone can perpetuate violence, evidence from many studies shows that males as a dominant gender group are much more likely to be the perpetrators and the existence of “male” violence against women does suggest such violence as a consequence of unequal power relationships. Sexual harassment is one such example although its …

Men’s Perspectives on Sexual Harassment against Women in Public Space in Kathmandu Read More »

As part of a larger comparative project on middlemen in South Asia and Latin America, this paper addresses the social category of dalāl in Nepali society with a particular focus on manpower agents. Borrowed from Arabic and Farsi, the term, dalāl, stems from the Semitic root  “dal-lam-lam” which carries the meaning of guiding, or pointing something …

Between Social Evil and Social Necessity: The Dual Meaning of Kathmandu Dalāls Read More »

This Nepali proverb asserts that women need to involve in household activities as their livelihood but male need to migrate here and there for survival. It focuses on the traditional dimension of migration. In past days there was domination of patriarchal culture in Nepal. A strong patriarchal feeling is ingrained in members of Nepalese society, …

Women Educational Migrants Return to Nepal and Their Role in Transforming Society ‘Gharki Le Ghar Garnu, Marda Le Chari Khanu’ Read More »

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 …

Presenting The Absence: A Contrapuntal Reading of the Maita in Nepali Teej Songs Read More »

Nepal and the East India Company expanded into the Himalayan foothills and adjoining tarai in the late eighteenth century by employing a number of similar strategies but quite divergent understandings of state formation and power. Nepal dismantled a number of hill polities consisting of self-proclaimed Rajput lineages that controlled trans-Himalayan trade routes along with some …

Exile, Sovereignty, and the Place of Palpa in the Making of The India-Nepal Borderland (c. 1790 to 1816) Read More »

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 …

Belonging and Border in the Twentieth Century Nepali Novels Read More »

BP Koirala’s claims that we understand his literary persona as anarchist and his political persona as socialist has allowed for an easy location of his figure in Nepali historiography, often separately, within literature and within politics.[1] His insistence that we resolve any dilemma over his persona by bifurcating him into the literary and political is …

Modernity Multiplied: B.P Koirala’s Women Between Literature and Politics Read More »

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 reelection for uncertain payoffs, thereby giving voters the impression of legislators lacking accountability and representation? Existing research argues that political leaders’ decisions are individually rational …

Social Costs and Benefits of Party Switching in Nepal Read More »

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 …

The Contested Local Elections Read More »

The Tiwa are one of the many aboriginal tribal groups in North-East India. Settled in Morigaon, Nagaon, Kamrup and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam and Ri Bhoi district of Meghalaya, they have long been referred to as “Lalung” by other neighbouring groups (Khasi-Jaintia, Karbi) and in colonial records. The people in question however refer to …

Village Administration among the Tiwa: A Discourse on The Loroship Read More »