2015

In the past few years, there has been an increase in attention to violence against women and especially the responsibility of the state in Nepal. As others have pointed out, despite various political and social campaigns including the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), and the “One Billion Rising” campaign to end […]

While the Ranas who ruled Nepal for a more than a century (1846-1951) in general barred their “subjects” from having access to formal education, there was a policy turnaround especially after the assumption of power by Padma Shamsher in 1945. From the erstwhile policy of controlling the access to education, the new policy sought to

A woman’s right to grant Nepali citizenship to her spouse and children has been a contested issue in both the first and second Constituent Assemblies.  By exploring in detail the different dimensions of the numerous intersecting issues in the apparently simply issue of women and citizenship, this paper seeks to reveal the difficulties during Nepal’s

In this paper, I will discuss how agricultural system and food sovereignty are associated with close interaction among human beings, livestock and crops in the socio-cultural and ecological system of the Loba people of Lo-manthang, Nepal. Whether the access and ability to choose their food has threatened? Do they continue sustain agro-biodiversity relations based on

In Nepal as elsewhere, the design of climate change policies and programmes is based on the assumptions that policy-makers, scientists and development practitioners make about what constitutes and causes the vulnerability of others. On the other hand, there is little space for Nepali farmers to voice their perceptions and experiences of their multiple vulnerabilities in

Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries with a per capita GDP of $427, ranking 163 out of the world’s 179 countries. Most of Nepal’s population, over 80%, is rural and involved in agriculture, mostly subsistence, with limited educational and economic opportunities. In the national level, over 60% of men and 45% of the

Substantively, the debates about secularism in Nepal are over the proper place and role of religion in a modern, heterogeneous nation-state. The manner in which these debates take place, however, reveals much about how democracy can be made to operate and how particular democratic ideals are constructed. In this paper, I examine how political agency

In the 1950s, Nepal not only became a democratic state, but also entered into the international community of nations with its much celebrated membership in the United Nations and other regional and international forums. This was a time when the state, in a fairly celebratory mood, tried to become like other states. Its projection to

The slogan “Buddha was Born in Nepal” can be seen on taxis and t-shirts throughout the streets of Kathmandu and is pervasive in popular discourses of Nepali national pride. In the formerly Hindu, newly secular state of Nepal, why does it matter so much where Buddha was born? Who makes this claim, and for what

This paper explores several emergent social movements in Kathmandu; these movements draw most of their membership from an elite group of internationally experienced young people.  “Bipals” or Bideshi Nepalis (Foreign Nepalis) return from study or work abroad with high expectations, both their own and their communities’, for success and contributions to building a better country.