The Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya – Kathmandu, Nepal
Mt Everest is an international icon and a heritage of ‘universal’ value. To Nepal, it has wider economic, social, cultural meanings: it is the lifeline of mountain tourism, it embodies Nepali nationhood and reinforces a sense of identity. However, it also symbolises the contested side of Nepali national identity that is largely dominated by the …
Assuming modernity as a rupture in tradition in line with Nepal’s encounter with British Raj and its subsequent position as a periphery to global capitalism, this paper examines why the age old traditional values and practices, after every significant rupture heralded by forces of modernity, keep shaping values and practices of the modern Nepali society. …
A Trajectory of Nepali Modernity: A Narrative of Ruptures and Repairs Read More »
Local scroll art consists of hand-painted or embroidered portraits and landscape scenes of Darjeeling usually rendered on black cloth. They are easily portable for tourist consumption. The local scroll art has over the years undergone much reconstruction, but the idiom in terms of the subject-matter and form is always about the representation of hill peoples, …
Democratization literature points out that democracy has often broken down in poor (Prezworski et al 2000; Lipset 1959; Huntington 1968) and diverse (Horowitz 1985 and 1994; Gurr 1993: Synder 2005; Puddington 2015) societies. Exacerbation of conflict over resources between different classes in poor countries and conflict over recognition and identities among different cultural groups in …
Poverty, Diversity and Democracy: Breakdown, Erosion and Endurance in South Asia Read More »
There has been a unipolar acceptance in the academic arena that there are some legitimate challenges to the universal application of international human rights regime. Interestingly, a huge number of scholarships on this debate have acknowledged that the foundation of universal human rights, that we know today, pledges a great deal to the western ideals …
Membership to a nation-state and how it can be passed on to the subsequent generation of “eligible citizens” have been highly-contested issues throughout history. During the time when Nepal promulgated its constitution in 2015, the citizenship provision generated much dissatisfaction and debates given its discriminatory nature, particularly against women. One of the widely publicized debates …
Gendered Citizenship: National Security versus Equality Read More »
The aim of this paper is to argue that the articulation of two different perspectives on irrigation systems, the Hydrosocial Cycle and the Irrigation Studies, is a compelling way to shed some light on the production of the social reality and power relations in the Sunsari Morang Irrigation System, one of the biggest irrigation system …
Nepal is home to people of various ethnicities that do not have equal access to power and privileges. Specifically, Khas-Aryan groups are considered to be at the center while Indigenous and Dalit groups have been at the periphery of this power structure. Discussion on inequality is complicated in three different ways. First, the lack of …
Exploring Social and Economic Disparities in Nepal Read More »
There has been huge exodus of migration (both internal and international) in Nepal in recent time. The rural villages are ‘dying’ with only old people, children and women are left in the village. 27 of 75 districts has seen decline in the population in 2011 census as compared to 2001 census. Nepal Living Standard Survey …
Work-related Migration Aspirations in Youths of Nepal: An Empirical Analysis Read More »
The paper attempts to analyse how gendered work gets constructed in the hotels, resorts and casinos drawing on a feminist research conducted in six establishments – two samples from each category of five star hotels, deluxe resorts and casinos. The research uses mixed methods of 21 questionnaires, 65 semi-structured interviews of male and female workers, …