Understanding Nepal in Contemporary Times

494 Pages·2016·1.434 MB·English

by  Pramod Jaiswal

UNDERSTANDING NEPAL
IN
CONTEMPORARY TIMES
....
UNDERSTANDING NEPAL
IN
CONTEMPORARY TIMES
Editor
Pramod Jaiswal
SYNERGY
SYNERGY BOOKS INDIA
New Delhi
Published in 2016
ISBN: 978-93-82059-47-9
© Author
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DEDICATED
TO
AAHANA AND AAYAN
.
Foreword
Nepal, a small and land locked state in the southern slopes
of the Great Himalayan ranges, has experienced a whole series
of historical and path breaking developments ever since its
formation as a unified Kingdom of Nepal by King Prithvi
Narain Shah in 1769. Nepal’s military adventurism, the Cou’t
Massacre of 1846, the anti – Rana movement of 1950 and the
subsequent Nepal’s journey to democracy, the Panchayat
system of 1962 and the reversal of democracy, the democratic
movement of 1990 and the Maoist insurgency unleashing the
country into a new era of democracy, the second democratic
movement of 2006; all have their share in the growth of modern
Nepal. Here is a country which has suffered at the hands of
their own rulers; the years of tyranny, the facets of deprivation
and persecution, the failures of democratic governments and
the shadows of insurgency. Yet the people of Nepal have shown
great resilience, tolerance and assimilative power and a faith
on liberal democracy. It is because of this that the insurgents
agreed to join political main stream and the democratic path.
Nepal has chosen a path to republican, federal and secular
democracy. It is true that it has been a long and pains taking
exercise yet Nepal has opted a new path to democracy. It still
remains in a transitional phase and some critical issues are still
to be settled and one may only hope that they will be settled
amicably later or sooner.
What has gone wrong with Nepal in the whole exercise of
modernization, development and democracy is that it never
gave a serious thought to social transformation and social
change. There were compulsions to open the country to
viii Understanding Nepal in Contemporary Times
outside economic forces and minimal democratic governance.
But it was not realized that it was not possible to keep people
of Nepal away from the forces of change. It created
contradictions within the Nepalese society. There was
resentment coming up against the hierarchical social order,
the social discriminations and deprivations. This gave an edge
to the social fragmentation and movements and it also had
strong political leverage. Nepal still needs to address to the
issues of social transformation.
Nevertheless, there is awareness among the people of Nepal
on the issues of strengthening democracy at grass root level,
need for addressing gender issues and encouraging
empowerment of women and the role of civil society, the issues
of ethnic and regional harmony.
Nepal has experienced a devastating earth quake in recent
past the social and psychological trauma of this natural calamity
are a serious lesson for the country apart from other issues of
reconstruction and rehabilitation. Nepal is faced with serious
problems of labour migration. Infect it has become a complex
issue due to large scale out migration and the complications of
the migrant communities. There are several such other issues in
building an integrated and developed Nepal.
The present book on Understanding Nepal in
Contemporary Times edited by Pramod Jaiswal is an excellent
exercise in outlining the challenges and issues in building a
new Nepal. One would hope that the book will provide a fresh
perspective in understanding the contemporary realities of
Nepal. What is highly encouraging is that Dr. Jaiswal has
provided space to some of the young Nepalese scholars.
Prof B.C. Upreti
Former Director at South Asia Studies Centre,
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The book focuses on the contemporary issues prevalent in
Nepalese society such as women empowerment, identity
politics, migration, disaster management, human rights, and
religious conversions. The aim of the book is to serve as a
handbook of comprehensive knowledge on Nepal as well as
serve as a basic scholarship involving young and dynamic
international scholars giving perspective on Nepal.
It consists of 21 well researched papers intended to guide
scholars for an overall understanding of Nepal with regard to
its society, culture, government, politics, history, bureaucratic
system, and other emerging challenges. It is the outcome of
the combined effort of the authors of various paper
incorporated in the book along with my personal contribution
as an editor. Here, we would like to thank all the authors Dr.
Palu Joshi, Binayak Sundas, Rajib Timalsina, Puspa Paudel,
Mukesh Jha, Khushbu Mishra, James Okolie-Osemene, Kirthi
Jayakumar, Amrita Limbu, Ram Pravesh Sah, Labh Kumar
Yadav, Seema Kumari Shah, Marija Grujovska, Bhuvan
Chaudhary, Raj K. Yadav, Dr. V. Ramabrahmam, Dr. Lal
Rapacha, Sree Krishna Bharadwaj H, Bamdev Subedi, Anjee
Gorkhali, Dhanasree Jayaram, Ramu C. M., Sanjeev Dahal,
Sutandra Singha and Sivakumar Challa for their timely
submission.
I would like to put on record and acknowledge the support
of many scholars in completion of this book. My special thanks
go to Prof. B C Upreti for his support and encouragement.