Himalayan People's War: Nepal's Maoist Rebellion

by Michael Hutt (Editor)

Overview

"This is a readable and high-quality book. It provides more information and insight on the most successful Marxist rebellion in South Asia's history than has previously been found within one set of covers." —David Gellner

The eruption of a violent Maoist insurgency in Nepal in the late 1990s was met with bewilderment even among many who claimed to know the country well. The so-called "people's war" was launched in 1996 by the Communist Party of Nepal to overthrow the political establishment, including the monarchy. Tactics have included killing members of rival parties as well as attacks on police stations, banks, and power installations. The indiscriminate nature of the government's military response has been widely criticized. In 2001, Nepal's political situation came to the attention of Western news media with the murders of members of the royal family. This book provides historical, social, and political background on the movement and related events in this ongoing struggle. The contributors examine the war's origins and antecedents, provide ethnographic accounts from rural and urban perspectives, and draw comparisons with other Maoist movements elsewhere in the world. Includes full text of key documents by the rebels and government.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253217424
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	10/18/2004
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Hutt is Reader in Nepali and Himalayan Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Monarchy, Democracy, and Maoism in Nepal Michael Hutt

Part I. The Political Context

Radicalism and the Emergence of the Maoists Deepak Thapa

The Maoist Movement: An Evolutionary Perspective Sudheer Sharma

The Nepali State and the Maoist Insurgency, 1996-2001 Krishna Hachhethu

Part II. The Maoists and the People

The Path to Jan Sarkar in Dolakha District: Towards an Ethnography of the Maoist Movement Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin

Ethnic Demands within Maoism: Questions of Magar Territorial Autonomy, Nationality, and Class Marie Lecomte-Tilouine

Democracy and Duplicity: The Maoists and their Interlocutors in Nepal Pratyoush Onta

Gender Dimensions of the People's War: Some Reflections on the Experiences of Rural Women Mandira Sharma and Dinesh Prasain

Part III. Geopolitical and Comparative Perspectives

High Expectations, Deep Disappointment: Politics, State, and Society in Nepal after 1990 Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka

A Himalayan Red Herring? Maoist Revolution in the Shadow of the Legacy Raj Saubhagya Shah

Maoism in Nepal: Towards a Comparative Perspective Philippe Ramirez

Part IV. Afterwords

The Emergency and Nepal's Political Future Hari Roka

Living between the Maoists and the Army in Rural Nepal Judith Pettigrew

Part V. Appendixes

A. The Forty-point Demand of the United People's Front (February 1996)

B. Full Text of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Beuba's Message to the Nation (27 November 2001)

C. Full Text of King Gyanendra's Address to the Nation (4 October 2002)

Editorial Reviews

"This is a readable and high-quality book. It provides more information and insight on the most successful Marxist rebellion in South Asia's history than has previously been found within one set of covers."

From the Publisher

As the rest of the world moves toward democracy, Nepal has had a hard time keeping up. Its politics are pervaded by duplicity and dominated by a rickety monarchy, which has survived in spite of a royal massacre in which the crown prince, in what appears to have been a drunken rage, shot most of the extended royal family before putting a bullet in his own head. The countryside supports a Maoist guerrilla movement that has taken to uninhibited violence as a way of life. The chapters in this informative book originated as papers at a conference organized by the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. The authors examine Nepal's developments from a variety of angles as they seek to explain the most successful Marxist rebellion in South Asian history. The book greatly benefits from the contributions of several anthropologists. Judith Pettigrew, in her chapter, "Living Between the Maoists and the Army in Rural Nepal," provides an extraordinarily vivid account of what people will do to survive in an environment dominated by terrorism. The Maoists have stepped up their attacks on the government, encircling the capital of Katmandu since the book went to press, but it is still the best available background study of Nepal's problems.

Foreign Affairs