Product Description

The relationship between ethnic politics and democracy presents a paradox for scholars and policy makers: ethnic politics frequently emerge in new democracies, and yet are often presumed to threaten these new democracies. As ethnic politics is becoming increasingly central to Nepali politics, this book argues it has the potential to strengthen rather than destabilize democracy.

Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork, Susan Hangen focuses on the ethnic political party Mongol National Organization (MNO), which consists of multiple ethnic groups and has been mobilizing support in rural east Nepal. By investigating the party’s discourse and its struggles to gain support and operate within a village government, the book provides a window onto the processes of democratization in rural Nepal in the 1990s. This work presents a more nuanced understanding of how ethnic parties operate on the ground, arguing that ethnic parties overlap considerably with social movements, and that the boundary between parties and movements should be reconceptualised. The analysis demonstrates that ethnic parties are not antithetical to democracy and that democratization can proceed in diverse and unexpected ways.

Providing an in-depth discussion of the indigenous nationalities movement, one of Nepal’s most significant social movements, this work will be of great interest to scholars and students of Asian Politics, South Asian Studies, and Political Anthropology.

Product Description
During the early 1990s, about 95,000 people arrived in eastern Nepal. They claimed to have come from Bhutan, and they alleged that they had been forced out of their homelands by the Bhutanese government. Very few believed them, and even now, not a single one of these refugees has returned to Bhutan. This book explains who these people are and why they left Bhutan. It also examines the broader implications of their story for a world awash with refugees. ... Read more

Product Description
HIGHLIGHTS THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE NEPAL TERAI IN GENERAL AND THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF MITHILA IN PARTICULAR BOOK. ... Read more

Product Description
Conference papers. ... Read more

Product Description
Contributed articles. ... Read more

Product Description

Suitably Modern traces the growth of a new middle class in Kathmandu as urban Nepalis harness the modern cultural resources of mass media and consumer goods to build modern identities and pioneer a new sociocultural space in one of the world's "least developed countries."

Since Nepal's "opening" in the 1950s, a new urban population of bureaucrats, service personnel, small business owners, and others have worked to make a space between Kathmandu's old (and still privileged) elites and its large (and growing) urban poor. Mark Liechty looks at the cultural practices of this new middle class, examining such phenomena as cinema and video viewing, popular music, film magazines, local fashion systems, and advertising. He explores three interactive and mutually constitutive ethnographic terrains: a burgeoning local consumer culture, a growing mass-mediated popular imagination, and a recently emerging youth culture. He shows how an array of local cultural narratives--stories of honor, value, prestige, and piety--flow in and around global narratives of "progress," modernity, and consumer fulfillment. Urban Nepalis simultaneously adopt and critique these narrative strands, braiding them into local middle-class cultural life.

Building on both Marxian and Weberian understandings of class, this study moves beyond them to describe the lived experience of "middle classness"--how class is actually produced and reproduced in everyday practice. It considers how people speak and act themselves into cultural existence, carving out real and conceptual spaces in which to produce class culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I'm surprised...
I was surprised to see that no one had reviewed this book yet.For those of us working on Nepalese society this is a MUST read.Liechty carefully explores the creation and impact of Middle Class in Nepal including media, kids, and consumerism.It's also a pleasant read that doesn't suffer from the usual rose-coloured glasses tone infecting far too much anthropological work on Nepalese society.I also have met the author and must say he's a knowledgeable person with a passion for Nepalese people and a passion for passing on his knowledge.I highly recommend this read. ... Read more

Product Description
Essays in Honour of Christoph von F rer-Haimendorf. ... Read more

Product Description
Throughout the world, uncultivated plants provide asafety net for the livelihoods of millions ofpeople. They contribute to household food security,health, nutrition, and income, add diversity tolocal food systems, and reinforce culture. So far,however, the potential of these resources for ruraldevelopment has received little attention. This bookanalyzes the contribution of uncultivated plants tothe livelihoods of two indigenous ethnic groups ofNepal. These people have a high dependence onuncultivated plants for food security, medicine, aswell as economic and cultural purposes. The status,availability and use trends of over 100 species areassessed, as well as existing local knowledge andpractices for their conservation and management.This book underlines the critical connection betweenthe conservation of the local diversity of foodsources and the broader social goals of povertyalleviation, livelihood enhancement and sustainabledevelopment. It will be of special interest toresearchers, students and development professionalsworking in the fields of agriculture, rurallivelihoods, ethno-botany, anthropology, andbiodiversity conservation. ... Read more