Contentious Politics and Democratization in Nepal

Mahendra Lawoti, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. He is the author of Towards a Democratic Nepal: Inclusive Political Institutions for a Multicultural Society (Sage Publications, 2005, third reprint 2006, Nepali translation 2007), Samabesi Sambidhan Sabha ra Rajyako Punarsamrachan (Inclusive Constituent Assembly and Restructuring of the State) (NISP, 2007), Looking Back, Looking Forward: Centralization, Multiple Conflicts and Democratic State Building in Nepal (Fortcoming, Washington: East West Center) and many articles and book chapters. He is currently revising his dissertation into a book to be titled Exclusion in New Democracies: Nepal in a Comparative Perspective. Professor Lawoti is the President of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies and Non- Resident Associate Fellow of the New York-headquartered Asia Society. His teaching and research interests cover international development, democratization and political institutions, constitutionalism, ethnic politics, social movements and insurgencies, and South Asian politics.

• PrefacePART ONE: CONTEXT AND FRAMEWORKContentious Politics in Democratizing Nepal - Mahendra LawotiDemocracy, Domination and Exclusionary Constitutional Engineering Process in Nepal, 1990 - Mahendra LawotiPART TWO: THE MAOIST INSURGENCYCommitted Insurgents, Divided State and the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal - Shisir KhanalWomen and Children Last - Mary Crawford, Michelle R. Kaufman, and Alka GurungThe Effects of the Maoist Insurgency on Gender-Based ViolenceThe Evolution of the Maoist Revolution in Nepal in an Adverse International Environment - Li OnestoThe Web in the Shadows/Chaayaamaa Maakuraako Jaalo - Ivan Gyozo SomlaiAnatomy of Stakeholder Influences in an InsurgencyPART THREE: IDENTITY POLITICSBetween Political Party and Social Movement - Susan HangenThe Mongol National Organization and Democratization in Rural East NepalEthnic Nationalism in Nepal and the Newars - Bal Gopal Shrestha The Spread of Theravadin Vihar Buddhism among Newars in the Kathmandu Valley - Keshav Lall MaharjanPART FOUR: COLLECTIVE PUBLIC PROTESTSIlliberal Democracy and the Problem of Law - Genevieve LakierStreet Protest and Democratization in Multiparty NepalStudent Movements in Nepal - Amanda SnellingerTheir Parameters and their Idealized Forms PART FIVE: CONTENTIOUS POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIZATIONA ′Chaos′ Ecology - Anne RademacherDemocratization and Urban Environmental Decline in Kathmandu Democratization Promoting and Democratization Hindering Contentious Politics - Mahendra LawotiLessons from Nepal Index

We learn a great deal about the state of democratization in Nepal from this volume and also learn about the implications it will have for Nepal’s liberal democratic state…The contributions to this volume are carefully chosen, and the interconnections are nicely spelt out...Lawoti’s contribution breaks new ground…he teases out casual relationships between protest and democracy for a country not well understood and largely ignored in theoretical literature…I strongly recommend this volume to all interested in comparative politics and South Asia. Mahendra Lawoti provided valuable insights in a set of extraordinary events that have come to pass in that country while debating democratic consolidation and failures.