Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal

Mahendra Lawoti is Professor of Political Science at Western Michigan University, Associate Fellow at Asia Society, USA and a columnist at The Kathmandu Post. His research interests are democratization and ethnic politics in Nepal and South Asia, and he has published widely in these areas.Susan Hangen is Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Ramapo College, USA. Her current research investigates transnational politics in the Nepali diaspora.

• Part 1: Contextualizing Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict 1. Introduction: Nationalism and Ethnic Politics in Nepal Susan Hangen and Mahendra Lawoti 2. Ethnopolitics and Ethnodevelopment: An Emerging Paradigm in Nepal – with a Postscript Krishna Bhattachan 3. Nepali Economic History through the Ethnic Lens: Changing State Alliances with Business Elites Mallika Shakya Part 2: Identities and Movements 4. Problems of Identity for Dalits in Nepal’s Nationalist Project Steven Folmar 5. Boycotting Dasain: History, Memory and Ethnic Politics in Nepal Susan Hangen 6. The National Muslim Forum Nepal: Experiences of Conflict, Formations of Identity Megan Adamson Sijapati 7. In Pursuit of Recognition: Regionalism, Madhesi Identity and the Madhes Andolan Bandita Sijapati 8. Refusing to Choose: The Muslim Madhesis and the Coexistence of Religious and Regional Identity in Nepal’s Tarai Mollica Dastider Part 3: Trends of Nepal’s Ethnic and Nationalist Movements and Conflicts 9. Dynamics of Mobilization: Trajectories of Dalit, Indigenous Nationalities and Madhesi Movements Mahendra Lawoti 10. Transforming Ethnic Politics, Transforming the Nepali Polity: From Peaceful Nationalist Mobilization to the Rise of Armed Separatist Groups Mahendra Lawoti

"Lawoti and Hangen, along with all of the contributing authors to this volume, must be applauded for producing the first, in what one hopes will be a long line of portraits of the changing dynamics of what it means to be Nepali in post-insurgency Nepal." - Andrew Nelson, University of North Texas, Asian Highlands Perspectives.