What Went Right

Mark Liechty is Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a South Asianist by training with a research specialization in the modern culture and history of Nepal. He is the author of Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal, which received the 2017 Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature. His work at UIC focuses on world history, South Asian colonial history, culture theory, youth culture, and cultures of the body. He is the co-editor, with Michael Hutt and Stephanie Lotter, of Epicentre to Aftermath: Rebuilding and Remembering in the Wake of Nepal's Earthquakes, forthcoming with the Press in 2021.

• Preface; 1. A corporate vision: Business as development philosophy; 2. Butwal Technical Institute, Tinau, and the origins of the Butwal Power Company; 3. Andhi Khola; 4. Jhimruk; 5. The 'Great Upheaval': Khimti and the limits of the Hoftun hydropower vision; 6. Melamchi and the rush to privatization; 7. Privatization, the long haul; 8. The new BPC: Cultures in conflict; 9. Conclusion: From seed, to plant, to seed; Bibliography, Index.

'This book tells a remarkable story of the growth of local hydro power development in Nepal. It formally starts in 1963 with an agreement between the Nepal government and a Christian organization, the United Mission to Nepal, for the establishment of the Institute of Technology and Industrial Development in Butwal. The driving force in this was Odd Hoftun, an experienced applied engineer from Norway. It was a time when development economists were discussing the pros and cons of quick turn key infrastructural projects with external consultants, etc. or go a slower route and build a local engineering capability to construct and manage institutions in the hydro power sector. Odd Hoftun and Nepali colleagues persisted with the second route and this book tells what happened from the early days to the present time. The book focuses on the story of the private construction company, the Butwal Power Company, which emerged from the early initiatives. This history includes public and private take overs, major changes in government policy, local and foreign investors and much, much more. What went right tells this story in careful detail and shows the influence of BPC on Nepal's current hydro sector. The book is a “page turner” as Liechty takes us from one set of major events in construction and politics to the next … and the influence of BPC's legacy is still unfolding in major ways.' Stephen Biggs, SOAS University of London