Spatial horizontal inequality and the maoist insurgency in. The constituent assembly extended the deadline for. Ideological and strategic dimensions maoist insurgency in nepal emerged in february 16th 1996 as a protest against issues such as autocratic nature of the monarch, oppressed nationalism, social disparities and political economy of the state of nepal. On january 14, police opened fire on a maoist cultural program at a school in.
Pdf this article traces the path of the communist party of. Most of them went missing after being arrested by state security forces nepal police, armed police force, royal nepal army or seized by persons affiliated with the communist party of nepal maoist. Maoist insurgency in nepal february 1996 to 21 november 2006. Industrialization if poverty is the context rather than the direct cause for the growing. February 1996, the cpn maoist launched an armed insurgency against the. The maoist insurgency in nepal and the political economy of violence avidit acharyay october 2009 abstract this paper studies the incidence of political violence associated with the maoist insurgency in nepal. Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the virginia polytechnic institute and state university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of. Terrorism as method in nepali maoist insurgency, 19962016. The maoist insurgency in nepal and the political economy. A minority of the missing persons may have been killed while taking. Between 1996 and 2006, nepal experienced violent civil conflict as a consequence of a maoist insurgency, which many argue also brought about an increase in.
The maoist insurgency in nepal lindenwood university. The insurgency period is known as the maovadi dwandakaal nepali. Origin and evolution, institute of south asian studies working paper no. This violent conflict stems from the maoist insurgency that began in 1996 and grew out of accumulated resentment over nepals feudal system. Investigation into the causes of the conflict would suggest that grievance rather than greed is.
Coordination committee of maoist parties and organizations of south asia ccomposa has been formed in june 2001. The political system is based on the interim constitution of nepal 2063 2007, with a prime minister as the chief. Nepals people live a constant struggle to accumulate some insulation from the hardships and arbitrariness of life. The naxalites, as the indian maoist insurgents are called, are still active today. Although about 18% of members received threats from the rebels, none of them resigned. Mansoob murshed 1 and scott gates 2 july 2004 abstract the maoist insurgency in nepal is one of the highest intensity internal conflicts in recent times. Nepalese and filipino maoist outfits have long been suspected of providing rhetorical and material support to the cpim. At the end of ranacracy, 85 per cent of employment and income were dependent on agriculture and less than 25. An examination of public statements from the period, official maoist documents, and.
While remaining firm on the principle aim of the armed struggle as to capture political power for the people, the party. Child combatants of the maoist peoples liberation army pla. The insurgency failed after a brutal suppression by the government, but the organisation survived. Child combatants of the maoist peoples liberation army. The socalled \peoples war in nepal took place between 1996 and 2006 and claimed more than,000 lives. The main obstacle to human security in nepal is poverty. The book deals with the dynamics and growth of a violent 21st century communist rebellion initiated in nepal by the communist party of nepal maoist cpnm. Investigation into the causes of the conflict would suggest that grievance rather than greed is the main motivating force. Mens participation in the maoist insurgency in nepal. In july 1995, cpiml pw and cpn maoist issued a joint press release and resolved to work together. The maoist rebels vandalized three camc offices, killed three committee members, bombed acaps four unit conservation offices and destroyed nine tourist check posts.
The absence of the rule of law, the ongoing maoist insurgency and the resultant gross. The other 48 members were nominated from the united left front and from among the intellectuals and professionals as also the civil society. When the open society foundations began work in nepal in 2007, the country was emerging from a decadelong maoist insurgency. Nepal, with a population of approximately 29 million, is a federal democratic republic. Pdf discusses the emergence, evolution of maoistnaxal insurgency in india and explores the prospect of peace. The communist movement in nepal that first appeared in 1949 after the formation of communist party of nepal under the leadership of late pushpa lal shrestha emerged as an intellectual opposition to nepali congress s policy of compromise. Communist party of nepal maoist and they were nominated by the party itself. Later on, the membership of the constituent assembly was raised to 601. Marks is the author of maoist insurgency since vietnam. The maoist insurgency in nepal and the political economy of violence. The political system is based on the interim constitution of nepal 2063 2007, with a. The monarchy had just been abolished, and the country needed to elect a constituent assembly in order to draw up a.
Foreign support it is difficult to establish the degree and scope of external involvement in the naxalite insurgency. All camcs weathered the maoist insurgency, yet their degree of resilience was different. Between a rock and a hard place human rights watch. These incidents have shaken the whole country and has established the fact that maoist insurgency is a living reality and that the communist party of. The maoist insurgency of nepal has been a product of its socioeconomic and political context. Pdf the strategic revolutionary phases of the maoist insurgency. The fate of most of those who disappeared during the 10year maoist insurgency 19962006 remained unknown. Chapter 9 insurgency, counterinsurgency, and democracy in. These incidents have shaken the whole country and has established the fact that maoist insurgency is a living reality and that the communist party of nepal maoist is an undeniable political force.
This violent conflict stems from the maoist insurgency that began in 1996 and grew out of accumulated resentment over nepal s feudal system. Marks, which assesses the growing insurgency in nepal with its potential to further destabilize an already volatile region, is a pathbreaking and an excellent inaugural effort in this new series. The con ict started in 1996, when members of the communist party of nepalmaoist cpnm attacked a police post in rolpa district of western nepal. The insurgency originates in naxalbari, close to the nepalese border, where an initial uprising in 1967 triggered a series of upheavals in the northeast of india. The nepali people are caught in the middle of an increasingly brutal civil war. For more than 300 years, nepal was ruled as a kingdom. A fiveyear old maoist peoples war in nepal has quietly been capturing the hearts and minds of villagers and urban intellectuals, and has been growing more rapidly than anyone had ever imagined. Revolving around the debate on relations between peace and development, the maoist insurgency in nepal edited by mahendra lawoti and anup pahari offers fifteen chapters covering four important aspects of the nepali maoist movement organizational, military, ethnic and developmental. The maoist insurgency and nepalindia relations friends for peace 11736, puja pratisthan marg, purano baneshwor. Nepal respect for human rights through rule of law is central to the concept of human security, by which everyone has the freedom and opportunity to live in a just and peaceful environment. Lecomtetilouines discussion in chapter 6 is based on documents published by. Political transition and state formation in nepals agrarian.
There does not seem to be any constructive dialogue between nepal and india to address the whole gamut of indonepal relations and the conflict in nepal has stalled efforts to work together for economic development. A study published this month counted the maoist insurgency as an obstacle in the way of indias emergence as a world power 3. At first glance, nepal appears to be idyllic, but there is strife brewing beneath the surface, and it is wearing a red star. An overview krishna hachhethu this plan of initiation of the peoples war would be based on the principle that everything is an illusion except state power. The party was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the communist party of nepal unity centre. The ongoing maoist insurgency and its catastrophic implications for the. From 2007 to 2012, the ministry of education moe of the government of nepal worked with save the children, unesco, and unicef to revise the national social studies curriculum.
The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by india prime minister dr. In almost all battles between the police and the maoist guerrillas, the insurgents have proved their military superiority. A transition in nepal from insurgency to governing continued on back in 1996, six years after nepal replaced its absolute monarchy with multiparty democracy, maoist rebels launched an armed struggle that led to an estimated,000 deaths over the next decade. Just when it seems that revolutionary communism has all but disappeared in the world, nepals maoist rebels seem to grow stronger and stronger. Over the subsequent decade, the maoist insurgents targeted government o cials, police o cers. The police have killed nearly 1,000 maoists since 1996. It contextualizes and explains why and how a violent maoist insurgency grew in nepal after the end of the cold war, in contrast to the decline of other radical communist movements in most parts of the world. Nepal in terms of resolving the maoist problem and moving the political process forward. In fact, all the prime ministers in nepals republican era, including the current one, come from parties once banned. The unified communist party of nepal maoist ucpnm leadership has likewise failed to cooperate with criminal investigations into alleged crimes committed by maoists during and after the conflict. The ultraleft includes the communist party of nepal maoist, the united. Maoist cadre are from adivasi or dalit communities, middle peasants and upper castes play a signi. The decadelong maoist conflict in nepal has various implications on children such as disruption of education, separation from families, killing and maiming, illegal detention, disability resulting from the.
The third, which is the revolutionary perspective held by the. Maoist insurgency must be viewed in the light of nepal s history of communist movement. The second category of material focuses more on nepal. The maoist movement in india started in the late 1950s as a peasant uprising in the wake of an independence struggle in naxalbari, a small village on the indonepal border, hence the name naxalism. In less than ten years, the maoist insurgency has transformed nepal. Reconciling development and conservation 1989 and blaike, cameron and seddons nepal in crisis 1980, as well as metzs paper entitled a reassessment of the causes and severity of nepals environmental crisis 1991 were. The maoists justified their fight through an ideology that defined violent po. We use selfcategorization theory sct as a framework and thematic analysis as a method to examine how social relationships and contextual factors contributed to political party identi. Gp capt srinivas ganapathiraju, iaf the maoist movement in india started in the late 1950s as a peasant uprising in the wake of an independence struggle in naxalbari, a small village on the indo nepal border, hence the name naxalism. Some of the deaths are believed to have been extrajudicial killings. An overview maoist movement in india has a long history, dating back almost 40 years. In doing so, he stressed nepals commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights and to ending its. This is especially perplexing given nepal enjoyed unprecedented level of economic and political freedom during this period. This report documents and analyses the major categories of conflictrelated.
Political transition and state formation in nepals. Pdf mens participation in the maoist insurgency in nepal. At the end of ranacracy, 85 per cent of employment and income were dependent on agriculture and less than 25 per cent of the population was literate. Institutional resilience of communitybased conservation to the maoist insurgency in nepal. The question of why the maoist movement began in 1996 when nepal was a democractic country has plagued a number of academics and policy makers alike, working in nepal or around nepali issues. Maoism and nepal when nepals maoists the communist party of nepal maoist, the cpnm launched their peoples war in february 1996, they were easily dismissed as a small communist splinter group that could do no more than stir up trouble in a handful of remote regions. Although the peoples war was not the first armed struggle in nepal, it left a distinct mark in the history of armed struggle given its nature, volume and impact on nepalese politics.
Maoist insurgency in nepal from himal magazine, nepal news archives, and dr. The aim was to promote education for peace, human rights, and civic education phrce in the wake of a 10year maoist insurgency and the transition to a democratic. Request pdf terrorism as method in nepali maoist insurgency, 19962016 during the period 19962006, the communist party of nepal maoist waged overt peoples war to seize state power. Reexamining the lifecycle of nepals civil war in this context allows us to. The government continued to commit human rights abuses in its efforts to combat the insurgency. Economically, nepal is one of the poorest countries in south asia. They contend with a challenging landscape of hills, high mountains and plains threatened by dangerous rivers, capricious weather, an immutable bureaucracy and treacherous politics. Insurgency, counterinsurgency and democracy 153 act of 2006, which aims to provide secure land tenure to adivasis, is of. Ever since the formation of communist party of nepal maoist, it has links with indian left wing extremist groups.
This movement primarily survives on poverty, disparity and discontent among the masses. Insurgency, counterinsurgency, and democracy in central india. Institutional resilience of communitybased conservation. More importantly, a ban can escalate tensions even further. The spectre of a new maoist conflict in nepal asia al. These phenomena are very common in todays society, almost all over the world and in the developing countries in particular. At first glance, nepal appears to be idyllic, but there is strife brewing beneath the surface, and it. However, children have been one of the most vulnerable groups in the maoist conflict in nepal.
Nepal emerged in 2006 from a decadelong maoist insurgency and a centuriesold hindu monarchy to form a secular democratic republic and elect a maoistled consensus government. I take a crosssectional approach where the unit of analysis is the district, and dependent variable is total killings by state and maoists. Starting from the year 1996 until 2006 when the maoist joined the. These causal explanations shed little light on neither why the insurgency began in 1996. The maoist peoples war that started on february, 1996 and officially ended on november 21, 2006 marked a catastrophic event in the history of nepal. In the very birthplace of buddha, peace has proven to be elusive. The naxalite insurgency in india geopolitical monitor. Chapter 9 insurgency, counterinsurgency, and democracy. However, if one turns to the pages of the history of modern nepal, one will observe that these forms of inequality or grievances have been omnipresent, albeit with varying degrees of intensity. The communist party of nepal maoist has spread armed conflict across the country and reshaped its political environment irrevocably. The role of environmental scarcity in nepals maoist. It is estimated that they now have between 10,000 to 15,000 fighters, and are active across the country. The last thing nepal needs after a decadelong insurgency, a tumultuous peace process and a disastrous earthquake is a second maoist war.