Nepal in the Nineties

This collection of eight essays presents a diversity of detail about the politics as well as the social, cultural, and literary life of Nepal in the decade of the 1990s. The political situation in this Himalayan kingdom altered dramatically in 1990: A broad-based democracy movement succeeded in removing the twenty-eight-year-old Panchayat system after a campaign that lasted only six weeks. Seven months later, a new constitution was promulgated. A year after the end of the agitation, the Nepali Congress Party secured a majority in the general election, and made world news.

Based on several years of research, these essays reflect on the changes that occurred in the kingdom as the decade began, and on the circumstances that produced these changes. Their wide-ranging focus on the social processes at work in the 1990s will appeal to all those interested in the recent past, the present and the future of Nepal.

About the Author:

Michael Hutt is Reader in Nepali and Himalayan Studies in the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Experts from Reviews:

'…a competent analysis of the General Election of 1991…[and] an excellent exposition of the intellectual ferment of the time.'

-Deccan Herald

Preface

1. The Political Culture of Panchayat Democracy
   Richard Burghart

2. The Dynamics and Chronology of the 1990 Revolution
   Martin Hoftun

3. Drafting the 1990 Constitution
   Michael Hutt

4. The General Elections of May 1991
   John Whelpton

5. The Nepali Literature of the Democracy Movement and its aftermath
   Michael Hutt

6. The British Gurkha Connection in the 1990s
   Nigel Collett

7. Fatalism and Development in Nepal
   Alan Macfarlane

8. Democracy and Development in Nepal
   David Seddon

Index on Names