Land tenure, democracy, and insurgency in Nepal: Peasant support for insurgency versus democracy

Asian Survey

Volumn 47, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 393-414

  Joshi, Madhav ^a   Mason, T David ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS   (United States)

Author keywords

Democracy; Land tenure; Maoist insurgency; Nepal; Peasants

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRACY; ELECTION; LAND TENURE; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL CONFLICT; SOCIAL MOVEMENT;

ASIA; EURASIA; NEPAL; SOUTH ASIA;

EID: 34547137396     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: 1533838X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2007.47.3.393     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. The "first wave" entailed the democratization of European countries between 1828 and 1926. The "second wave" was post-World War II (1945-62) democratization that included newly decolonized states as well as several of the defeated Axis powers. The "third wave" began in 1974 in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, and Greece) and spread to Latin America and parts of East Asia, culminating in the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe, eventually spreading to Africa. See Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), pp. 14-26.
2. On the third wave and revolution, see Jeff Goodwin, "Is the Age of Revolution Over?" in Revolution: International Dimensions, ed. Mark N. Katz (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2001), pp. 272-83;
3. and Robert S. Snyder, "The End of Revolution?" in Review of Politics 61:1 (Winter 1999), pp. 5-28.
4. UPF was an electoral coalition of communist parties consisting of CPN (Fourth Convention), CPN (Mashal), Proletarian Workers' Organization, and Nepal Communist Party (Janamukhi).
5. P. G. Rajamohan, "Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)-CPN(M)," , accessed on January 11, 2007.
6. South Asia Terrorism Portal, "Nepal Terrorist Groups-Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist," , accessed on January 11, 2007.
7. Matthew Krain and Marissa Edson Myers, "Democracy and Civil War: A Note on the Democratic Peace Proposition," International Interactions 23:1 (1997), pp. 109-18;
8. Håvard Hegre, Tanja Ellingsen, Nils Petter Gleditsch, and Scott Gates. "Toward a Democratic Civil Peace? Democracy, Political Change, and Civil War, 1816-1992," in American Political Science Review 95:1 (2001), pp. 34-48.
9. Jeff Goodwin and Theda Skocpol, "Explaining Revolutions in the Contemporary World," in Politics and Society 17:4 (December 1989), p. 495.
10. Hegre, Ellingsen, Gleditsch, and Gates, "Toward a Democratic Civil Peace?"
11. See Huntington, "The Third Wave."
12. Adam Przeworski, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi, "What Makes Democracies Endure?" in Journal of Democracy 7:1 (January 1996), pp. 39-55.
13. See T. David Mason, "Land Reform and the Breakdown of Clientelist Politics in El Salvador," in Comparative Political Studies 8:4 (1986), pp. 487-517.
14. See James C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976), especially pp. 29-32.
15. Ibid.
16. See Mason, "Land Reform."
17. Brahmins and Thakuris were members of the upper caste, who were also recipients of land from the state.
18. Mahesh C. Regmi, Land Ownership in Nepal (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 16-20.
19. Arjun K. Karki, "Movement from Below: Land Rights Movement in Nepal," in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 3 (2002), p. 207.
20. Regmi, Land Ownership in Nepal, p. 177.
21. Ibid., pp. 198-99.
22. This slogan has been in use for more than five decades, since the beginning of the socialist/communist movement in Nepal. "Smears" refers to daubing a house's walls with special clay materials. Because peasants do such work for the upper classes or landlords, the slogan implies that a house should belong to the peasants who care for it, not the landlords. This resembles the view that land should belong to the peasants who plow it. The NC 1959 was a leftist party organized to compete in nationwide elections. Karki explicitly asserts that its success in that year's election was a function of support from peasants who expected that the NC would initiate meaningful land reform. For details about the party and its strategies to woo peasant support, see Karki, "Movement from Below," p. 211.
23. Narayan Khadka, "Crisis in Nepal's Partyless Panchayat System: The Case for More Democracy," in Pacific Affairs 59:3 (1986), p. 430.
24. Ibid.;
25. and Urmila Phadnis, "Nepal: The Politics of Referendum," in ibid., 54:3 (1981), pp. 431-54.
26. M. A. Zaman, Evaluation of Land Reform in Nepal (Kathmandu: Ministry of Land Reform, 1973), p. 33.
27. The Naxalite Movement is a radical communist (Maoist) movement in India. Land reform is one of the issues this movement has been advocating, making it popular among economically and socially marginalized rural populations in India.
28. Narayan Khadka, "Factionalism in the Communist Movement in Nepal," in Pacific Affairs 68:1 (1995), pp. 55-76. The term Jhapa refers to the easternmost district of Nepal, which lies in the agriculturally rich Terai (plains) area of the country.
29. Other small communist factions (CPN-Manandhar, CPN-Amatya, CPN-Burma) dissipated after the restoration of democracy and became close to the CPN-Maoist in their ideological orientation. Radha Krishna Mainali, who was a prominent leader ofthe Japha Movement, joined CPN-UML and, after the royal takeover in 2002, supported the king. He also became a minister in the king's cabinet.
30. Khadka, "Crisis in Nepal's Partyless Panchayat System," p. 443;
31. and Phadnis, "Nepal," p. 441.
32. Calculated using census data from the Government of Nepal, Population Census 2001 (Central Bureau of Statistics), , accessed November 11, 2005.
33. Narayan Khadka, "Democracy and Development in Nepal: Problems and Prospects," in Pacific Affairs 66:1 (1993), pp. 44-71.
34. For more detail regarding trends in foreign aid and loans, see the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Finance website, , accessed on September 10, 2004.
35. The interim government that appointed a constitutional committee was under pressure from the palace. Since the Constitution was not written through a constituent assembly, it excluded ethnic groups, marginalized groups, madhesis (plains people), dalits (untouchables), and women in the constitution-making process.
36. Padmaja Murthy, "Understanding Nepal Maoist's Demands: Revisiting Events of 1990" Strategic Analysis 27:1 (2003), pp. 41-55, , accessed November 5, 2004;
37. Smruti S. Pattanaik, "Maoist Insurgency in Nepal: Examining Socio-Economic Grievances and Political Implications," Strategic Analysis 26:1 (2000), pp. 118 30, , accessed November 5, 2004.
38. Khadka, "Democracy and Development in Nepal," p. 52.
39. See Ananta Raj Poudyal, "Nepal in 1995: The Communist Rule Experiment," Asian Survey 36:2 (February 1996), pp. 209-15.
40. "Anocracies" are polities with mixed authority patterns, referred to sometimes as "semi-democracies" or "weak authoritarian" regimes. See Hegre, Ellingsen, Gleditsch, and Gates, "Toward a Democratic Civil Peace?" p. 34.
41. See Pattanaik, "Maoist Insurgency in Nepal."
42. Government of Nepal, Agriculture Census 2001, Central Bureau of Statistics, , accessed November 10, 2004.
43. Seddon, "Armed Violence and Poverty in Nepal: A Case Study for the Armed Violence and Poverty Initative" (March 2005), p. 24, , accessed January 9, 2007.
44. P. C. Dubey, "Kangaroo Courts Hold Sway in Neval Hinterland," , accessed January 9, 9007.
45. Sara Schneiderman and Mark Turin, "The Path to Jan Sarkar in the Dolakha District: Toward an Ethnography of the Maoist Movement," in Himalayan people's War: Nepal's Maoist Rebellion, ed. Michael Hutt (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), p. 89.
46. See IRIN, February 20, 2006, "NEPAL: Terrorism or Liberation? Life in a Rebel-Held Village," , accessed May 21, 2006.
47. Bishu Pathak, Politics of People's War and Human Rights in Nepal (Kathmandu: BIMIPA Publication, 2005), p. 180.
48. On the insurgents' tactics, see Schneiderman and Turin, "The Path to Jan Sarkar";
49. and Pathak, Politics of People's War.
50. Rahul Sarnaik, "Eyewitness: Nepal's Maoist Power Base," , accessed on January 9, 2007.
51. King Gyanendra was forced to restore Parliament in April 9006 after masive demonstrations and the formation of a united front between the Seven Parties Alliance (SPA) and the Maoist party protesting against the King's assumption of executive power earlier in November 2005. Shortly after the SPA government was tormed, that government and the Maoist party signed a broad power-sharing agreement that included a cease fire, security guarantees for insurgents, and plans to elect a constituent assembly to write a new constitution. United Nations forces were instructed to establish security zones for the rebels with the hope of eventually integrating them into the national armed forces after their formal demobilization and disarmament. The Maoist, party has about a quarter of the scats - 83 - in the interim Parliament. On April 1, 2007, five members of the Maoist party were also appointed to the cabinet of the interim government. The constituent election is scheduled for June. All agreements signed between the Maoist party and SPA - as well as the common minimum program of government unveiled on April 10, 2007 - include provisions for extensive land reform and investment in rural development projects.