On June 3, 1995, I had the opportunity to meet the much-debated sociologist Dor Bahadur Bista for an interview at his residence in Lalitpur. Ethnic identity politics had been gaining momentum in the years following the establishment of multiparty democracy. In a society that was slowly beginning to open up, Bista had introduced the idea […]

Kantipur Kurakani “NC-UML must engage in a new discourse” November 23 With the announcement of elections for Nepal’s second Constituent Assembly (mandated to write a constitution), election constituency Kathmandu-4 was in the spotlight – charismatic youth leader Gagan Thapa (Nepali Congress) going head-to-head with Nanda Kishore Pun (“Pasang”), the erstwhile commander of the People’s Liberation […]

A recent investigative article by The Guardian on the abuse and exploitation of Nepali migrant labourers preparing Qatar for the 2020 World Cup has generated a media frenzy. But the issue that prompted such fury doesn’t really reveal anything new. The strange wave of rage in social media, fuelled by The Guardian’s facts and statistics, fails to comprehend the core […]