Foreign Affairs, March/April 2005
"...it is still the best available background study of Nepal's problems."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The eruption of a violent Maoist insurgency in Nepal in the late 1990s was met with bewilderment even among many who claimed to know the country well. This book provides historical, social, and political background on the movement, and describes the ongoing struggle. The so-called "people's war" was launched in 1996 by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to overthrow the political establishment, including the monarchy.

With striking similarities to movements such as Peru's Shining Path in the 1980s, guerrillas in Nepal have murdered government employees and supporters of other political parties and attempted to establish a Maoist regime in rural areas they control. Initially the rebels numbered a few hundred, mainly poor peasants, former soldiers, and unemployed youths drawn to the movement by poverty and disenchantment with the country's corrupt politicians, but they have since grown to more than 25,000, with training camps in Nepal's remote western region. Tactics have included attacks on police stations, banks, and power installations. The army was deployed against the Maoists for the first time in late 2001, and the indiscriminate nature of the military crackdown has been criticized strongly in many quarters. Also in 2001, Nepal's political situation came to the attention of Western news media with the highly publicized murders of members of the royal family. While there were moves toward peace talks in 2003, hopes of a rapid return to normalcy have been dashed and levels of violence are once again on the rise. This interdisciplinary volume, the first comprehensive study published in English, provides vital background for understanding these events and the most thorough analysis of the movement and its implications for Nepal's future.

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