by Deepak Thapa with Bandita Sijapati - £32.99 Zed Books (2004)
paperback
ISBN 13: 9781842775714 | ISBN 10: 1842775715
Nepal's Maoist insurgency began on 13 February 1996 when members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) carried out simultaneous raids on government offices, police posts and private businesses. The often-violent campaign that followed embroiled the government, the political parties, the king, the police, and the army in a conflict against a group of highly motivated guerillas. The fighting saw a break during two ceasefires, in 2001 and 2003, but on both occasions negotiations failed. The conflict has since turned even more ferocious, and, by mid-2004, the rebel campaign had come to threaten the central insitutions of the Nepali state.
A Kingdom Under Seige is an authoritative and comprehensive overview of Nepal's Maoist insurgency. It describes how the state's neglect of many of its people combined with political instability and the growth of radical left politics in the Maoist heartlands of mid-western Nepal led to a build up of the tensions that were unleashed in February 1996.
The insurgency quickly grew and gained favour with many of Nepal's poor and disadvantaged people as the rebels held out the promise of a more just and equitable society. The government's failure to tackle the causes of the rebellion and to engage the Maoist' agenda had led to more than 10,000 deaths and widespread destruction of infrastructure.
The conflict has shaken Nepal's political, social and economic structures to the core. The authors conclude that the only way to bring about a lasting peace and prevent more insurgencies from rising up in the future is to build a state that attends equally to the interests of all of Nepal's diverse social groups.
(Price & availability last checked: April 2018)
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