British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

BA PDF Symposium 2006

26 April 2006

Abstracts

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Dr Gil Daryn

Migration, invisibility and displacement in the context of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal

During the past ten years, Nepal has been ravaged by the extremely violent Maoist insurgency (the ‘People’s war’ as it is locally called) and the security forces’ response to it. This has had a dramatic effect on and has deeply traumatised and transformed Nepalese society, changing people’s way of thinking, order of priorities, traditions, manners of living and political agendas. Among others, it has completely transformed previous forms of internal and semi-internal (to India) migration, which were subsumed by the mass conflict-related displacement. Ironically and somewhat paradoxically, the aforementioned displacement – despite becoming one of the most significant consequences of the insurgency and embodying a growing humanitarian crisis – has so far remained rather invisible, both nationally and internationally, at least as far as humanitarian aid is concerned. My paper outlines a number of the cardinal characteristics of the insurgency, discussing the background and consequences of displacement, as well as its apparent invisibility, and finally suggesting what potential implications this human tragedy may have for the future of Nepalese society.

Dr Gil Daryn received his Ph.D. from the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, in 2002. In 2003 he became a Post-doctoral Fellow of the British Academy, based at SOAS. He is currently completing his field research on Nepalese internal migration in the context of the civil war marring everyday life in this once peaceful Himalayan Kingdom. His forthcoming book entitled: Encompassing a Fractal World, The Energetic Female Core in Myth and Everyday Life – a Few Lessons Drawn from the Nepalese Himalaya will be published by Rowman and Littlefield (USA) later this year. Partial findings of his current research will soon be published in an edited volume entitled: Crisis of State and Nation – South Asian States Between Nation Building and Fragmentation (Dipak Malik and John P. Neelsen eds.) by Oxford University Press, Delhi.