This thesis presents an argument for examining the politics of postconflict and demonstrates how the new, and uniquely, politicized contestations in a post-CPA Nepal have contributed to continued local-level violence. Based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork in Nepal, this thesis examines violence in the postconflict period, specifically in the central-eastern tarai region between the years 2007 and 2009. The thesis asks: How was the local level violence that persisted after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement understood by conflict actors and civilians in the central-eastern tarai? Furthermore, how do NSAG members and civilians experience that violence? More broadly, how are social relationships being negotiated in the postconflict period and how have such transformations impacted on individual and collective lives in the central-eastern tarai region of Nepal? The study focuses on the border as the unit of analysis and examines the relationship between borders and belonging in Nepal. The study proposes that the key variable that explains lowintensity violence in the central-eastern tarai is the proposal of ethnofederalism. It analyzes how the formation of the nation and relations between the state and central-eastern tarai residents impacted on NSAG recruitment and activism. The study offers new empirical data by presenting an ethnography of NSAG recruitment and participation as well as narratives of civilian perceptions of, and experiences with, violence. This study aims to fill a gap in the conflict recurrence literature which assumes that the actors who are involved in conflict violence and 'postconflict' violence are one and the same. The main theoretical contribution of this thesis is the finding that new actors are involved in low-intensity violence in the 'postconflict' period in the central-eastern tarai region of Nepal.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:665088 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Hohman, Kathryn Mary |
| Publisher | SOAS, University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/20347/ |
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