Caste, Ethnicity, and the State in Nepal

Abstract

Abstract Caste in Nepal works and has worked according to much the same principles as in India. The introduction of party politics and regular elections after 1990 has led to increasing politicization of ethnicity and caste that parallels north India in some respects. However, the fact that Nepal never experienced colonialism directly means that deep processes of social and cultural change did not happen until after 1951 or indeed much later. The much larger proportion of Janajatis (formerly known as ‘hill tribes’) in Nepal than in north India means that the Janajatis occupy the political space that would in India belong to OBCs. Since 1990, five major ‘macro-categories’ (new social identities with new names, clubbing together distinct castes and ethnic groups) have emerged: Janajati, Dalit, Madheshi, Khas-Arya, and Other.