Unfree labour after the Maoist Revolution in western Nepal

Abstract

What does ‘unfree labour’ mean in a post-revolutionary context? Based on an ethnographic fieldwork undertaken between 2008 and 2009 in the far-western lowlands of Nepal, this article argues that the brick kiln owners on the Nepal–India border continued their attempts to bind labour by handing out advances and delaying payments, despite the fact that the state had prohibited all forms of bonded labour under the Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 2001. However, the employers and the workers accepted this system of unfree labour only as long as it remained within certain boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that the Maoist Revolution should be judged as a partial revolution: although it addressed some inequalities, it neglected others due to an ideologically narrow framing of the meaning of unfree labour.