Democratic Innovations in Nepal

Assess the degree to which late 20th century Nepal, as described by Burghart, could be characterized as a modern 'nation-state' in Gellner's sense.

'People in different parts of the world still utter different sounds, but nowadays they say more or less the same things everywhere' (Gellner in Eriksen, 2010. p.289).

For a long period of time, nationalism was regarded as 'one of Europe's most magnificent gifts to the rest of the world', 'a European import'(Chatterjee, 1993. p.4), until the breakout of the two World Wars. This paper will present Gellner's explanation over the nation and nationalism, considering Burghart's ethnographic study over Nepal as an example. Moreover, it assesses how Nepal reached to be regarded as a state, how does the change from Gorkha stateless to Nepal state occurred and how is this change perceived by the Nepalese. In order to describe the 'evolution' of the Nepal as a state, the essay is divided into two main parts, as follows: the first part introduces the view of Gellner over nation, state and nationalism whereas the second deals with the three most important stages that Gorkha had to overcome in order to become Nepal. In the conclusion there will be a summary of the points mentioned, hopefully delivering the outcome that Gellner was is not entirely right about nationalism.

It can be considered uncontested the fact that nationalism created 'social systems of enormous scale' and 'demands for individual equality and civil rights' (Eriksen, 2010. p.291), which gave the Western states the opportunity to hope for a more democratic system. However, countries in Asia and Africa were led by missioners to adopt nation-state as 'a form of government that is [...] an expression of the will or character of a cu...

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- Chaterjee, P., 1993. 'The Nation and Its Fragments'. Princeton: Princeton University Press

- Eriksen, T. H., 1993. "What is Ethnicity?". In 'Ethnicity and Natonalism: Anthropological Approaches'. London: Pluto Press

- Gellner, E., 1983. 'Nations and Nationalism'. New York: Cornell university Press

- Joshi, B. L. and Rose, L., 1966. 'Democratic Innovations in Nepal: A Study in Political Acculturation'. Berkeley: University of California Press

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Accessed at 6/12/2013