Paradise Lost State Failure in Nepal [Hardcover]

While Nepal is the oldest nation-state in South Asia, 'nation-building' is very much a work-in-progress. In the modern era which began in Nepal with the demise of the Rana shogunate in 1950, the country remained under an autocratic kingship till 1990. A 12-year democratic interlude was marked by a violent Maoist insurgency and followed by yet another royal adventure, which was finally crushed by the People's Movement of April 2006. The task of 'nation-building' has now resumed , with the goal of restructuring the state through a constituent assembly and a new constitution. Any place is complex, but Nepal is perhaps less understood than others in the South Asian neighbourhood. I believe that this work by Ali Riaz and Subho Basu will help in the understanding of a country that has seen the compressed political evolution over a few years that other countries of South Asia realised over decades. Only the analysis of Nepal as a thus-far failed state can make it a successful one.An outstanding achievement in explaining current political developments in Nepal whilst placing them insightfully and concisely within a historical context. A timely book which will be an invaluable resource for those keen to learn about the origins of Nepal's present-day dilemmas and the prospects for her future.A useful resource not only for scholars in the fields of South Asian studies and/or Himalayan studies but should also, equally, be of interest to political theorists.Ali Riaz and Subho Basu's Paradise Lost is an informative and engaging examination of the contemporary political crisis facing Nepal and its historical and structural causes. One of a spate of recently published books to examine the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, Paradise Lost places the insurgency, and its attendant political crises, within a broader historical narrative of state failure in Nepal . . . Riaz and Basu's book provides a compelling account less of state failure than of the necessity of institutional political refl3-