BATTLES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC A CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF NEPAL

It is a meticulously
researched and deeply passionate book. Generations of readers will turn to it
to understand Nepal?s fraught transition to democracy? Manjushree Thapa. In
the past decade, Nepal has undergone arguably one of the boldest political
transformations in South Asia. Identity-based politics has brought long
marginalized social groups into the mainstream and upended the bulwark of
Nepali nationalism the Hindu monarchy. Yet, the process of change has
repeatedly broken down, and Nepal?s fragile polity, under stress from various
forces, has continuously fragmented, the first Constituent Assembly failed to
draft a Constitution, the Maoists, who sparked the transformation with an
armed insurrection, and once represented hope, have been co-opted into the
very political culture they once challenged, never-ending political
negotiations have chronically paralyzed the governance initiatives needed to
address Nepal?s problems; and India, the country?s powerful neighbour, has
played an overwhelming role in national politics, choosing to intervene or
stay away at crucial junctures In exhaustively analyzing all these issues,
Prashant Jha covers extensive territory, in the corridors of power in
Kathmandu and New Delhi as well as on the ground in the Tarai and forges a
narrative that is as comprehensive in its overview as it is detailed in
chronicling the minutiae of day to day politics. An unprecedented account of
the re-birth of a nation, Battles of the New Republic celebrates the
deepening of democracy, despairs at the death of a dream, and seeks answers
to a fundamental political dilemma, who exercises power, to what end, and for
whose benefit?Interesting factsPerhaps the most important book on Nepal to
ever be published, Battles of the New Republicwill be required reading for
anyone with an interest in Nepali politics and in Indo-Nepal relations.In
clinically exposing the extent of India?s interference in Nepali affairs,
Prashant Jha breaks new ground in journalism in the subcontinent.Prashant Jha
also explores the links between the Naxalites of India and the Maoists of
Nepal, laying bare the linkages between the two.Battles of the New Republic
chronicles the politics of the Tarai region of Nepal in minute detail,
perhaps for the first time in the English language.The book focuses
unsparingly critical light on the lives and careers of both Baburam Bhattarai
and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, arguably the most vital agents of
transformation in modern Nepal.