Marie Lecomte--Tiloune. 2009. Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal (Book Review‪)‬

Marie Lecomte--Tiloune. 2009. Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp.294 with 9 photographs, 1 map, bibliography and index. Price IC 695. The present book under review has two main objectives: First, to locate Magar in the larger tribal identity in the Hindu kingdom, and second, analyze the Maoist rebellion capitalizing the ethnic clamour in confrontation with the Hindu kingship (p.3). The Magars, one of the largest Adibasi/Janajati groups of central Nepal, are the main focus of the study. Beginning with John Hitchcock (1966), Jiro Kawakita (1974), and Laura Aheam (2000), research on Magars is not new in the ethnographic map of Nepal. But unlike other researchers, Marie has a special goal to publish her previously published but scattered articles into one volume. Drawing a larger theoretical notion of alterocentrism, one's ability to view oneself from someone else perspectives, the author analyzes the rise of Gorkha Kingdom in the Magar territory where dominant Hindu values nourished along with the ethnic Magar culture. This acculturation process of two traditions further solidifies the ambition of Shah Kings who eventually conquered another 50 small kingdoms to unify Nepal as one country. The Gorkhali-Shah Kings eventually transferred their kingship to Kathmandu from Gorkha, keeping many of the religious and cultural traits intact back to the Magar territory. But over the period of time the dominant Hindu values neglected ethnic/tribal culture (Marie uses the word tribe or tribal throughout the text. I have strong disagreement for this particular term, see Dahal 1979) which ultimately instigated the ethnic/tribal revivalism in Nepal. Marie explores the strategies adopted by the Magars in the course of their relations with their high caste neighbours, from sankskritization and ritual integration to contestation, desanskritization and revolution (p. 4). This further nourished the Maoist revolution, which used the Hindu kingship and caste organization as adversary of ethnicity and to endorse their values and to win faiths among people. The Maoist insurgency and the tribal revivalism were constructed in opposition to the caste organization and Hindu monarchy. Based on these grand notions, she analyzes "otherness" which serves as the framework for underlying features of Nepalese society and its revolution. In brief, the present volume is a careful scholarly work, a narration of informed traditions which attempts to theorize "others" or "otherness" from the perspectives of people in question.