At the Confluence of History and Development

Description

At the Confluence of History and Development: The Quest for Magar Identity
Kamal Raj Adhikary
2025, pp, xviii+264

Kamal Raj Adhikary was born and brought up in Tansen, Palpa, nearly six miles away from his research village. One of his favourite teachers, and one of his fellow students at school came from the same village where he did his PhD fieldwork. After finishing an MA from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Adhikary went on to complete his PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. While at UT Austin, he taught Nepali to university students who were planning to conduct research in Nepal-related areas. One side output of his Nepali tutoring was the publication, A Concise English-Nepali, Nepali English Dictionary (1988).
As a graduate student, Adhikary presented several articles related to the socioeconomic status of the Magars vis-a-vis other ethnic groups of Nepal in anthropological conferences and seminars. He has published in Himalayan Research Bulletin (now, Himalaya) and Studies in Nepali History and Society. After his PhD, he taught cultural anthropology at UT as a lecturer until 2002. Currently, he is working on the traditional festivals of Nepal. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Meena, and remains in constant touch with the Magar villagers he worked with.
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The Magars are the largest Janajati group in the country. Yet, their historical and contemporary struggles remain quite underexplored. Like other non-dominant communities in the country, they have had to adapt to a changing sociocultural, political, and economic landscape. Over time, the Magars have found themselves balancing the preservation of their cultural heritage against the pressures of modernisation, globalisation, and competing ethnic and state-driven narratives of identity.
At the Confluence of History and Development captures the condition of Magars on the cusp of the transformative political changes of the 1990s. It examines their multifaceted experiences, tracing their marginalisation through state policies and dominant caste-cum-class practices even as development and economic advancements failed to reach them equitably. The book also highlights the resilience of the Magars, including through adoption of the lahure culture. As a narrative of resistance, revival, and self-determination, it makes for essential reading to understand state-society relations in Nepal.