Book Review: Kalpan Jha. 2017. The Madhesi Upsurge and the Contested Idea of Nepal
| Published date | 01 April 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2347797017751713 |
| Date | 01 April 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 105
the need for geographically balanced appraisals of peace deals. To be fair, this is
one area in which Caspersen does well, analysing relatively obscure cases, such
as Nagorno Karabakh, South Sudan and Bougainville alongside better-known
examples such as Bosnia, Northern Ireland or Israel-Palestine.
Caspersen’s conclusions are arresting: the much-touted ‘liberal peace’ finds
little practical expression in post-Cold War peace deals—particularly in separatist
conflicts, which often opt for decidedly illiberal measures in the content of the
agreement. Regional autonomy, not liberal cosmopolitanism or complex power-
sharing, is the key trend—with autonomy sometimes even being prescribed in
non-territorial conflicts. Federalism, by contrast, has ‘become delegitimized
by the Soviet and Yugoslav collapse’ (p. 115). On the rare occasions when
rights are discussed in peace deals, they are usually for ethnic groups rather than
individuals. And ambiguity is a consistently useful device, particularly in interim
agreements—again in contrast to the more prescriptive recommendations of the
scholarly literature.
This book represents not just an admirable comparative analysis of an
important topic, but a useful corrective to some off-target academic enthusi-
asms. It deserves wide circulation in both the scholarly and policy worlds.
Benjamin Reilly
Murdoch University, Australia
E-mail: ben.reilly@murdoch.edu.au
Kalpan Jha. 2017. The Madhesi Upsurge and the Contested Idea of Nepal.
Singapore: Springer, 111 pp. ISBN: 978-981-10-2926-4
DOI: 10.1177/2347797017751713
The Madhesi Upsurge and the Contested Idea of Nepal by Kalpana Jha just comes
in an opportune time. The Madhes issue has been the foremost issue gripping
Nepalese politics for the past 10 years. In essence, points of contention largely
focus around the sentiment of exclusion and active discrimination that the Madhesi
people feel, even after the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015. Advocates
of the new Nepalese constitution argue that it is suitably encompassing and was
endorsed by 90 per cent of the democratically elected Constituent Assembly,
including the lawmakers representing Madhes. Needless to say, the resolution of
Madhes question is nowhere in sight.
Ethnic identity is a complex issue and it is particularly so in a small country
like Nepal that hosts 123 linguistic groups and 125 ethnic/caste group according
to the 2011 census. Indeed, determining ethnic identity of Madhesi people is made
even more difficult by a confluence of ‘Pahadiya’ (People from Hills) and ethnic
Madhesi population, heterogeneous social and ethnic groups within the Madhes
region, and the open border with India which hosts the same ethnic groups with
family ties on the both sides. Nonetheless, the discrimination against ethnic
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