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[2008] Rama S. Lohani-Chase ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WOMEN AND GENDER IN THE MAOIST PEOPLE’S WAR IN NEPAL: MILITARISM AND DISLOCATION by RAMA S. LOHANI-CHASE A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Women’s and Gender Studies Written under the direction of Prof. Elizabeth Grosz And approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May, 2008 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION WOMEN AND GENDER IN THE MAOIST PEOPLE’S WAR IN NEPAL: MILITARISM AND DISLOCATION By RAMA S. LOHANI-CHASE Dissertation Director: Professor Elizabeth Grosz This dissertation explores changing gender dynamics during crisis and armed conflict to see how global/transnational movements of people, labor, and capital impact the appropriation and production of gender at the local level. The decade long (1996-2006) “People’s War” in Nepal produced three key processes -- militarization, displacement, and altered embodiments of gender -- that impacted Nepali women and society. Through a study of women’s position in Nepali political and cultural history and multi-sited ethnographic research on the People’s War, the dissertation examines how crisis induced displacement and violence impacted and shaped gender dynamics at the local level and Nepali people’s mobility at the transnational/global level. The latter has enabled the concept of a “Nepali diaspora” to be more visible and political, which is a strategy of survival appropriated by the globally dispersed Nepalis as their homeland reels under crisis and violence and as Nepalis continue to leave for work as migrant laborers. A close look at women’s participation in the Maoist war and their representation by the Maoists as well as the state military brings new insights into women’s agency through the embodiment of militancy and militarism. Yet, the “call to arms” for women in Nepal ii raises important questions for the feminist politics of representation vis a vis other movements around the globe for peace and social justice. Taking a feminist interdisciplinary perspective, the dissertation explores the ways in which the bio-politics of body, gender, and sexuality are enmeshed with nationalism, ideology and economics and work in the production of the “migrant woman” and the “revolutionary woman” in contemporary times of transnationalism and globalization. iii Acknowledgments There are many to whom I owe my thanks for making this dissertation possible. First of all, I am grateful to the JAL Foundation for a fellowship that supported me during my studies at Rutgers. I am proud to acknowledge this dissertation as one of the fruits of the vision behind the JAL Foundation. I was most fortunate to have Laura Ahearn, Barbara Balliet, Josephine Diamond, Nicole Fermon, and Elizabeth Grosz on my dissertation committee. My deepest gratitude goes to Elizabeth Grosz, my dissertation supervisor, for her insights and knowledge as well as her calm and consistent encouragement throughout the writing process. Liz’s feedback carried me through many difficult times in the writing process. I am humbled by the validation she gave my work every time I turned in a draft and blessed for having the privilege to work with her. Laura Ahearn was equally invaluable for her practical advice and expertise, which improved this work in uncountable ways and broadened its relevance. Besides being a very close reader of the dissertation, she has been a wonderful guide and a mentor to whom I often went for advice. Since I came to Rutgers, Barbara Balliet put up with me whenever I rehearsed various ideas about the dissertation running through my head. Thank you, Barbara, for closely reading the dissertation and also for being a wonderful guide at the Women’s and Gender Studies Department. Josephine Diamond generously agreed to serve on the committee at a later stage in the dissertation, and her input helped to keep me going. Finally, I must thank Nicole Fermon at Fordham University for agreeing to step in at a critical moment. I will always be thankful to all of them. iv This dissertation is an “interdisciplinary webbing” of thoughts, ideas, and events. Many other faculty members of the Women’s and Gender Studies community at Rutgers have helped shape that web. In particular, I have learned a lot from Mary Hawkesworth, Joanna Regulska, Louisa Schein, Judy Gerson, Mary Gossy, Ethel Brooks, Jasbir Puar, Ed Cohen and Arlene Stein. I thank Joanne Givand and Suzy Keifer in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department for being so helpful whenever I needed their help in administrative matters. I must also recognize my old gurus Arun Gupta and Shreedhar Prasad Lohani, who got me started in critical thinking at Tribhuvan University in Nepal. And, at Drew University in the U.S., I remain grateful to Wendy Kolmar for inspiring me to broaden my feminist critical lens. Among friends and scholars outside of Rutgers, Tom Robertson was immensely helpful and generous with his input on this work, and various members of the Nepali diasporic community contributed directly or indirectly in numerous ways, including many Nepali women living in the United States whom I interviewed. In Nepal, friends and family members deserve my special thanks for putting up with me whenever I asked for books that are out of print, news material, reports, and whatever information I needed that I could not find in the U.S. Rina Rai, Rekha Lohani Rana, and Rakhee Lohani deserve my special thanks. My thanks also to Mukunda Kattel and Bhagirath Yogi for helping me with the research and interviews in Nepal. In the U.S., I have been fortunate to have Sharmila and Jeevan Gurung and their children as neighbors -- thank you for good laughs, wonderful Nepali food, and your friendship. Of course, when one works on a project like this, those who are closest suffer the most. I have tortured Philip, Rohana, and Reshma (who was not even out in the world v yet) in my own special way. Thank you for reading every word of this dissertation, proofreading it, and encouraging me throughout the process of my PhD. It would have been hard without your belief in me, Philpu. If any value lies in my work, it comes from the struggles of women and their stories. It is my hope that I have done justice to them and that in some way I may contribute to their efforts to represent themselves and be heard. I remain grateful to those who shared their stories with me and hopeful that their dreams and struggles will pay off beyond the training camp. Nothing would have been possible without my mother, my first teacher in life and in learning. Thank you Aama, and Bua too -- this is for you. vi Table of Contents Abstract of the Dissertation ii Acknowledgements iv Timeline x Introduction 1 Chapter One: Women, Gender and Conflict in Nepal: A Historical Overview 13 Overview of the Current Political Crisis in Nepal (1996-2006) 13 Early Political History, Society, and Culture: Contextualizing Nepali Women 23 Sati or ‘Widow Burning’: Politics of Agency and Victimhood 27 Women, Nation, Politics, and the Construction of the History of Bravery 36 Women and Development in Nepal: Reality and Representation 42 Women as Agents: Legacy of Liberation and Transformation 50 Citizenship: Personal in/and the Political 55 Women in the Maoist People’s War and Beyond 64 Chapter Two: Understanding the People’s War in Nepal: Discrepant Developments of the Conflict 72 Representations of Marginality and Identity Politics: Maoists Gaining Ground 72 Maoist Politics of Representation: Speaking to the Outside 76 Agents of Change: Women Rising for Social Reform 83 Violence, Militarization, and Displacement: Effects of the Crisis 87 Displacement 90 Militarization and Human Rigths Violation 96 vii Gendered Mobility or Immobility of Women: Changing Gender Dynamics 100 Chapter Three: Learning from the Ground: Living with Conflict/Negotiating the Boundaries 108 The Stories of Two Civilian Women 110 Social Worker’s Predicament: More Complex than What Meets the Eye 119 Women Representative of the Political Party: Violence is not our Path 126 View from the Opposing Side: A Police Officer Speaks his Mind 128 Chapter Four: Struggle to Make History: One Woman’s Story of Becoming a Maoist 135 A Visit to a Maoist Area: Witnessing the Imagined 136 Asmita’s Story of Becoming a Maoist 139 The ‘Woman Question’ in the Maoist Party of Nepal: Ideology and Reality 154 Women in the Maoist Politics of Representation: Current Situation 160 Chapter Five: Gendered Borders, Changing Boundaries: Materiality of Militancy/Militarism 167 Production of Revolutionary Women: Bio-politics of War? 170 Women’s Entrance into the Royal Nepal Army: The Paradox of Opportunity 172 Women’s Relationship to Nationalism and Militancy 177 Gender and Power: Masculinity, Femininity, and Something Else? 192 Militant Agency in Women: Where is it Going? 194 Chapter Six: Gendered Displacement in Crisis: Migrants and Mobility in Globalization 200 Crisis in Development: Uneven Development and the Maoist War 204 Nepali Bodies in the Economy of Free Trade 209 viii Moving Beyond Local Spaces of Violence 218 Global Mode of Production and Feminist Intervention 225 Chapter Seven: New Beginnings: Communities in Crisis and a “Nepali Diaspora” in the Making 235 Diaspora: A Term with Many Meaning 236 Nepali Diaspora in the U.S.: Political Activism During Crisis 259 North American Diaspora:

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