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Women and Maoists are Key Forces in Nepal
By Franz Schurmann, Pacific News Service, June 7, 2001

 News from Nepal usually concerns trekkers and mountain climbers, and reports of the assassination of the royal family have a "whodunit" air. Unmentioned is a rural Maoist movement that could destabilize the South Asian sub-continent. PNS Editor Franz Schurmann, emeritus professor at the University of California at Berkeley, researched village development in much of Nepal in 1997. His findings were published the July 1998 issue of the UN Development Program magazine "Choices." Photos available. E-mail slouie@pacificnews.org for details.

Any analysis of the whodunit killing of five members of Nepal's royal family must not ignore three stark facts of life in Nepal -- most people are very poor, most women of childbearing age live in the villages, and most of their husbands live in towns or the capital, Kathmandu.

Apparently most Nepalis see the killing as a power play rather than the product of personal rage or an accident. Certainly, after long years of weakness and corruption the stage was set for such an event in government.

But the real power play in Nepal involves a relentless Maoist revolution that is getting ever closer to the capital. The actors are not just men but women as well -- in fact, women may well be the chief actors.

The main issue is land in a country where traditional elites own most of the land, and poverty in rural areas is so severe that young men are forced to find jobs elsewhere. The women cultivate the land, earn money, raise the children, take care of the elderly and heal the sick.

In 1997, the UN ranked Nepal 154th of 175 countries in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and purchasing power. Its population was about 22 million in 1999.

Rich, educated or traditional men dominate all public and private institutions. In earlier times poor men worked in the fields and there was not much cash circulating.

But now, more and more villagers need things that require money. So the men go looking for jobs and find they can earn at least a pittance. In 1990 the traditional monarchy ceded power in response to democracy-minded protesters. But then the elections led to political gridlock. For the last 11 years, a dozen leftist parties have been bickering while the Congress Party keeps the seats of power.

Old men dominate most district governments, but in the villages women prevail while men often listen in the background. Maoist or not, women have organized themselves in many of Nepal's 3,500 villages. With the help of either international agencies or the Maoists they form literacy and book-keeping classes, foster hygiene, develop cash-earning small enterprises, set up mini-clinics, and much more.

Early in the 1990s a Maoist Communist Party started revolutionary operations in western Nepal, the poorest part of the country. They vowed to protect the villagers from the bullying of police and soldiers, which led to some sizable clashes.

Now they fully control four of Nepal's 75 districts and portions of many others. Maoism is a variant of Marxism that sees rural peasants and urban workers coming together as the core of revolutionary action.

In 1927, China's ruling party wiped out all urban communist leaders, except Mao Zedong. Mao preached worker-peasant solidarity, but was ignored by his comrades -- however, it was Mao who triumphed in 1949 and founded the People's Republic of China.

Women in Nepal's villages flock to the Maoists who, like the "barefoot doctors" in China, come to the villages to help and not to bully.

Recent reports from villages this writer visited in 1997 say that Maoist cadres ask the women for permission to recruit their adolescent children in exchange for monetary assistance. And when "capitalists" -- anyone with money -- try to buy village land the Maoists scare them away.

Although unions are strong in Nepali towns and cities, many workers fear losing their jobs to Indian immigrants. Since the cultures and languages of both peoples are similar, Indian workers are in demand. But currently the little industry Nepal has -- notably carpet-making -- faces crushing competition from China.

This makes it even harder for men to earn enough to send money to their wives back in the villages. Family ties are strong in Nepal's majority Hindu culture. This works in favor of the Maoists, as the men, seeing what the Maoists are doing for their families, will drift in that political direction.

Nepal's Maoists also benefit from their proximity to India's Maoists, generally called Naxalites, who are active in Bihar, which shares a long border with the southern Terai region of Nepal. The people on both sides of the border have similar languages and lifestyles.

Land is the chief political issue in both Terai and Bihar. India hovers over Nepal like the huge planet Jupiter -- informed Nepalis say no governmental decisions are made without a go-ahead from New Delhi. If the coup d'etat in Kathmandu should lead to political instability many Nepalis fear India could intervene, even militarily.

Such intervention would risk the fusing of both Maoist movements. India is also entangled in Kashmir and in its northeast, and land is the core issue in most of these disputes.

Land ownership will remain a source of conflict in Nepal and Maoism will remain a force to reckon with in one of India's poorest and most conflicted states.


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Picture of womens group in Shisheghat. The group leader explains their work and plans.

Photos by Peter Schurmann

Woman and child on village lane.

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