Abstract
This case study research has examined the resurging poles of belonging that have manifested in response to the crisis of citizenship in Nepal. The bourgeoning intensity of identity politics and the resulting activism, besides dislocating the post-war consciousness, have strengthened the claims to equality and social justice through the narratives of recognition, inclusion and power distribution. Through activism, Dalits, indigenous peoples, Madhesis and janajatis have attempted to articulate their objection against systematic exclusion, monistic state ideology and assimilatory forms of national citizenship. I have further raised concerns over the dynamics of identity claims as apparent in the narratives of state-resistance vis-a-vis hill nationalities and the Madhesis that depict consistent and often conflicting boundaries of interest. Analysing identity politics to be a strong insurgency tool, the ‘people’s war’ has advanced its intensity creating an anti-state synergy building on the historic wrongdoings by the state on cultural, ethnic, lingual, territorial and religious categories. In the process, the traditional ideology sustaining Nepali state has collided with the conventional as well as variant forms of identity politics. I have addressed these complex issues by analysing movements and resistance in the hill areas of Nepal and the Terai region and contended that the antagonistic dynamic, appearing as a unified and collective front against the Nepali state, inherits complex internal diversity and conflicting interests making the traditional concept of national citizenship and national identity unattainable. The research takes into account the socio-political developments until May 2008, the period during which the 239-year-old Hindu monarchy was abolished from the Nepalese political space. -.