Darshan Karki

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

This paper is an examination of the ways in which the residents and political actors of the Tarāi-Madhes (lowlands) in Nepal construct and contest Madhesi identity. It juxtaposes interpretations of Madhesi along geographic, linguistic, ethnic, and religious lines, with the experiential aspect of “being a Madhesi.” The paper demonstrates how Madhesi...

This paper seeks to understand how elites utilize toponyms to either underscore territorial claims and belonging to a nation or to undermine those claims. Analyzing the names of the Nepali flatlands, Tarai and Madhes with a focus on the latter, it shows how ambivalent meanings attached to the toponyms became instrumental in symbolic resistance agai...

Book review

Militarisation and violence as a response to conflict are now part of the global social order. In this book, twelve journalists explore the impact of such militarisation on the lives of women in four conflict-affected zones of South Asia: Pakistan's frontier provinces which share a border with Afghanistan; Nepal during and after its decade-long civ...