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Accepted Paper:

Between the market and Comrade Mao: Newar cultural activism and ethnic/political movements  
Ingemar Grandin (Linköping University)

Paper short abstract:

Based on ethnographic research from the 1980s into the present, this is a study of cultural activism among the Newars of Nepal – as an artistic, aesthetic practice that works from song texts, musical resources and non-verbal statements in dress and dance to voice both political and ethnic concerns.

Paper long abstract:

The Newars are prominent in the ethnic and indigenous (janajati/adivasi) movement in Nepal. With their heartland in the country's capital area, the Kathmandu Valley, their position is contradictory: they are part of the economic, political and cultural elite yet dominated in numerous ways. Still in the 1940s, people went to jail for publishing literary works in Newari, and the Newar struggle for recognition, identity, and cultural survival - often linked with leftist, political movements - has taken many forms since then. Cultural activism is prominent among these forms.

This contribution studies Newar cultural activism as an artistic, aesthetic practice. This practice includes songs, cultural programs, music, dance, theatre, but also media artifacts such as cassettes, cds, video-cds, and recordings and "visualizations" for broadcasting purposes. Not only song texts, but also such things as musical resources and non-verbal statements in dress and dance are meaningful here and important to analyze.

The contribution builds upon ethnographic research from the mid 1980s and into the present day. This period has seen a transformation in political terms from absolutism to democratic republicanism with Maoism as perhaps the most important base for political ideology. But equally important, economic transformations have come to challenge the very roots of the traditional agro-urban civilization of the Newar heartland. In this light, cultural activism is one way to negotiate a position for the Newars and their heritage between the economic forces of the market and the ideological offensive of Comrade Mao's followers.

Panel P39
Art and activism in contemporary Dalit and Adivasi movements
  Session 1