Sage Publications New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London DOI: 10.1177/097152310501300103 THE MAOIST INSURGENCY IN NEPAL: NATURE, GROWTH AND IMPACT

The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is a new development in the politics of South Asian insur-gencies. It has emerged and grown in the socio-economic and political conditions of Nepal, and in a decade has become a major political force with the capacity to challenge the state and the country’s socio-economic fabric. With its wide ranging domestic, regional and inter-national support base and ideological and material linkages, the Maoist movement is not an isolated phenomenon. The Nepali state has tried to find a military solution to the problem of insurgency. It is, however, a moot question whether the movement can be dealt with by force, which has failed to prevent the insurgency from becoming increasingly violent. Reso-lution of the conflict will depend upon the perspective of the Nepali ruling elite. The attitude of the present government does not appear to be sufficiently broad based. THE MULTI-STRUCTURED and underdeveloped states of South Asia have experienced numerous types of social movements with wide ranging socio-economic and political implications. Nepal was an exception to these kinds of upsurges and movements till recently. Although there had been movements for the restoration of democracy in the Kingdom, there were no movements which challenged the authority of the stat