Contested Identity Politics in Nepal: Implications from Tharu Movement

Abstract

Globally, research on social movements reveals relatively more about identity politics, but relatively less about the mechanism and causality of the identity formation. In this context, the paper analyses the formation of identity politics in Nepal from a view point of Tharu movement, one of the largest ethnic movements in the country. Despite having a long historical background, critics suggest that the Tharu movement is increasingly contested with identity politics. Sharing part of this critique, the paper argues that the Tharu movement has been undergone with the formation of collective identity incorporating the previously neglected issues of poverty, inequality and marginalization. Following critical discourse analysis, the paper concludes that the identity politics of Tharu movement has been formed in multiple dimensions of class, caste/ethnicity, gender, region, and development status.