Bombings and Blockades: The Impact of the Maoist Insurgency on the Relationship between Kathmandu and its Hinterland

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2005
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Bryn Mawr College. Department of Growth and Structure of Cities
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
This thesis examines the impacts of Maoist insurgency in Nepal on the relationship between Kathmandu and its hinterland. An analysis of this conflict will shed light onto the meaning of space and how spaces are historical products of social, political, and economic processes. This thesis focuses on two urban attacks in August 2004 as a lens through which we can understand the value spatial meaning in a concrete place and time. The relationship between Kathmandu and its hinterland has long been divided. Kathmandu’s status as the nation’s capital makes it home to the Nepali elite and rulers and a nodal site for an international community. Because these parties dictate the distribution of wealth, and their focus lies in the capital, they consequently neglect underrepresented areas outside of Kathmandu. Throughout Nepal’s long history of varying political systems, ranging from a Rana oligarchy to multiple attempts at democracy, this disparity has always existed. Since 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist has led a civil war against the government and monarchy combating this disparity. Because the Maoists have gained most of their strength in and from rural, underrepresented areas, the war has become a conflict between the capital and its hinterland. The August 2004 attacks on the capital illustrate the final stages of the Maoists’ strategy to enact full-scale attacks on the capital after gaining prominence in its hinterland. These events represent the Maoists’ attempts to level the inequities between Kathmandu and its hinterland in an urban setting. The thesis concludes that because spaces and structures are tangible manifestations of social, economic, and political processes, it is important to pay attention to the ideas spaces grow to represent. Perhaps one way to address the disparity between Kathmandu and its hinterland is to establishing growth poles and bottom up development throughout the country.
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