Mallika Shakya - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mallika Shakya

... They had some hope that the US might allow Nepal some even after 2004 as a result of a bill a... more ... They had some hope that the US might allow Nepal some even after 2004 as a result of a bill a Republican Senator introduced to the Senate. ... I use the term &amp;#x27;cultural capital&amp;#x27; after Sen (2001) to include: (i) knowledge of production, (ii) business organisation skills, and ...

Society and Culture in South Asia

Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal, 2012

266 CNAS Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2 (July 2004) they dictated a seríes of radical changes in the cou... more 266 CNAS Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2 (July 2004) they dictated a seríes of radical changes in the country's economic policies, which in turn allowed the garment industry to make-advances that otherwise would not have been possible. At the same time, however, the process of ...

The April 2006 movement is one of the three major popular movements Nepal has undergone in just o... more The April 2006 movement is one of the three major popular movements Nepal has undergone in just over half a century. The cumulative transformation it brings to Nepal’s political landscape is only the beginning of a long and winding road to peace, which at some stage will have to engage with apolitical elements within the State-building process to be able to deliver on the popular demands of sustainable peace, reconstruction, and a rise in the living standards. This has three mutually interlinked components to it: First, the recently secured political solution will have to be sustained through a thorough rehabilitation program. Second, the local economy must grow in the short run in order to be able to absorb the large number of people who are likely to return and rejoin the postconflict civil economy. And third, the economic growth must be sustained in the long run for the average Nepali to see a concrete rise in his/her living standards so as to save being disillusioned by the hist...

This thesis is an ethnographic account of the modem readymade garment industry in Nepal which is ... more This thesis is an ethnographic account of the modem readymade garment industry in Nepal which is at the forefront of Nepal's modernisation and entry into the global trade system. This industry was established in Nepal in 1974 when the United States imposed country-specific quotas on more advanced countries and flourished with Nepal's embrace of economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Post 2000 however, it faced two severe crises; the looming 2004 expiration of the US quota regime which would end the preferential treatment of Nepalese garments in international trade; and the local Maoist insurgency imposed serious labour and supply chain hurdles to its operations. Such a common scenario saw different responses from the differing caste and ethnic groups operating within the garment industry. Bahun-Chhetris, the new business elites who had recently joined the industry aided by newly acquired finance, knowledge and skills, could only produce homogenous garments which would not sur...

Progress in Development Studies, 2010

Progress in Development Studies 10, 4 (2010) pp. 363–86 and contracting (implementation) agencies... more Progress in Development Studies 10, 4 (2010) pp. 363–86 and contracting (implementation) agencies. It is this reform which allows the massive increase in state funding of the NGO sector in the post–Cold War period, since it ensures a continued control of the inner state over those civil society organisations to which an ever greater range of functions are delegated. Of course, in addition to devolving activities to civil society, the state is able, through cofi nancing, consultation and managerialism, to extend and deepen its infl uence over this outer layer of the new state. While, as already mentioned, this collection points the fi nger, rather than identifi es the solutions, one or two contributions do offer pointers for alternative praxis. In a stimulating study of Indian handloom weavers, Nidhi Srinivas suggests that subaltern groups can appropriate and make their own use of managerial technique. This implies that managerialist discourses and modes of being and acting are self-imposed as well as representing technology of external disciplining. Equally importantly, it shows that, if we are suffi ciently critical of the dangers and risks of managerialism, and the ways in which it is used to discipline the charity sector, we can develop our own strategies of professionalization and management – which is doubtless what the authors of this unequal but stimulating collection would wish.

Journal of South Asian Development, 2010

Journal of South Asian Development 5:2 (2010): 293–315 cause for alarm (p. 199). But for all we k... more Journal of South Asian Development 5:2 (2010): 293–315 cause for alarm (p. 199). But for all we know, the numbers could have been pulled out of a hat. A fuller exposition of the author’s reasoning for choosing the particular intervals would have been useful. The book ends with a proposal, frequently made in policy circles, to use a tranche of the country’s US$ 200 billion Forex reserves to build infrastructure. He makes a persuasive case by pointing to the benefi ts of this mode of fi nancing over FDI and external borrowing, particularly of its benign effects on infl ation and BoP. While at it, he also advocates higher defi cit spending to build infrastructure, remaining rather sanguine about the infl ationary threat posed by such spending. But supply bottlenecks in India are pervasive, particularly in case of skilled work force—a crucial component of infrastructure building. Parcelling his defi cit spending proposal with measures such as rationalising tax and tariff structure, relaxing entry regulations and deregulation aimed at reducing other supply-side constraints would have made his proposal more attractive. After all, with the consolidated government defi cit running at 10 per cent of the GDP (as opposed to 2 per cent in China), it is hard to believe that government miserliness is a constraint on India’s growth. The book would have benefi ted from more extensive editing. There are some spelling errors, and, at one point, a paragraph is duplicated (p. 61). The author also does not seem to have a clear readership in mind; while at several times he assumes that the readers understand the intricacies of BoP, he then spends time defi ning the most elementary concepts (‘Globalization is the process of increasing integration of different economies of the world’, p. 24.) Certain points are unnecessarily repeated, and many important statistics are cited without giving a source. Such editorial lapses tend to distract often the reader from an otherwise well-researched book. Does the book’s prescription of greater fi nancial integration, written before 2007, hold up well in the light of the current fi nancial crisis? India’s record vindicates his enthusiasm, having logged growth of 5.5 per cent by latest estimates, higher than the average rate in the days of isolation. Tight prudential regulation, suddenly fashionable after the crisis, has been emphasised repeatedly by the author as necessary accompaniment to full convertibility. The book is as relevant today for policymakers and students as before.

Progress in Development Studies, 2006

The ongoing, increasingly politicized debate on development and democracy continues to gain momen... more The ongoing, increasingly politicized debate on development and democracy continues to gain momentum. The current volume by Harriss et al. explores the various strands that link economic and social development with the political development of democracy. The world saw a ...

This chapter delivers a history of Nepal’s business economy from the seventeenth century to the p... more This chapter delivers a history of Nepal’s business economy from the seventeenth century to the present and explains how state policies created and sustained economic inequality between ethnic groups. In each regime, the state has favored particular ethnic groups, and assisted them in gaining access to key business sectors. In the nineteenth century, the Shah regime protected Newar traders against inroads from the British East India Company. The Ranas favored traders of Indian origin, especially the Marwaris, granting them contracts and revenue-collecting positions, particularly in newly annexed Tarai territories. In the Panchayat era, Bahuns and Chhetris became the primary beneficiaries of state led efforts to promote economic growth. If the Maoist’s policies of supporting marginalized ethnic groups are formally institutionalized, the composition of business communities could shift.