Himal Books

Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal
Frederick H. Gaige
With an Introduction by Arjun Guneratne
2009 (2nd edition), pp. xxxvi+236
ISBN: 978 9937 81 44 47

Thirty-four years after it was first published, Frederick Gaige’s Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal remains the single best introduction to the socio-political context of Tarai politics.

—From the Introduction by Arjun Guneratne, author of Many Tongues,

One People: The Making of Tharu Identity in Nepal

Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal is Frederick H. Gaige’s acclaimed study of the Tarai and the Nepali state’s misdirected and ineffectual attempts at integrating the region into the national mainstream. The theme of the book remains as relevant three decades later, especially at a time when the very essence of Nepali nationalism is being questioned and new forms of co-existence are being negotiated. The introduction by Arjun Guneratne updates the reader on the social and political context in which the book is being re-issued besides highlighting some of the more pertinent issues now at stake in the Tarai, indications of which are scattered throughout Gaige’s book.

Frederick H. Gaige began his teaching career at Davidson College, North Carolina, where he established a South Asia programme and played a major role in establishing a consortium of colleges and universities called the Southern Atlantic States Consortium for Asian and African Studies. He then moved on to more general university administration, first as Vice-President for Professional Development at the Kansas City Region Council for Higher Education, then as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences on the Madison Campus of Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, and, finally, for nearly seventeen years, as Dean and Campus Executive Officer (or Chancellor) of the Berks Campus of Penn State University in Reading, Pennsylvania. He retired in 2001.

Arjun Guneratne teaches anthropology at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has been researching in Nepal since 1989 and has published a number of articles and two books, Many Tongues, One People: The Making of Tharu Identity in Nepal (Cornell University Press, 2002) and Culture and the Environment in the Himalaya (Routledge, 2009).  He is also the editor of Himalaya, the journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies (ANHS).