This excerpt is from a testimony recalled by an eyewitness, who claimed to have seen four Naxalites being killed in an ‘encounter’ by the police in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It appears in the interim report of the Civil Rights Committee (an unofficial, voluntary committee set up to investigate several ‘encounter’ killings of Naxalite prisoners) released in 1977. The committee was comprised of prominent civil society figures, lawyers, activists and journalists. The report claimed that the police ‘encounters’ they investigated were, in fact, extra-judicial killings. This claim anticipated what is today widely recognised in the public sphere, namely, that ‘encounters’ by the police or armed forces are often staged. The report was submitted to the prime minister of India and released to the press. The opposition raised questions in parliament regarding the claims of the report and a judicial commission of inquiry under Justice V. Bhargava was set up by the Andhra Pradesh government to conduct public hearings on the alleged encounters of Naxalites during and after the Emergency.

The report was a result of a fact-finding investigation. Fact-finding investigations are the predominant mode of activism for civil liberties groups in India. In a typical fact-finding investigation, an inquiry team is established on a one-off basis. The team visits the scene or site of the case, ascertains facts, identifies those who are culpable and makes demands or recommendations.

This chapter considers a range of Latin documentation and poetry composed in the late ninth and early tenth centuries, with a particular focus on the social settings in which the material was produced, consumed and performed. The chapter opens with an overview of the contemporary charter corpus, which is a rich mix of Latin and Old English documents drawn up in the names of royal, non-royal, ecclesiastic and lay individuals. This survey provides several points of comparison with the material examined in Chapters 2 and 3, and it allows us to consider the possible impact of Alfredian education reform. Consideration is given to the linguistic dynamics of the corpus and to examples that employ Latin specifically to enhance the performative potential of the document. Two sets of Latin poetry are then introduced – acrostic verses in praise of King Alfred and the ‘Metrical Calendar of Hampson’ – both of which were most probably composed within, and for, the milieu of the West Saxon court. The authorship, transmission and possible sources of inspiration for this poetry are considered. It is then argued, through a comparative discussion, that the performances of this Latin documentary and poetic material were critical to their value.

Background

The first legal code of modern Nepal, the Muluki Ain, promulgated in 1854 by Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, systematized every aspect of Nepalese society, from criminal and religious law to the caste system and property rights, reinforcing existing social structures that benefitted the dominant caste-Hindu elites. Largely influenced by ancient Sanskrit treatises and Brahminical social ideas and practices, the Muluki Ain labeled Nepal's Tamang community, along with several other lower-caste and Indigenous groups, as masinya matwali (enslavable alcohol-drinker) and murmi-bhotiya (people from the border [P. Tamang 2018: 45–46]). This categorization further deteriorated their social status, legally sanctioning their oppression, domination, and strategic exclusion in Nepal. They were converted into mere slaves or bonded laborers and subjected to compulsory labor (rakam) and porterage (Holmberg and March 1999: 6). The Tamang community had to bear the terrible sense of loss of their caste status and remained identity-less almost a century because of the exploitative and exclusionary attitude of the Nepali state toward them. The Tamangs had to wait till 1932, nearly 80 years after the promulgation of the Muluki Ain, to get back their caste status and ethnic recognition. In this regard, A. Hofer (2004) reminds us, “A decree signed by King Tribhuvan and the then Rana Prime Minister Bhim Samser lays down that, instead of the hitherto employed designations Lama and Bhote, henceforth the designation Tamang may be used officially” (Hofer 2004: 125). Although this allowed the Tamangs the permission to write their surname – “Tamang” – and be recognized as an ethnic group with their distinct culture and history, it was only the beginning of a long struggle for equal rights (P. Tamang 2018: 55).

Lawrence’s rewriting of the third generation of The Rainbow created strains that were heightened in his revision of its typescript; they are supposed to be reconciled by the rainbow that Ursula sees at the end of the novel. Lawrence’s revision of the proofs introduced into the willed optimism of Ursula’s recovery from her injury, and the loss of her unborn child, an elevated language of eternity. Lawrence took this up from late July 1915 in rewriting his Italian travel sketches of 1912–13 for Twilight in Italy. The most striking additions are evocations of extreme states of being, deployed as diagnoses of how the war had come about. A major shift in his thinking, rejecting the language of eternity, can be located in a heavily overwritten two-page typescript fragment of ‘The Lemon Gardens’. The shift was inspired by John Burnet’s Early Greek Philosophy, especially by Empedocles’ embrace of opposing principles as explanations of change, thus (for Lawrence) undermining the subject–object divide fundamental to subsequent Western epistemology. ‘The Crown’, written almost in tandem with the travel book, took this further, but elusively.

This chapter analyses the political economy of Rwanda’s financial sector. It presents the evolution of Rwanda’s national banking sector and the ways the Rwandan Patriotic Front has sought to mobilise domestic resources to invest in strategic sectors. It provides an overview of how African financial sectors have been transformed in varied ways through adapting to three kinds of financial sector reforms: policies influenced by the market-led consensus, developmentalist strategies and the influence of offshore sectors. Rwanda, in its attempt to transform Kigali into a financial sector while mobilising state-driven investments for strategic investments and adopting ‘best practice’ financial sector reforms, encapsulates the contradictions associated with being influenced by these three sets of policies concurrently. Next, the chapter describes how the Rwandan government has innovatively mobilised domestic resources to fund strategic investments. Innovations include its pension fund, the Rwanda Social Security Board. The chapter concludes by discussing how elite vulnerability has constrained the capacity of the Rwandan government to concentrate resources and financial expertise in one specific financial institution, thereby inhibiting the effectiveness of strategic investments.

Manjushree Thapa's The Tutor of History (2001), set in post-1990s Nepal, portrays characters pursuing romantic and economic desires amid democratic and market reforms. This chapter examines desire, choice, and action in Thapa's novel to explore how democracy challenges traditional power structures and empowers women. Thapa's novel presents a democratic ethos that extends beyond formal institutions to everyday experience. By examining how democratic practices shape the experiences of gendered “others,” I argue that the novel envisions women as active citizens shaping a more equitable society.

The Tutor of History follows an election in a small Nepali town and a courtship between Binita, a widow who runs a teashop while caring for her daughter and cousin, and Rishi, a history teacher and communist activist. The romance links the election campaign with domesticity, connecting democratic practices to private life and public opinion to private desires. The characters hope that democracy's transformative potential will challenge entrenched power structures, empower marginalized women, and foster inclusive development. Desire in the novel erupts from “the gaps in history” that fail to remember marginalized others (Thapa 2001: 57). When Binita and Rishi express their amorous desire for each other, their romantic desire presents them with an opportunity to start a new life that is free from the oppressions brought to a widowed woman by the past, tradition, and orthodoxy. The novel imagines women as full citizens in a democracy where universal suffrage allows them to dream of and choose new ways of living. Desire, choice, and action thus become tools for political and personal transformation. The novel envisions a democracy where individuals can pursue their desires without coercion from the state or institutions tied to gender, caste, and class.

The excerpts mentioned above are part of a debate, which took place in 1984–1985, on the arguable failure of political parties and the emergence of groups referred to as non-party political formations. Defending the emergence of these groups, Sethi argues that the formation of such groups was necessitated because political parties had been ‘side-tracking the issues of direct concern to the people’. In contrast, Karat, on behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI[M]), argued that non-party groups played into an ‘imperialist strategy’ and were anti-left.

Against the backdrop of the existing scholarship on masculinities, this chapter examines iterations of masculinity in South Asian literature, particularly in literature from Nepal. As such, the chapter analyzes Yogesh Raj's 2018 Madan Puraskār winning novel, Rahahār (Defeat at War), and Laxmi Prasad Devkota's poem “Pāgal,” or “Crazy,” published in 1953. The choice of these two literary works is partly subjective, and partly because they not only fit the topic of hegemonic masculinity and its other seamlessly, but there is scant scholarship on these works that is available to a wider audience. Even though Raj's novel revolves around the Kathmandu Valley of the eighteenth century and showcases social and gender dynamics during that time frame, the novel also demonstrates a continuum of masculinity at work, and not just orthodox or primitive masculinity as one would assume given the story's timeline. While the Gorkhali forces of King Prithivi Narayan Shah embody aspects of primitive or orthodox masculinity, King Ranajit Malla of Bhaktapur not only practices heterodox masculinity, but he also comes close to what some critics call “cacodoxy,” that is, an iteration of masculinity that overlaps with elements of femininity. As the ironic title of the novel suggests, King Ranajit practices supple forms of masculinity during his long reign of the Bhaktapur city-state, and, after his defeat at the hands of the Gorkhali, he accepts his position of a defeated king, begging the victor to grant him one last wish, namely to go to Kanshi, the present-day city of Varanasi in India.

This chapter describes the evolution of agriculture sector policies during the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rule. Most Rwandans still live in rural areas, and agriculture continues to employ most Rwandans. Prior to RPF rule, the Grégoire Kayibanda and Juvénal Habyarimana governments presented their parties as prioritising rural interests, as well as the production of cash crops for export (particularly coffee). However, since the RPF assumed power, policy priorities have shifted to diversifying agriculture exports (including producing higher-value coffee and tea) and encouraging the market-oriented commercialisation of agricultural production. The RPF’s attempts at reorganising rural society has been characterised by rural resistance and increasing inequality. However, there have been some successes, which have been driven by RPF-affiliated firms, sometimes in partnership with philanthropic investors. Successes include upgrading primary commodities and diversifying agricultural exports. However, agrarian policies have also been marked by increased land differentiation and rural inequality. Ultimately, sustained structural transformation is inhibited by elite vulnerability. The chapter highlights that there are few signs of the emergence of leading domestic agrarian capitalists.

Since time immemorial The non-stop river of our life deemed Your statement as truth And we considered ourselves untouchables.

—Amgai (2016), translated by Rabindra Chaulagain and Narayan Pokhrel

Caste System and Practices in Nepal

The Western District Court of Nepal issued a ruling on December 5, 2023, finding 26 individuals guilty of murder and caste-based discrimination (Amnesty International 2023). Out of the 26, 24 received life sentences, while the remaining 2 were sentenced to two years in prison. The tragic incident that led to this verdict occurred on May 23, 2020, when Nawaraj B. K. from Jajarkot district ventured into Rukum district with his companions to bring back his girlfriend as his betrothed. Unfortunately, they were met with hostility from villagers, who hurled stones at them, eventually driving the group of 19 young men to the banks of the Bheri River, where they met a catastrophic fate (Adhikari 2020). Nawaraj, a member of the Dalit community, was in a relationship with Sushma Malla, who was from the so-called higher caste of “Thakuri.” Sushma had invited Nawaraj to her village with the intention of eloping. However, what was meant to be a romantic rendezvous turned into a massacre due to the perceived insult to the honor of the upper-caste family and their neighbors.

An anarchist strain runs through Lawrence’s immediate postwar writings, but epistemological idealism in its current manifestations in politics, union activism and educational policy is his real target in his essays of 1918–19 and his play Touch and Go (May 1920). In his poem ‘The Revolutionary’ and in the ‘Fruits’ sequence of poems in Birds, Beasts and Flowers a way out of the idealist fog is plotted. Comparison of the two versions of these poems of September 1920, rewritten soon afterwards with idiomatic simplicity and arch comedy, exposes the mind’s capacity to interfere with, to sublimate, the body’s instinctive grasp of a deeper non-idealist world. Count Psanek, a revolutionary in his own way in ‘The Ladybird’ (novella, written December 1921), prosecutes the next of Lawrence’s performative encounters with big ideas stretched across broad intellectual terrain. Those stagings leave us suspended in the void between them, troubled by the undercutting, the ridicule, that the Lawrence protagonists typically attract from their partners and friends, even as their intellectual goal is kept stubbornly alive.