Contribution short abstract:

In Nepal, land inheritance is state regulated to help to protect individuals from greedy kin. However, in Kathmandu in recent years, individuals’ legal rights to their family’s land have become the basis for new modes of dispossession, raising questions about the moral value of kin relations.

Contribution long abstract:

When it comes to uncommoning the shared resources of kinship, the most mundane form of this practice may well be inheritance. Across numerous societies, the distribution of inheritance amongst the next-of-kin is recognized as a perilous moment for kin groups, a time when fights may well break out over contested claims to family wealth. In Nepal, the distribution inheritance is most often conflated with the distribution of land to the next generation, a process so important and so rife with tension that it has been legally regulated, so that each member of the family retains a right to an equal share of their family’s estate. While such inheritance laws were codified to limit fighting and protect individuals from greedy kin, in certain areas they have allowed for a cottage industry of legal and legal-adjacent practices aimed at gaining leverage over real estate that would otherwise be inaccessible. This has been particularly pronounced in Kathmandu, where speculative real estate investment has pushed land prices so high that they are now said to rival those in Manhattan. To gain a foothold in this market, lawyers, brokers, and other intermediaries search for contested land disputes between kin, working each case for free with the promise that, should they be successful, they will split the land with the aggrieved party. This paper explores these practices, how they have weaponized inheritance rights, and how they are changing individuals’ understanding both of the value of land and of family.