Paper short abstract:

The paper looks at Nepal's revolution and state formation process in post-agrarian capitalism by examining anti-systemic and systemic elements of class struggle.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims to analyze the revolution in Nepal along the lines of Wolf's concept of social dislocations and the contradiction between capital accumulation and the organization of political space (Arrighi). By examining the political economic aspects of the People's War in Nepal, the paper looks at the unresolved challenges of the revolution that in terms of class and reorganization of the peasant economy and society failed to address and resolve the contradictions of capitalism at the periphery. The political articulation of the peasant question within the context of late 20th century Nepal has been widely popularized by the Maoists, which have since then undergone a great political and cultural transformation from an anti-systemic party-movement to a systemic one. After more than a decade of post-revolutionary politics, we are yet to examine the historical role of the Nepalese peasantry in the light of the anti-systemic and systemic politics in Nepal and the reproduction of capital on the South Asian periphery. The aim of the paper is thus to explain the legacy of the revolution in its core contradiction: today the agricultural production is not central to the reproduction of capital, but it is still an important factor in the reproduction of power relations. In Nepal, this relation between revolution and state formation is the central antagonism of class struggle that can be observed through two phases: the anti-systemic (the peasant guerrilla movement) and systemic (peace process and state formation).

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