Trajectories of Political Change
Dinesh Kafle
BATTLES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC: A CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF NEPAL by Prashant Jha Aleph Book Company, New Delhi, 2015, 358 pp., 395
February 2015, volume 39, No 2

Prashant Jha’s Battles of the New Republic chronicles the two eventful decades, after 1990, of Nepal’s experiment with democracy. Written in a non-linear, lucid narrative, and with an enviable access to political and intelligence sources, the book provides powerful insights into the Maoist insurgency, the Jana Andolan of 2006, the Madhesh Andolan of 2007, the Constituent Assembly (CA), the debate on inclusion and federalism, and India’s dubious role in Nepalese politics.

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