Gramsci at the Margins: A Prehistory of the Maoist Movement in Nepal

This chapter aims to convey the relevance of Antonio Gramsci and south Asian subaltern studies in understanding the Maoist uprising in Nepal, and to put this phenomenon in perspective by evoking its long history. As Ranajit Guha suggests in Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India, his seminal examination of rural rebellions, jacqueries, and revolts under British rule, Gramsci's ideas must be extended if they are to supply an adequate explanatory framework for understanding how and why popular uprisings unfolded in the manner they did. Via forays into the micro-history of Thabang, one of the formative sites of Nepal's Maoist revolution, this chapter attempts to show how Gramsci's ideas remain deeply relevant to understanding political transformations at the margin. Thabang's rebellions show how peasant movements can overcome the constraints of geography and how geography can be mobilized for politics.