Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2013
Department 1
Religious Studies
Abstract
With Nepal's recent transition to state secularism, the politicization of Muslim religious identity has emerged with increasing vitality. One particular pan-Nepali Muslim organization, the Rastriya Muslim Mane Nepal (National Muslim Forum Nepal), offers a window into the complex relationship between national and religious identity that animates this politicization. Through analysis of the National Muslim Forum's earliest discourses, produced between 2005 and 2006, both immediately before and after the people's revolution that resulted in the declaration of Nepal as a secular state, this essay highlights the ways that experiences of conflict coupled with a national political transition shape and contribute to this politicization. It also offers a picture of some of the ways in which conceptions of the nation and religious community come together to help define the forum's call for a new Muslim religio-political identity across a diverse Nepali national population. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Sijapati, Megan Adamson. “The National Muslim Forum Nepal: Experiences of Conflict, Formations of Identity.” Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal: Identities and Mobilization After 1990. Eds. Mahendra Lawoti and Susan Hangen. London, England: Routledge, 2013. 102-120.
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version is available from the publisher at: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415780971/