NDLI: Women’s empowerment and rural revolution: rethinking “failed development”

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Leve, Lauren
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	One of the most frequently advanced explanations of the Maoists’ popularity in rural Nepal links dissatisfaction with the State to forms of consciousness and changes in expectations that are products and processes of development. Such theories often attribute popular support for the insurrection to frustrated desires stemming from “failed” or “incomplete” development. Against this, others suggest that it was the very “success” of empowerment programs which aimed to raise participants’ consciousness of oppression and its roots that inspired villagers to embrace revolutionary action. This paper argues that, despite their differences, both hypotheses reflect assumptions about gendered selfhood and political action that limit their recognition of what motivates Maoist sympathies. Extended research with women in Gorkha—a district where female support for the rebels is said to be especially strong—reveals that Gorkhali women’s support for the rebels is not inspired primarily by the desire for greater autonomy, choice or absolute liberation from social constraints, all of which ideals valorize a culturally specific vision of individual agency. Rather, women there report a sense of self that defines itself through social relations and commitments and which values the common good over individual self-interest, which they associate with an unjust state. The disjuncture between Gorkhali women’s own understandings of self and society and prevailing theories of what motivates people to rebel highlights the modernist assumptions that underlie—and potentially distort—otherwise diverse scholarly perspectives. Likewise, it implies that rebellions may be less about consciousness and more about morality than either “failed” or “successful” theories presume.
Starting Page	345
Ending Page	363
Page Count	19
File Format	PDF
ISSN	03044092
Journal	Dialectical Anthropology
Volume Number	33
Issue Number	3-4
e-ISSN	15730786
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2009-11-06
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Gender Development Empowerment Consciousness Maoism Conflict Nepal Anthropology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Sociology and Political Science Arts and Humanities Anthropology

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