Professor David Gellner: List of publications

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The Far West of Nepal as a remote area

Adhikari KP, Gellner DN
January 2024
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Journal article
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Far Western Review
Remoteness, as a subject for multi-disciplinary analysis, remains largely under-studied and under-theorised. Though the idea of remote areas is familiar in Nepal, thanks to the government’s long-running ‘Remote Area Development Programme (1966-2017), there has hardly been any conceptual work on the subject in the Nepalese context. We ask who defines ideas of remoteness and for whom it is an issue. Data were collected through two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), organized in Bajhang and Kanchanpur in 2022, as well as through interviews, informal discussion, and observations during fieldwork in the region between 2020 and 2022. <br> The paper suggests that remoteness: (a) is both a fact of geography and a state of mind and culture; (b) thus, is an idea imposed from outside, but also a condition of lived reality; (c) is a relative concept, defined in relation to multi-layered hierarchical power centres located elsewhere; and (d) is a development category. Therefore, we argue, the very notions of ‘sudūr’ and ‘remote’ (durgam) are imposed political constructs, symbolizing (more than spatial position) the loci of power elsewhere, and can have detrimental consequences: persistent neglect, the reproduction of marginalization, and increasing dependency.
Sudur, Nepal, Far West, remote areas, FFR, remoteness

Marshall Sahlins, with the assistance of Frederick B. Henry Jr., The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity

Gellner DN
January 2024
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Journal article
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Society
Book review of Marshall Sahlins, <i>The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity</i> (Princeton University Press, 2022, 196 pp., ISBN: 9780691215921).

Sacrifice as pervasive metaphor and creative principle: on Marie Lecomte-Tilouine’s Sacrifice et Violence

Gellner D
January 2024
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Journal article
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European Bulletin of Himalayan Research
FFR

The 2022 State Elections in Uttar Pradesh and the RSS-isation of the BJP

GELLNER DN, Chaturvedi C, Pandey SK
November 2023
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Journal article
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South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

Caste, Ethnicity, and the State in Nepal

Gellner DN
October 2023
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Caste
4404 Development Studies, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

The spaces of religion: a view from South Asia

Gellner DN
May 2023
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Anthropologists have spilt much ink deconstructing concepts inherited from the Enlightenment. Religion, possibly the most misleading such concept, has proved highly resistant to the acid of cross-cultural comparison. Debates about the nature of religion go back to sociocultural anthropology’s beginnings as a discipline and beyond. Proposed definitions have been numerous, but none has come close to universal acceptance, mainly because conventional definitions derive from secularized versions of Abrahamic, and especially Protestant, essentialism and intellectualism. I argue that by looking closely at the way religious phenomena are conceptualized in South Asia, and especially at how distinct types of religion are practised in characteristically different spaces, a fresh take on the subject is possible. Religion as practised is not one thing but (at least) three distinct activities and should be conceptualized as such. But, if that is so, how and why is the totalizing conventional view still so pervasive and so powerful? Seeking the answer to that question takes us back to the constitution of modernity and the relationship of religion to the nation-state. The way forward is to contest the way in which religion has become the last bastion of pure essentialism.
FFR

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Dalit Experiences of Primary and Secondary Education in West-Central Nepal

GELLNER DN, ADHIKARI K
Edited by:
Valentin, K, Pradhan, U
February 2023
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Chapter
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Educational Transformation and Avenues of Learning: Anthropological Perspectives on Education in Nepal
As ‘untouchables’, Nepali Dalits were effectively banned from engaging in reading and writing and thereby almost entirely excluded from senior positions in both public and private sectors, until the system of reservations was introduced a decade ago. Today Dalits still face multiple forms of everyday exclusion, ‘hidden’ or ‘unseen’ discrimination, even though overt discrimination is now legally sanctioned. While there exists an increasing body of research on school education and exclusion, very limited work has been done to explore and account for the responses and experiences of Dalits themselves, and how these are changing longitudinally. These experiences encompass, on the one hand, much greater Dalit involvement in schooling than ever before, and a much greater sharing of experiences between Dalits and non-Dalits. On the other hand, traditional skills and knowledge systems are very much on the decline. Combining ethnography and qualitative interviews with a range of people, including parents, teachers, students, and activists, with a quantitative survey, this chapter explores Dalit responses to modern education and show how their experiences of school have changed over time. Our study shows that while both the response (in terms of enrolment and commitment) and experiences of exclusion and discrimination in schools are changing for the better, more needs to be done to translate these changes into improved educational and occupational achievements. At the same time, there is a tension between improving Dalit participation in modern educational institutions and preserving traditional skills and knowledge.

Comments on Ian Jarvie’s “The Persistence of the Individualism Debate Today”

GELLNER DN
Edited by:
Skalnik, P
October 2022
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Chapter
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Ernest Gellner’s Legacy and Social Theory Today

Foreword

GELLNER DN
Edited by:
Pfaff-Czarnecka, J
September 2022
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Chapter
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Belonging in Motion: Contested Social Boundaries in South Asia

Afterword: Northeast India as a Complex and Compressed Modernity

GELLNER DN
Edited by:
Wouters, J
May 2022
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Chapter
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Vernacular Politics in Northeast India: Democracy, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity

The Last Hindu King: How Nepal Desanctified its Monarchy

GELLNER DN
Edited by:
Moin, AA, Strathern, A
May 2022
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Chapter
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Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence

Can Akhilesh Respond to the BJP’s Poll Strategy of Mandal, Mandir, Market?

GELLNER DN, Chaturvedi S, Kumar Pandey S
March 2022
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Ernest Gellner and Populism

Gellner DN
January 2022
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Chapter
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Ernest Gellner’s Legacy and Social Theory Today
44 Human Society, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 5002 History and Philosophy Of Specific Fields

Introduction: Social Anthropology as Scepticism, Empathy, and Holism

Gellner DN
January 2022
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Chapter
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Re-Creating Anthropology: Sociality, Matter, and the Imagination
The introduction to the volume argues that three key impulses – sometimes working together, at other times in tension – underlie sociocultural anthropology: scepticism, empathy, and methodological holism. It reviews the contributions to the volume under three headings: time (especially imaginations of the past), imagination and the social, and futures. It concludes by arguing for a strategic mobilization of critical holism to enable anthropology’s participation in the necessary interdisciplinary work involved in facing up to the urgent problems that humankind faces.

Re-Creating Anthropology: Sociality, Matter, and the Imagination

Gellner DN, Martinez DP
January 2022
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Edited book
This book makes a notable contribution to discussions of what anthropology is and should be in the twenty-first century through a reconsideration, from diverse sub-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, of the interactions between sociality, matter, and the imagination. It explores the imagination in its social contexts, how it is put to work, and how, in its embodied and material forms, it works in practice. The chapters provide detailed case studies, including film-making in Egypt; spirit-possession/exorcism in Italy; Theosophy and the production of knowledge about UFOs; the role of mistakes or glitches in public performances; humans’ varying relationships to the environment; post-coloniality, time, and crisis in anthropology; and artistic creativity.

Collaborative, Multisited Anthropology is the Way Forward

GELLNER DN
July 2021
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Dalits and the Market: Liberation or Oppression?

Gellner DN
Edited by:
Kaneff, D, Endres, K
July 2021
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Chapter
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Explorations in Economic Anthropology: Key Issues and Critical Reflections

Religion and secularism in contemporary Nepal

Gellner DN, Letizia C
November 2020
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Chapter
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Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions
5004 Religious Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies

Guarding the guards: education, corruption, and Nepal’s commission for the investigation of abuse of authority (CIAA)

Gellner D, Adhikari K
October 2020
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Journal article
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Public Anthropologist
With development, democratization, and market reforms, corruption has become pervasive in Nepal, especially in areas where government licencing is required. Medical education is a site of considerable political and public contention, because of the nexus that links politicians, educational entrepreneurs, and the licencing of medical colleges. The case of Lokman Singh Karki, the notorious chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (ciaa) from 2013 to 2016 is explored, as is that of his nemesis, the campaigner for the reform of medical education, Dr Govinda KC. The ciaa was for a time converted into a prime instrument of corruption instead of being a defence against it. Different scales of reciprocity and differing moral valuations of reciprocity lie at the heart of the fierce moral debates over the rightness or wrongness of Dr KC’s hunger strikes.
FFR

Dalits in Search of Inclusion: Comparing Nepal with India

GELLNER DN, ADHIKARI KP, A.B. BK
Edited by:
Rathore, AS
September 2020
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Chapter
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B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Social Justice, Vol. 2: Social Justice

‘N.J. Allen (1939–2020)’

GELLNER DN
September 2020
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

N.J. ALLEN (1939–2020), INDO‐EUROPEAN COMPARATIVIST

GELLNER DN
August 2020
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Journal article
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Anthropology Today

Changing questions? Reflections on social anthropology in and out of Oxford since the 1980s

Gellner DN
July 2020
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Chapter
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After Society: Anthropological Trajectories out of Oxford

Morality is fundamentally an evolved solution to problems of social co‐operation

GELLNER DN, Curry OS, Cook J, Alfano M, Venkatesan S
May 2020
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

The nation‐state, class, digital divides and social anthropology

GELLNER DN
May 2020
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Journal article
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Social Anthropology

International labour migration from Nepal and changes in inter-caste relations

Adhikari K, Gellner DN
December 2019
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Journal article
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Contributions to Nepalese Studies
<p>Over the past decade international labour migration from Nepal to the Middle East and to Malaysia has increased exponentially. The number of Dalit migrants is also rising rapidly. There is a growing body of research on international labour migration from Nepal. So far, however, research has not looked in sufficient depth at inter-caste relations, and in particular at old institutions of patron-client (balighare) relations, or at how economic and socio-cultural relations may be changing as a result of labour migration. Based on household and individual surveys, combined with ethnography, conducted in a cluster of six villages located to the west of Pokhara in Kaski and their migration destinations, particularly Pokhara and Chitwan, this paper seeks to explore some of these issues, particularly the following question: does mobility from one place to another, particularly international migration, help change people’s behaviour in terms of everyday caste relations?</p> <p>The preliminary results from the study show that most patron-client balighare relationships (what in India are usually referred to as jajmani relationships) have either been abandoned or substantially transformed. Some old caste-based taboos have been broken and roles redefined. While some traditional non-cash-based occupations have been completely abandoned or are practised on a much-reduced scale, others have largely adapted to the new cash- and market-based economy. Due to insufficient labour, farming is in decline. With respect to commensality, 70 per cent of international labour migrant respondents have had Dalit (or non-Dalit, in the case of Dalits themselves) work- or house-mates in the country where they have gone for work. With rare exceptions, caste was no barrier to commensality. However, up to 60 per cent of these same respondents say that they would not be able to continue the same level of relations with Dalits in the private domain once they are back in Nepal. This illustrates the shifting and contextual nature of caste relations; it also highlights the importance of distinguishing public and private domains. </p>
caste relations, international migration, returnee migrants, FFR, Dalits, jajmani system

Introduction: Nepal's Dalits in transition

Gellner DN, Adhikari K
December 2019
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Journal article
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Contributions to Nepalese Studies
FFR

The New Modi Wave as Seen from Eastern UP

GELLNER DN
July 2019
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Hinduism in the Secular Republic of Nepal

Gellner DN, Letizia C
June 2019
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Chapter
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The Oxford History of Hinduism: Modern Hinduism
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Guthis Should be Regarded as Important Intangible Cultural Heritage, interview in South Asia Time

GELLNER DN
June 2019
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Vernacular Religion: Cultural Politics, Community Belonging, and Personal Practice in the UK’s Nepali Diaspora

Edited by:
GELLNER, DN, HAUSNER, S
June 2019
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Edited book

The transformation of evil in Nepal

Gellner DN
May 2019
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Chapter
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Methodology and History in Anthropology

British Gurkha Pension Policies and Ex-Gurkha Campaign: A review

Laksamba CK, ADHIKARI K, Dhakal L, GELLNER DG
Edited by:
ADHIKARI, KP
April 2019
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Book

Masters of hybridity: How activists reconstructed Nepali society

Gellner D
March 2019
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
This paper discusses the changes that activists have brought to Nepali society in relation to two key elements of Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT): (1) its account of modernity and (2) its radical downplaying of human agency. ANT, contrary to the way it tends to be understood, deserves to be seen, at least in Latour’s treatment, as a major theory of modernity. As such, ANT is important and enlightening, even though its attack on human agency—at least when discussing activism—is unhelpful. On this point Ian Hacking’s notion of ‘making up people’ provides a better guide. The main example explored is the new kinds of ethnic identity that have achieved state recognition and become politically influential in Nepal over the last thirty years. The case of one ethnic and religious activist, Dr Keshabman Shakya, is used to illustrate the argument. Based on notions of human rights, rather similar processes of ‘making up people’ have also occurred with other minority groups, most strikingly in the case of the ‘third gender’, a context in which Nepal is famously ‘progressive’ compared to other nation-states in the region.

Politics in Gorakhpur since the 1920s: the making of a safe ‘Hindu’ constituency

Gellner D
January 2019
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Journal article
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Contemporary South Asia
The city of Gorakhpur presents what may be a unique, and is certainly an unusual, configuration of religion and politics. The sitting MP from 1998 to 2017, Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk, had one of the safest seats in India and won five parliamentary elections in a row, a career that culminated in his appointment as the BJP Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Adityanath was both an effective constituency MP and the head of a thriving Math (Hindu monastic temple). Gorakhpur used to be famous for its lawless image and gang warfare. We seek to explain how politics in Gorakhpur have evolved through three distinct periods: (1) Congress hegemony and Hindu-Muslim harmony at the local level; (2) intensified caste competition and the rise of muscular politics; (3) the impact of new caste politics (with the rise of caste-based parties such as the SP and BSP), with the Math as the focus of Gorakhpur’s ever-stronger Hindu-based political identity. The BJP’s loss of the Gorakhpur seat in 2018, in a by-election consequent on Adityanath’s elevation to Chief Minister of UP, may be interpreted as a (probably temporary) rejection of the BJP, but it does not represent a loss of influence by the Math

Special issue of 'Contributions to Nepalese Studies'

Edited by:
GELLNER, D, ADHIKARI, K
January 2019
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Edited book

KP Oli's Early Life and Influences

Gellner D, Karki MB
August 2018
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>
SBTMR

Ancestor Worship and Sacrifice: Debates over Bahun-Chhetri Clan Rituals (kul puja) in Nepal

GELLNER DN, ADHIKARI K
Edited by:
GELLNER, DN, HAUSNER, SL, Letizia, C
August 2018
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Chapter
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Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal

Introduction: The Nepali/Gorkhali Diaspora Since the Nineteenth Century

GELLNER D
Edited by:
GELLNER, D, HAUSNER, S
July 2018
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Chapter
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Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Diaspora

Civilization as a Key Guiding Idea in South Asia

Gellner D
Edited by:
Hann, C
May 2018
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Chapter
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Anthropology and Civilizational Analysis: Eurasian Explorations

Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Diaspora

Gellner D, Hausner SL
Edited by:
Gellner, D, Hausner, SL
January 2018
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Edited book

Introduction: The Nepali/Gorkhali Diaspora since the Nineteenth Century

Gellner D
January 2018
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Chapter
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Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Diaspora

Invention and Tradition: Limbu Adaptations of Religion in the Diaspora

Gellner D
January 2018
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Chapter
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Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Diaspora

The NRN (Non-Resident Nepali) Movement

Gellner D, Adhikari KP
January 2018
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Chapter
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Global Nepalis: Religion, Culture, and Community in a New and Old Diaspora

Introduction to the Vishwakarma Community of Annapurna Rural Municipality Wards 1, 2 and 3 (formerly Dhikurpokhari VDC), Kaski, with Genealogical Charts

ADHIKARI KP, BK AB, GELLNER DN
November 2017
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Book
Dalits, Migration, Nepal, South Asia, Bishwakarma, Black smiths, Social anthropology, Cultural anthropology, Kaski, Nepal, Annapurna Rural Municipality, Dalit migration, Dalit culture, Genealogy of Bishwakarma

Afterword: So what is the anthropology of Buddhism about?

Gellner DN
September 2017
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Journal article
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Religion and Society
© Berghahn Books. This afterword considers the history of the subfield of the anthropology of Buddhism in light of the essays in this special section of Religion and Society. Anthropologists have sought to combat conventional assumptions about Buddhism and have long made contributions to the study of Buddhism, the state, nationalism, and politics. As part of a maturing field, they have also made contributions through the study of Buddhism to many other subfields of anthropology, including morality, spirit possession, the emotions, and materiality. It is no longer necessary for the anthropology of Buddhism to be overwhelmingly concerned with the authenticity and identity of its subjects.

Remembering Ambedkar in Bangalore

Gellner D
July 2017
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Afterword: Violence and the State in South Asia

GELLNER DN
July 2017
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Journal article
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Asian Journal of Social Science

Sheldon Pollock and Max Weber: Why Pollock is more Weberian than he thinks

Gellner D
July 2017
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Journal article
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Max Weber Studies

The politics of Buddhism in Nepal

Gellner D
May 2017
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Journal article
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Economic and Political Weekly
Nepal, as Nepalis never tire of reminding the world and each other, was where the Buddha was born. But did Nepal exist 2500 years ago? Does the fact that the Buddha was born in what is today Nepal mean that the modern nation-state Nepal can claim special ownership of his memory, when the other three significant events in the Buddha’s life—attainment of enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, first sermon at Sarnath, and entry into full nirvana at Kushinagar—all took place in what is now India? Even the very act of asking these questions will irritate some of my Nepali friends, for whom the two most fundamental facts about their country are that it is home to the world’s highest mountain and that it claims the birthplace of the Buddha.

Source Force

Gellner DN, Snellinger A
April 2017
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Journal article
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South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

How BJP Won Hearts and Minds in UP

Gellner D
March 2017
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Understanding Modi’s Magic: Impressions from Eastern UP

Gellner D
March 2017
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

Introduction to the Mijar Community of Annapurna Rural Municipality Wards 1, 2 and 3 (formerly Dhikurpokhari VDC), Kaski, with Genealogical Charts

ADHIKARI KP, BK AB, GELLNER DN
January 2017
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Book
Dalits, Migration, Nepal, South Asia, Dalits in South Asia, Mijar, Sarki, Social anthropology, Cultural anthropology, Annapurna Rural Municipality,, Dalit migration, Dalit culture, Genealogy of Bishwakarma

Introduction to the Pariyar Community of Annapurna Rural Municipality Wards 1, 2 and 3 (formerly Dhikurpokhari VDC), Kaski, with Genealogical Charts

ADHIKARI KP, BK AB, GELLNER DN
January 2017
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Book
Dalits, Migration, Nepal migration, Nepal, South Asia, Pariyar, Damai, Dholi, Tailors, Social anthropology, Cultural anthropology, Kaski, Annapurna Rural Municipality, Dalit culture, Dalit migration, Genealogy of Pariyars, Pariyar culture

National Identity and Belonging

Gellner D
December 2016
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Internet publication
<a href=""></a>

The idea of Nepal

Gellner D
December 2016
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Other
This lecture traces some of the ways in which Nepal has been imagined, starting over 1500 years ago when the name referred to the Kathmandu Valley ruled by the Licchavi dynasty.  That spatialised hierarchical conception (‘Nepal mandala’) is contrasted with later ideas of Nepal as interface, empire, nation-state, and multicultural federal republic. At each stage, Nepal has been imagined as made up of different kinds of people. In the modern period formal and official categorisations have become increasingly egalitarian and, recently, even explicitly antihierarchical. Since 1990, ethnic identities have been massively transformed and politicised. Entirely new ‘macro categories’ have come into existence. However, the old order has not simply disappeared, but remains ‘back stage’, reworked; it can be discerned in informal but still powerful hierarchies of language and national belonging.
Nepal, ethnicity, belonging, national identity

Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal

Gellner DN, Hausner SL, Letizia C
November 2016
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Book
Is religion still a valid means of coping with the world? How do citizens of the former Hindu kingdom understand secularism? How do changing public festivals reflect and/or create new group identities? Is religion becoming more privatized?

Shrines and Identities in Britain’s Nepali Diaspora

Gellner D, Hausner SL, Laksamba C, Adhikari KP
September 2016
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Journal article
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Diaspora: a journal of transnational studies
This article examines the tension between publicly affirmed religious identification and private religious practice among Britain’s Nepali diaspora population. It compares census and survey figures for religious affiliation with religious shrines in people’s homes. In some cases there is complete congruence between religious affiliation and home worship (most strikingly in the cases of Sherpas, whose affiliation and shrines are unequivocally Buddhist). Among many other groups, however, there is plenty of evidence of multiple belonging. The most common case is singular identification for census purposes and multiple practice, but there are also many instances of multiple identification when offered the opportunity. For example, when asked for their religion, Gurungs frequently affirm a Buddhist identity, but when given the option to be both Hindu and Buddhist, they frequently embrace it as it more closely describing their actual practice. Many Kirats keep no shrine at home because they believe that their tribal tradition is properly aniconic. Our material clearly shows that the distribution of ecumenical attitudes is not random, but reflects particular ethnic, regional, and caste histories within Nepal. The ethnic/caste makeup of Britain’s Nepali diaspora is not identical to that of Nepal, mainly because of the history of Gurkha recruitment, and this demographic shift is reflected in the higher proportion of Buddhists in Britain. Nonetheless, we suspect that the findings of this study would be replicated in an urban context in Nepal.
multiple belonging, religious shrines, Hinduism, Buddhism, Kiranti religion, personal religion, Nepali diaspora

New identity politics and the 2012 collapse of Nepal's Constituent Assembly: when the dominant becomes 'other'

Adhikari KP, Gellner D
February 2016
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Journal article
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Modern Asian Studies
This article explores the politicization of ethnicity in Nepal since 1990. In particular it looks at how ideas of indigeneity have become increasingly powerful, leading to Nepal becoming the first and—to date—only Asian country to have signed International Labour Organization Convention number 169 (hereafter ILO 169). The rise of ethnic politics, and in particular the reactive rise of a new kind of ethnicity on the part of the ‘dominant’ groups—Bahuns (Brahmans) and Chhetris (Kshatriyas)—is the key to understanding why the first Constituent Assembly in Nepal ran out of time and collapsed at the end of May 2012. This collapse occurred after four years and four extensions of time, despite historic and unprecedentedly inclusive elections in April 2008 and a successful peace process that put an end to a ten-year civil war.
Nepal, indigeneity, federalism, ethnicity, constitution-writing

Comment on Chris Hann "A Concept of Eurasia"

Gellner D
February 2016
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Journal article
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Current Anthropology

Introduction: Religion and Identities in Post-Panchayat Nepal

GELLNER DN
January 2016
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Chapter
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Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal

Buddhism

Gellner DN, Gombrich R
January 2015
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Chapter
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International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
5004 Religious Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies

THE 2013 ELECTIONS IN NEPAL

Gellner D
May 2014
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Journal article
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Asian Affairs
4408 Political Science, 44 Human Society, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

From Kathmandu to Kent: Nepalis in the UK

Gellner D
April 2014
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Journal article
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Himal Southasian

Warriors, workers, traders and peasants: The Nepali/Gorkhali diaspora since the nineteenth century

Gellner DN
January 2014
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Chapter
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Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora

Buddhist, Hindu, Kiranti, or Something Else?

Gellner DN, Hausner SL, Shrestha BG
January 2014
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Chapter
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E. Gallo (ed.) Migration and Religion in Europe: Comparative Perspectives in South Asian Experiences, Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate, 2014, pp. 131-153.

Borderland Lives in Northern South Asia Non-State Perspectives

Gellner DN
December 2013
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Book
This volumes presents assays on the peoples living along India&#39;s borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, China, and Nepal reveal Northern South Asia as a region encompassing radically different ways of life and relationships to the ...
Social Science

Multiple versus unitary belonging: How Nepalis in Britain deal with 'religion'

Gellner DN, Hausner SL
December 2013
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Chapter
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Social Identities Between the Sacred and the Secular

The Politics of Collective Advocacy in India: Tools and Traps

Gellner DN
March 2013
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Journal article
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Asian Studies Review

Caste, communalism, and communism: Newars and the Nepalese State

Gellner DN
December 2012
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Chapter
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Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics and Culture of Contemporary Nepal

Ethnicity and Nationalism in the world's Only Hindu State

Gellner DN
December 2012
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Chapter
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Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics and Culture of Contemporary Nepal

Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom, The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal

David NG, Pfaff-Czarnecka J, Whelpton J
December 2012
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Book
4404 Development Studies, 44 Human Society

Beyond Methodological Nationalism

Edited by:
Amelina, A, Nergiz, DD, Faist, T, Glick Schiller, N
December 2012
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Chapter

Category and Practice as Two Aspects of Religion: The Case of Nepalis in Britain

Hausner SL, Gellner D
December 2012
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Journal article
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Journal of the American Academy of Religion

The Uses of Max Weber

Gellner DN
February 2011
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Chapter

Belonging, Indigeneity, Rites, and Rights: The Newar Case

Gellner D
January 2011
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Chapter
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The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas: Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics

Nepal: Trajectories of democracy and restructuring of the state

Hachhethu K, Gellner DN
April 2010
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Chapter
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Routledge Handbook of South Asian Politics: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal

Introduction: Making Civil Society in South Asia

Gellner DN
January 2010
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Chapter
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Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia

Surveying Activists in Nepal

Gellner DN, Karki M
January 2010
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Chapter
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Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia

Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia

Gellner D
January 2010
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Book

Rebuilding Buddhism The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal

LeVine S, Gellner DN
June 2009
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Book
(5) it tended to be fundamentalist in its attitude toward Buddhism, believing — against traditionalists — that nirvana was possible now for all Buddhists, just as in the Buddha&#39;s time; (6) it saw Buddhism as a philosophy (and therefore as&nbsp;...
Religion

Ethnic Activism and Civil Society in South Asia

Gellner D
January 2009
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Book

Introduction: How Civil are ‘Communal’ and Ethno-Nationalist Movements?

Gellner DN
January 2009
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Chapter
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Ethnic Activism and Civil Society in South Asia

Local Democracy in South Asia Microprocesses of Democratization in Nepal and its Neighbours

Gellner D, Hachhethu K
February 2008
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Book
Series. Note. GOVERNANCE,. CONFLICT,. AND. CIVIC. ACTION. SERIES. Volume 1: Local Democracy in South Asia: Microprocesses of Democratization in Nepal and its Neighbours, eds David N. Gellner and Krishna Hachhethu. VOLUMES.
Political Science

Living Goddess

Gellner D
January 2008
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Journal article
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Himalaya

Caste, ethnicity and inequality in Nepal

Gellner DN
May 2007
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Journal article
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Economic and Political Weekly
Nepal faces the danger of an all-out ethnic war breaking out in the Tarai between madhesis and parbatiyas. But, in most of the country there are so many complex and crosscutting ethnic allegiances which make a Sri Lankan-type polarisation unlikely. In the eastern Tarai, however, with its 30 per cent population of parbatiyas, there is a very real possibility that "two majorities with minority complexes" could confront each other in bloody vendettas.

Resistance and the State Nepalese Experiences

Gellner D
April 2007
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Book
This book explores the complex relationship between a modernizing, developmentalist state and the people it professes to represent.
Business & Economics

Nepal and Bhutan in 2006: A year of revolution

Gellner DN
January 2007
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Journal article
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Asian Survey
2006 saw the final collapse of King Gyanendra's attempt to re-establish monarchical rule. The beneficiaries were the Seven-Party Alliance and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). There followed the re-establishment of Parliament, removal of sovereignty from the king, fluctuating negotiations with the Maoists, a cessation of civil war punctuated by considerable lawlessness, and a final peace agreement. © 2007 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Social Dynamics in Northern South Asia: Political and social transformations in north India and Nepal

Ishii H, Nawa K
January 2007
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Book
Krishna HACHHETHU is Reader in Political Science and associated with the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS) ... Hiroshi Ismi is Professor Emeritus at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), &nbsp;...
Ethnic attitudes

The emergence of conversion in a Hindu-Buddhist polytropy: The Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, c. 1600-1995

Gellner DN
October 2005
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Journal article
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Comparative Studies in Society and History
The practice of conversion - changing from one religion to another - is certainly not a modern invention, but it takes on a new and sometimes threatening significance in a modern context characterized by censuses, elections with universal suffrage, and majority rule. In the modern world separate religions have come to be defined, like ethnic groups or nations (Barth 1969), by the boundaries between them. One can only be a refugee if one flees across an international boundary; likewise, conventionally, religious change is only labeled "conversion" if it occurs across a boundary. Thus, as boundaries have become sharper between 'religions,' so the issue of conversion has grown in political significance. © 2005 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History.

Buddhism and hinduism in the Nepal Valley

Gellner D
January 2005
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Chapter
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The World's Religions: The Religions of Asia
Introduction The Kathmandu Valley is a roughly circular bowl about twenty-five kilometres in diameter set high in the Himalayan foothills. The rich black soil of the valley, and its strategic position on ancient trade routes between Tibet and India, meant that it became an outpost of South Asian civilisation from the fourth century c e onwards. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsiian Tsang (Xuan Zang), passing through the plains of India in the early seventh century, heard that the Valley possessed both Hindu temples and Buddhist monas teries close together, and that there were ‘about 2,000 [Buddhist] monks who study both the Great and the Little Vehicle’. Numerous inscriptions in elegant Sanskrit and many beautiful sculptures, still today sited in temple compounds or in wayside shrines, attest to the high level of culture attained in the Licchavi period (fifth to ninth centuries c e).

Communications to the editor

Gellner DN
May 2004
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Journal article
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The Journal of Asian Studies

Hinduism. None, one or many?

GELLNER DN
January 2004
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Journal article
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Social Anthropology
4404 Development Studies, 4401 Anthropology, 44 Human Society

Inside Organizations Anthropologists at Work

Gellner DN, Hirsch E
April 2001
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Book
This book highlights the practical, political and ethical dimensions of research in organizations. Among issues vividly described are the relations between gender and politics in organizational hierarchies.
Social Science

Studying secularism, practising secularism. Anthropological imperatives

GELLNER DN
January 2001
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Journal article
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Social Anthropology
4404 Development Studies, 4401 Anthropology, 44 Human Society

The Anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism Weberian Themes

Gellner DN, Weber M
January 2001
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Book
With reference to Nepal.
Political Science

Religion, politics, and ritual. Remarks on Geertz and Bloch*

GELLNER DN
January 1999
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Journal article
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Social Anthropology
4404 Development Studies, 4401 Anthropology, 44 Human Society

Les tambours de Katmandou.

Gellner DN, Toffin G
December 1997
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
4301 Archaeology, 4401 Anthropology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

For syncretism. The position of Buddhism in Nepal and Japan compared

GELLNER DN
January 1997
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Journal article
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Social Anthropology
4404 Development Studies, 4401 Anthropology, 44 Human Society

Death in Banaras

Gellner DN, Parry JP
March 1996
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
4301 Archaeology, 4401 Anthropology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

Contested Hierarchies A Collaborative Ethnography of Caste Among the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Gellner DN, Quigley D
January 1995
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Book
In this book, six anthropologists pool their knowledge of the three ancient Newar cities of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur, and of other settlements nearby.
Social Science

Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest

Gellner D
January 1992
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Book

Ritualized devotion, altruism, and meditation: The offering of the guru maala in Newar Buddhism

Gellner DN
July 1991
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Journal article
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Indo-Iranian Journal
5004 Religious Studies, 47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4703 Language Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies

Hinduism, Tribalism and the Position of Women: The Problem of Newar Identity

Gellner DN
March 1991
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
4301 Archaeology, 4401 Anthropology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual and Exchange Among Nepal's Tamang.

Gellner DN, Holmberg DH
September 1990
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
4301 Archaeology, 4401 Anthropology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

Language, caste, religion and territory: Newar identity ancient and modern

Gellner DN
May 1986
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Journal article
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European Journal of Sociology
4410 Sociology, 44 Human Society

Review Article: Negara: the Theatre State in Nineteenth- Century Bali1

Gellner DN
November 1983
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Journal article
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South Asia Research

Max Weber, Capitalism and the Religion of India

Gellner D
November 1982
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Journal article
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Sociology
4404 Development Studies, 44 Human Society

The persistence of hierarchy: paradoxes of dominance in Nepal and beyond (M.N. Srinivas Memorial Lecture, 8th Dec 2021)

Gellner D
Journal article
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Sociological Bulletin
MN Srinivas’ concept of ‘the dominant caste’ has rightly been highly influential. The forms that dominance takes have changed a good deal since his day, but inequality and hierarchy have persisted. Modern ideological justifications of dominance are frequently at variance with those of former times, leading to plenty of paradoxes. These paradoxes are illustrated with examples from Nepal, but their application is much wider. Thanks to Nepal’s different political history, the Nepali case can very usefully be contrasted with India and other parts of South Asia to highlight how, and in which contexts, hierarchy as a value persists even when equality is written into numerous constitutional provisions and laws.
FFR