Yūba : making modern youth, making new Nepal.

Abstract

In this thesis I ask what constitutes a Nepali youth, and question what role they play in contemporary Nepal. Based on fieldwork conducted in Nepal from March 2008 to March 2009 and July to September 2010, my research contributes to an emerging body of work that problematises the youth construct in Nepal. Bucholtz (2002) has highlighted the increasingly salient roles that young people are playing in their societies and has called for an anthropology of youth as a pressing task. Faced with social, cultural, political and economic change, young Nepalis are playing more important social roles than ever before. I argue that one of these fundamental roles is nation building, the ideal product of which is popularly termed ‘new Nepal’. I look at youth and their role as nation builders through a communication for development initiative that centres on two radio programs produced in Kathmandu. The content of these radio programs is re-packaged into local radio programs that are produced in regional radio stations, and community-level activities that are conducted by radio listeners clubs. I use Bolter and Grusin’s (1999) concept of remediation to conceptualise this process and the changes to the youth archetype represented in the original radio programs. Following Novak’s (2010) application of this concept, I argue that the process of remediation is a means for those involved to construct and practice a youth subjectivity. The youth I describe in this thesis are defined by an awareness of development that is displayed in activities that are oriented toward building a new Nepal. I conclude that the young people who play a role in making a new Nepal actively situate themselves within landscapes of power created by development through their engagement in the process of remediation. Development is a powerful element in the Nepali imagination that has tangible benefits for those who can demonstrate command over its rhetoric and align themselves with its visions and young people demonstrate this in their nation building activities. I argue that young people creatively engage in the process of remediation described in this thesis to position themselves within terrains of power created by development to ultimately define their own destinies and articulate their visions for a locally modern Nepal.