Death of an Industry The Cultural Politics of Garment Manufacturing during the Maoist Revolution in Nepal

This book addresses the instabilities that growing industries face in developing countries, especially Nepal. Also, what happens when industries die out? It questions the rickety ride to industrialization and development - if at all it is avoidable? The author delves deep into its impact on human lives - what happens to those hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihoods are dependent on these industries? How do they inculcate new skillsets to suit changing requirements? What future awaits those who leave the country in search of a better tomorrow? The author challenges the existing perspective that the Maoist movement was essentially a rural, guerrilla warfare. She explains how the Maoist-led labour uprising in Nepal following the death of the garment industry was embedded in a broader political upheaval that was essentially urban in nature and was more about national politics than everyday politics in the margins.

Figures and tables; Abbreviations; Key names; Acknowledgements; 1. Situating the idea: industry, society and development; 2. Nepal and garments; 3. A garment industry ecosystem; 4. The normality of garment making; 5. The MFA expiry: a garment tsunami; 6. Workers and unions: ethnicity and class; 7. Reconstituting the garment afterlife; Bibliography; Index.

Mallika Shakya teaches at the Department of Sociology at South Asian University, Delhi. She is an economic anthropologist working on socio-economic embeddedness, labour movements and trader communities. She has examined the rise and fall of the readymade garment industry in Nepal since 2001. Her current research examines the nature of overlap between business and social organisation among the Nepali Marwaris who once dominated the garment industry and have now readjusted elsewhere within and outside South Asia. Her recent research and teaching focus on the concepts of regionalism, diaspora and border towns.