The peace process and stalled constitution writing exercise, in particular the debate about federalism, have expanded Nepal's political matrix. Identity politics is a mainstream phenomenon and new ethnic-based and regional political forces are coalescing. Actors who want a federal structure that acknowledges Nepal's many identities have allied, overcoming other political differences. The Maoist party has split. Once centrist forces have moved to the right. All parties are grappling with factional and ideological divisions. Old monarchical forces are more visible. How these political shifts will settle depends on the parties' decisions on resuming constitution writing and future electoral calculations. The Constituent Assembly has been dissolved after failing to deliver the new constitution on the 27 May deadline. The constitution was to establish federalism and address the demands of marginalised groups. Social polarisation over these issues compounds constitutional uncertainty and the legislative vacuum. The tensions around federalism and fluid political equations threaten to provoke volatile confrontations. The shift towards potentially polarising ethnic politics is encouraged because mainstream political actors are scattered, often vague and sometimes dishonest, distracted by mutual sniping and prone to making undemocratic and unsympathetic deals. These mainstream politicians need to set their own houses in order, listen to others, know what they stand for and get on with the constitution. Otherwise they risk ceding political space to extremists of every hue who might appear more pragmatic and sympathetic to a frustrated polity.

Document from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, South Asian University (Department of International Relations), course: Conflict Transformation and Peace Building, language: English, abstract: Nepal, with the adoption and enforcement of a new constitution in 2015, entered into a new phase of development. The constitution adopted in September 2015 is the seventh constitution in Nepal. The constitution-making process has been a complex in Nepal. Nepal had to undergo several political turbulences and transformation before adopting this new constitution. The field report and the research paper aims to look into Nepal’s constitution-making process historically and understand and explain this process. In the process, it also will look at the concerns of Madhesis with regard to the constitution-making process and their representation in it. This research paper is broadly divided into two parts, the first part looks into the literature and provides the review of the literature that has looked into the aforementioned topic. The second part is the field report, wherein, through interviews, the first-hand accounts of people are collected and analyzed.

This book examines constitutional law and practice in five South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.