ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some ideas about identity to understand the ethnic revival of Nepal. Every notion of identity seems to be predicated on a presumed and perceived alterity. As such it appears as intrinsically relational, even if only contrastively. Because of this relational framework, identity and alterity are more fruitfully understood not as opposed but entangled. Alternatively, it could be argued, identity is invented through interaction and negotiation in a dialectic process. Identity is not only relational but also deeply involved in the intricacies of power. Ethnic identity is a definition of the self and the other rooted in balance, or unbalance, of power between different actors. Identity is coproduced through interaction between internal and external fields of forces, and through the interplay between these two dimensions. The emergence of ethnicities has been connected to the decline of the nation-state – the nation as a political principle, and a political project, unifying several group into a shared view.
