Buddhist Identity Politics in Nepal since the 1990s

Buddhist identity politics in Nepal came after the establishment of multi-party democracy in 1990. Buddhists see themselves as those groups that do not fall under the traditional four-fold classification of Hindu Verna system. Buddhists are asserting their identity as part of the Janajati movement. The movement spread as a response to the country’s Hinduisation process and attempt to build Nepali Nationalism initiated by Prithvinarayan Shah and to the complex set of discrimination and inequalities by the Hindu high caste. Buddhists under the umbrella of Janajati movement assert their identity and resist against wide ranges of issues such as, their exclusion from the mainstream politics. Their demand for a Secular state has wide resonance among all the ethnic minorities in Nepal