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

This book is about the death of the garment industry in Nepal and the Maoist-led labour uprising that followed.

Mallika Shakya (Author)

9781107191266, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 July 2018

176 pages
23.7 x 15.6 x 1.7 cm, 0.38 kg

'While Schumpeter's notion of progress as creative destruction has captured the imagination, few scholars take the lessons of failure seriously, nor do they chronicle uncreative destruction. Not only has Mallika Shakya analysed the fall as well as the rise of what was an important industry, but also has mobilised over a decade of field enquiry to bring Nepal into the mainstream from its place on the exotic margins of development. She has justified convincingly her governing concept of the 'industrial ecosystem' into which she has niched the politics of artisanal and mass production, caste, ethnicity and gender, Maoist revolutionary politics on the shop floor, the Multi Fibre Agreement and US trade and aid policy, and much more. A stimulating and enjoyable read for all scholars of development.' Barbara Harriss White, University of Oxford

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.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Labour economics [KCF], Political control & freedoms [JPV], Anthropology [JHM]