The life of a bureaucrat-scholar: an interview-essay with Upendra Man Malla (1932–2019)
Mid-20th-century Nepal saw sweeping sociopolitical changes associated with the decline of the Rana dynasty and the ascendancy of the Shah rulers and the Panchayat government. The relatively few Nepalis educated abroad during this period were recruited into government service to execute the emerging...
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| Опубликовано в: : | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebhr, |
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| Главные авторы: | , |
| Формат: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Язык: | Anglais |
| Опубликовано: |
European Bulletin of Himalayan Research
2025
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| Предметы: | |
| Online-ссылка: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Итог: | Mid-20th-century Nepal saw sweeping sociopolitical changes associated with the decline of the Rana dynasty and the ascendancy of the Shah rulers and the Panchayat government. The relatively few Nepalis educated abroad during this period were recruited into government service to execute the emerging modernist visions for national development. With one foot in academia and the other in government service, the ‘bureaucrat-scholar’ became an important figure in realising ambitious technocratic projects such as land reform, district reorganisation and national planning. In this interview-essay, the human geographer Upendra Man Malla (1932–2019) offers a first-person perspective of a period of profound political and personal transformation. Malla recounts his journey to becoming a geographer (part one) and his experiences of applying his knowledge of Nepal’s people and places to governance from the 1950s to the end of the Panchayat (part two). He also provides insight into the early years of anthropology and fieldwork in Nepal through a detailed account of the three months he worked as Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf’s assistant during his preliminary research among the Sherpas in 1953. His life story is contextualised and comments are provided on the historical processes and persons that shaped the trajectories of Malla’s and Nepal’s interwoven transformations, converging memory, narrative and history. |
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