Media and minority ethnic political identity in Nepal

This chapter examines instances of varying successes and failures of Tamang communicative practices to show how they have utilized media to construct ethnic identity in the contested cultural spaces of contemporary Nepal. It argues that analyses of minority media in South Asia must avoid 'homozenizing and systematizing the experiences of different groups of women in these countries, erases all marginal and resistant modes and experiences'. The chapter uses the example of a Tamang language radio production in Makwanpur district to demonstrate how ethnic exclusion from media occurs in practice. However, the examination of media consumption practices, particularly radio listener groups, indicates that other forces are influencing the formation of identity. First, janajati identities, especially those of janajati youth, are being constructed in the midst of rapid movement towards a market-based, capitalist economy. The construction of janajati identity is, therefore, occurring in the midst of the arrival of new resources for identities based on commodity consumption.