Maximillian Morch


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Himal Southasian •

Poverty and failed land reform in Nepal’s Tarai-Madhesh

Fraser Sugden’s ‘Land, Labour and Agrarian Change in Nepal’s Tarai-Madhesh’ explains why decades of political upheaval have failed to break the hold of landlordism and poverty in Nepal’s southern plains JUST ACROSS THE BORDER from Nepal’s eastern Tarai lies Naxalbari, a small town in the north of West Bengal that gave us the name “Naxal,” now shorthand across India for armed peasant insurgents. In March 1967, sharecroppers there rose up against jotedars, large landholders who dominated a plains...
Himal Southasian •

Remembering U Thant and the lost promise of the United Nations

Thant Myint-U’s new book on his grandfather, the first non-white secretary-general of the UN, revisits an era when the institution inspired expectations of internationalist diplomatic leadership that have since faded away RARELY HAS THE GAP between global crises and credible solutions felt so wide. In an international system increasingly shaped by raw power and a weakening commitment to multilateralism, it is becoming more difficult to imagine the United Nations as an effective and decisive dip...
Himal Southasian •

Podcast: Maximillian Morch on the disquiet behind Bhutan’s Geluphu Mindfulness City: State of Southasia #29

In this episode of State of Southasia, writer and researcher Maximilian Morch who studies Asia’s borderlands speaks to associate editor Nayantara Narayanan about the implications of the project. Morch says that the announcement project has been “incredibly painful” for displaced Lhotshampa communities, many of whom still hold land documents for plots now earmarked for development. “There are refugees alive today in Nepal who own the land that the GMC is being built on,” he says. “They have not b...
Himal Southasian •

Bland lessons and careful lies from Bhutan’s prime minister

Tobgay has served as the prime minister of Bhutan since January 2024, returning to the role after a previous term from 2013 to 2018. He is the co-founder and leader of the People’s Democratic Party, Bhutan’s first-ever officially registered political party. His book was written “for leaders from all backgrounds and at all levels who want to change for the better and are looking for a compassionate philosophy to bring the right people together in consensus rather than conflict.” Tobgay believes t...
The Kathmandu Post •

Literature can bridge the gap between communities

Maximillian Mørch is an author and researcher specialising in Asian borderlands, who recently published his new book ‘Plains of Disconten: A Political History of Nepal’s Tarai 1743-2019’ with FinePrint. Mørch also authored ‘By the Way of the Border’ in 2019 and frequently contributes to the Asian Review of Books. His research and publications focus on a wide range of issues, including political dissent and judicial reform in Myanmar, the legal status of Tibetan refugees, migrant workers in Thai...
Asian Review of Books •

Podcast with Maximillian Mørch, author of “Plains of Discontent: A Political History of Nepal’s Tarai (1743-2019)”

When we think of Nepal, we think of its high Himalayan mountains, or maybe the highlands of Kathmandu. But somewhere between a quarter and a third of the country is nothing like that: marshy, forested, malaria-infested swampland, along the southern border with India.  This is the Tarai, the most productive region of Nepal—and also the focal point for the once-Kingdom of Nepal’s conquest. Maximillian Mørch writes about the region’s history in his latest book Plains of Discontent: A Political Hist...
Fair Observer •

Can India and Nepal Find a Path to Peaceful Coexistence?

When Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla arrived in Kathmandu in late November, he did something that would have seemed impossible just a few months earlier. After landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, instead of continuing to inflame rhetoric over the bitter territorial dispute that had engulfed the two neighbors, he spoke in Nepali about cooperation and connectivity between the two nations. His visit, and the manner of his address, was in sharp contrast to the acidic barbs th
The Kathmandu Post •

Closing the border isn’t an option

Due to hostile environments in India and Bangladesh, Rohingyas fleeing genocide in Myanmar may look to Nepal for refugee, and in order to protect Nepal’s sovereignty and national security, they should be barred from entry into Nepal, argued Prasanna Mahat in her article entitled The Rohingya in Nepal published on January 1 in this newspaper. While the situation is undoubtedly complex, the idea that Nepal should deny entry to new arrivals is a problematic argument for several reasons. First of
The Diplomat •

Citizenship, Identity and Nepal’s Contested 2015 Constitution

Four years ago, celebrations erupted across the Nepali capital after President Ram Baran Yadav stood in front of the Constituent Assembly and promulgated a new constitution. The constitution formally declared Nepal a federal democratic republic and was the product of the second Constituent Assembly which had been in session since 2013. The final proceedings of the constitution were fast tracked in an ephemeral moment of political unity as the country still reeled from the devastating April earth
The Record •

Api Nampa Conservation Area has been a colossal failure

Nepal suffers from an extraordinarily wide variety of environmental threats. One method of alleviating such threats has been the establishment of Conservation Areas. Yet despite this well-intentioned and relatively successful environmental policy, Api Nampa Conservation Area in Darchula district has not been successful at all. The Api Nampa Conservation Area (ANCA) is Nepal’s latest Conservation Area (CA) and was established in 2010 in an attempt to conserve the ecosystem of far western Nepal.
The Record •

Nepali Diaspora in Thailand struggles to get citizenship

Most of the Nepalis in Thailand are recent arrivals, coming to work, to study or simply to visit the beach. Yet there are some who have much longer ties to the region. These people of Nepali origin migrated to Burma long ago, but were then pushed out of Burma and have landed in Thailand. The Thai-Nepali Association states there are 80,000 Thais of Nepali descent living in Thailand and some have claimed that over 90 per cent of all Nepalese living in Thailand are refugees from Burma. Today they a
The Diplomat •

Land Seizures, Protests, and Arrests in Myanmar

Land confiscation is rife in Myanmar. Confiscation of land for plantations, Special Economic Zones, development projects or for use by the military or other armed groups has affected Myanmar for decades. Today, following the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and the easing of sanctions on the country, bringing an increase in foreign capital for development projects, the pace of land confiscation shows no signs of slowing down. The scale of the seizures is not accurately known but in 2016 the F
Huffington Post •

The British Empire Is Not Dead – It Lives On In Colonial-Era Legislation

The British Empire started to fall apart after the Second World War. Over the new few years, at the culmination of long, hard-fought independence struggles, countries all over the world gained independence and were free, more or less, to pursue their own goals and self-rule. However, an unhelpful inheritance of colonial legislation designed to repress, control, and curtail freedom of expression was bestowed upon these nations.
The Kathmandu Post •

Easy money

Prime Minister KP Oli’s five-day visit to Beijing in June 2018 resulted in fruitful developments such as the signing of a memorandum of understanding on several items, most notably a Lhasa-Kathmandu railway. India did not see this trip, which will bring significant developmental benefits to Nepal and geopolitical benefits to China, from a positive point of view. For some in New Delhi, such agreements threaten well-established mutual cooperation between India and Nepal. They do not see this devel
Global Is Asian •

Why is Nepal not respected as a sovereign state

The dynamics between Nepal and regional superpowers, China and India point to a much bigger issue that questions the sovereignty of small states. How China and India engages with Nepal, and how Nepal responds provides great insight into the dynamic relationship between two emerging powers. Researchers should always be on the lookout for ways that could shed light on the nature of relations between these big powers.
The Diplomat •

The Slow Burning Insurgency in Thailand’s Deep South

Thailand’s deep south is far different from the islands that put Thailand on the tourist map. Here, the muezzin is heard more frequently than music from bars. The insurgency which has been ongoing in earnest since 2004 has played out mostly in the three southernmost districts of the country — Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat — and occasionally the southern provinces of Songkhla. The insurgency’s roots in the deep south date back to Thailand’s annexation and conquest of the Malay Sultanate of Patani
East Asia Forum •

The quandary of repatriating refugees along the Thailand–Myanmar border

Ever since political and ethnic conflict erupted in Myanmar in 1948, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forcibly displaced and left to flee to and settle along the border with Thailand. These refugees are predominantly from Myanmar’s ethnic minorities and as conflict between ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) continues, many are stuck between the two countries in limbo.
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