I had a lengthy meeting with this gentleman yesterday. He seems dynamic, charming and, most of all, very knowledgeable about Nepali politics/history -- I have no doubt that he knows much more about Nepal than many of us do! Speaks Nepal like a Nepali, and speaks Hindi and Bengali too. For those who can make it to the following program, I am sure the trip and a modest admission fee of $7 ($5 for students) will be well worth it. Here's a brief introduction of the gentleman: Rhoderick Chalmers joined Crisis Group in February 2004 as a Senior Analyst in the Kathmandu field office. He has spent several years living and working in the region and holds a PhD in South Asian languages and cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His first degree was in Oriental Studies from the University of Cambridge and his early research was on language and society in Bangladesh. More recently he has spent time as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies in Kathmandu and has published several articles on modern Nepali history in English and Nepali journals and magazines. Friday, June 3rd. Rubin Museum, 150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues) NEPAL'S IDENTITY CRISIS: The Cultural and Historical Forces Behind the Maoist Insurgency; Free with Museum Admission; Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm A discussion on the conflicting visions of cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic identities that make up Nepal by Rhoderick Chalmers. Free with Museum admission ($7/ $5 for students, artists, seniors and neighbors in zips 10001, 10011) - first come, first served Nepal has long been known as a Himalayan "hermit kingdom"--closed to the world until the 1950s, preserving strands of Hindu and Buddhist culture unsullied by colonialism, and sustaining picturesque ethnic communities. The Maoist insurgency that has swept through Nepal in the last ten years has called into question how these "simple," traditional villagers in these remote hills have been caught up in a violent movement that apparently draws its inspiration from a bygone age? At its heart, the current conflict can be seen as an eruption of painful questions of identity and modernity that successive rulers had sought to suppress. This talk looks back to the formative stages of Nepal's cultural and political history and suggests that, beyond its headline ideology, the Maoist insurgency can be understood in the context of the long-standing conflict over cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic identity. Resolving these issues of identity will be just as important as shaping political institutions if Nepal is ever to become a true nation-state in which all citizens share a similar idea of what it is to be Nepali. Dr Rhoderick Chalmers, is the International Crisis Group's Deputy South Asia Project Director, and is shortly to have his 'We Nepalis'. Language, literature, and the formation of a Nepali public sphere in India, 1914- published by Oxford University Press. He currently holds a visiting fellowship at Kathmandu's Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies and is an editor of Contributions to Nepalese Studies. This program is presented in association with the International Crisis Group.