BEPPU, Oita Prefecture — Be it the Nepali Congress Rebellion in 1950-51 and 1961-62 or the movement for democracy in the 1990s, such events have had profound impacts on the political and socio-economic condition of the country.

Thanks to these struggles, political awareness has greatly risen among civilians. In the early '90s when disparity in the name of class, caste and region was rampant in every ward and village of the nation, one of the communist factions of the country — commonly known as the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (CPN-M) — found the perfect opportunity to challenge the ruling system. It started a political struggle to express people's dissatisfaction with the government. Since then, their "peoples' war" has become the longest and most devastating battle in the modern political history of Nepal.

"The nine-year-old Maoist insurgency and counterinsurgency operations by the state in Nepal have weakened the authority of the state and eroded the space for democratic politics," writes Dev Raj Dahal in his working paper.