As Nepalis clamour for a restructuring of the state through the upcoming Constituent Assembly process (with elections in November), Nepal is going through a wrenching period, wherein its citizens are actively seeking definitions of who they are. In the making of this ‘new Nepal’ – spurred by the People’s Movement of April 2006, and amidst the current violence and absence of governance – the people of the plains, hills and mountains are demanding to be counted. In so doing, they are laying stake to the identity, resources and powers of the state – and redefining what it is to be ‘Nepali’.

Our cover photograph, taken by Kathmandu photojournalist Min Ratna Bajracharya, shows the charred remains of citizenship registers. These had been set aflame by activists in the Tarai plains during the Madhesi movement of January-February 2007; they were protesting the state’s longstanding stricture that all males wear the hillman’s topi in photographs for their citizenship papers and ID cards. The topi is a signifier of pan-hill identity, which excludes communities of the plains and high-mountains alike.