Demoting Vishnu (Paperback)

Paperback. At the turn of the millennium, Nepal was the world's last remaining Hindu kingdom. Even the most skeptical of observers could hardly imagine that the institution of the monarchy could soon be in jeopardy. In 2001, however, Nepal's popular King Birendra was killed in the royal palace. Though the crown passed to his brother Gyanendra, the monarchy would never fully recover. Nepal witnessed an anti-king uprising in April 2006 and over the course of two years, aninterim administration systematically took over all the king's duties and privileges. Most decisively, beginning in the summer of 2007 the government began blocking the king from participating in his manypublic rituals, sending the prime minister in his place instead.Demoting Vishnu argues that Nepal's dramatic political transformation from monarchy to republic was contested-and in key ways accomplished-through ritual performance. Mocko theorizes the role of public ritual in producing Nepal's state ideology. She examines how royal ritual once authorized kings to serve as the privileged apex of national governance and shows how in the twenty-first century thoserituals stopped serving the king and began instead to authorize rule by a party-based "head of state." By co-opting state ritual, the king's opponents were able to attack the monarchy's social identity at itsfoundations, enabling the final legal dissolution of kingship in 2008 to take place without physically harming the king himself. All once-royal rituals continue to be performed, but now they are handled by the country's president-a position created in 2008 to take over state ceremonial functions. Demoting Vishnu illustrates how upheaval in ritual contexts undermined the institutional logic of the monarchy by demonstrating in very public ways that kingship was contingent, opposable, andultimately dispensable. Demoting Vishnu examines how the same public ritual that once placed kings at the privileged apex of Nepal's government now in the 21st-century have stopped serving the king, turning instead to authorize party-based politicians. The book shows how ritual upheaval undermined the institutional logic of monarchy, demonstrating that kingship was contingent and dispensable. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…