Kathmandu, Nov. 30 -- When studying history, you tend to overlook external factors influencing major events, and instead mostly focus on the interplay of internal events. I say this with certainty because reading 'Nepal in the Long 1950s' made me reflect on one thing: the skeletal understanding of Nepal that we, as young students, gained from our textbooks.

Edited by historian Pratyoush Onta, historical sociologist Lokranjan Parajuli and anthropologist Mark Leichty, this book is a collection of 10 research papers by scholars from different professions.

The book is divided into two sections. The first, 'Nepal in the World,' has six research papers that situate cultural, social, and political developments within Nepal in the larger region...