Tara Rai’s Chhapamar Yuwatiko Diary
Narrative & socio-political context of her war trauma in Nepal
This paper examines Tara Rai’s Chhapamar Yuwatiko Diary [‘A Diary of a Young Guerrilla Girl’]
(2010) – a memoir which describes a 15-year-old girl’s experience of first armed
encounter, subsequent detainment, and release from the custody towards the end of the Maoist war in Nepal. We analyze the author’s
narrative of adversity and distress, using thematic analysis. Three themes, namely, (1) perception of impending death, (2) severe
stress reactions, and (3) gradual recovery are found in temporal succession. In a subsequent analysis, we examine using content
analysis the personal, group, and socio-political factors linked to these dominant themes to understand the dynamics associated
with Rai’s understanding of personal experience, and adjustment to violence. Discussion of the findings orient the readers of this
narrative not only to how Rai’s perception of her trauma experience changes but also to how this account can inform the way people
negotiate the trauma of war.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Methods
- Method one: Thematic analysis
- Method two: Content analysis
- Findings
- Thematic analysis
- Perception of impending death
- Severe stress reactions
- Gradual recovery
- Content analysis
- Personal contexts
- Group contexts
- Socio-political contexts
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Note
-
References
References
Acharya, K.
(
2011)
Trauma of Maoist insurgency in literature: Reading Palpasa Café, Forget Kathmandu and Chhapamar ko Chhoro.
Bodhi: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 5(1), 80–110.
Acharya, K.
(
2017)
Literary configurations of personal experience: Violence experience, symptomatic aftermath, and social identity in the Maoist partisans’ narrative. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal.
Acharya, K., & Muldoon, O. T.
(
2017)
Why “I” became a combatant: A study of memoirs written by Nepali Maoist combatants.
Terrorism and Political Violence, 29(6), 1006–1025.
American Psychiatric Association
(
1994)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Asnaani, A., Richey, J. A., Dimaite, R., Hinton, D. E., & Hofmann, S. G.
(
2010)
A cross-ethnic comparison of lifetime prevalence rates of anxiety disorders.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1981, 551–555.
Bhattarai, R.
(
2010,
August 20).
The diary of a generation.
Republica Daily. Retrieved from
[URL]
Braun, V., & Clarke, V.
(
2006)
Using thematic analysis in psychology.
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Deccan Herald
(
2010,
September 17).
Bold tales by brave women.
Deccan Herald. Retrieved from
[URL]
Giri, G.
(
2010)
Chapamar sangako tyo sanjh.
Chapamar Yuwatiko Diary. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar.
Hart, J.
(
2001)
Conflict in Nepal and its impact on children (
Discussion document prepared for UNICEF Regional Office South Asia). Refugee Studies Centre: Oxford University.
Herman, J. L.
(
1992)
Trauma and Recovery, New York: Basic.
Hinton, D. E., & Lewis-Fernández, R.
(
2011)
The cross-cultural validity of posttraumatic stress disorder: implications for DSM-5.
Depression and Anxiety, 28(9), 783–801.
Hobfoll, S. E.
(
2001)
The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory.
Applied Psychology, 50(3), 337–421.
Holdeman, T. C.
(
2009)
Invisible wounds of war: Psychological and cognitive injuries, their consequences, and services to assist recovery.
Psychiatric Services, 60(2), 273–273.
Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E.
(
2005)
Three approaches to qualitative content analysis.
Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288.
Hutt, M.
(
2012)
Reading Nepali Maoist memoirs.
Studies in Nepali History and Society, 17(1), 107–142.
Kshetri, R.
(
2010)
Antarsangharshako euta pharak dastabej.
Janadesh, 19(16), 4.
Joshi, M., & Pyakurel, S. R.
(
2015)
Individual-level data on the victims of Nepal’s Civil War, 1996–2006: A New Data Set.
International Interactions, 411, 601–619.
Kirmayer, L. J., & Sartorius, N.
(
2007)
Cultural models and somatic syndromes.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 69(9), 832–840.
Krippendorff, K.
(
2004)
Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Kohrt, B. A., & Hruschka, D. J.
(
2010)
Nepali concepts of psychological trauma: the role of idioms of distress, ethnopsychology and ethnophysiology in alleviating suffering and preventing stigma.
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 34(2), 322–352.
LaCapra, D.
(
2001)
Writing History, Writing Trauma, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Macours, K.
(
2010)
Increasing inequality and civil conflict in Nepal.
Oxford Economic Papers, 63(1), 1–26.
Muldoon, O. T.
(
2013)
Understanding the impact of political violence in childhood: A theoretical review using a social identity approach.
Clinical Psychology Review, 33(8), 929–939.
Muldoon, O. T., Acharya, K., Jay, S., Adhikari, K., Pettigrew, J., & Lowe, R. D.
(
2017)
Community identity and collective efficacy: A social cure for traumatic stress in post-earthquake Nepal.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 47(7), 904–915.
Muldoon, O. T., & Lowe, R. D.
(
2012)
Social identity, groups, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Political Psychology, 33(2), 259–273.
Muldoon, O. T., Schmid, K., & Downes, C.
(
2009)
Political violence and psychological well-being: The role of social identity.
Applied Psychology, 58(1), 129–145.
Nepali Times
(
2010,
December 31).
Review: Books.
Nepali Times, 5341, F.
Paudel, G.
(
2010)
Samsmaran Sahitya ra Sahidkaa Sundar Srijanaa. In
G. Dhakal et al. (Eds.),
Marksbadi Sahitya ra Janayuddhako Saundarya (pp. 666–675). Kathmandu: Akhil Nepal Lekhak Sangha.
Pole, N., Gone, J. P., & Kulkarni, M.
(
2008)
Posttraumatic stress disorder among ethnoracial minorities in the United States.
Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 151, 35–61.
Rai, T.
(
2010)
Chhapamar Yuwatiko Diary. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar.
Rai, T.
(
2017)
Guerrilla girl: The true story of a schoolgirl caught up in the Nepalese civil war (
J. Sharma, Trans). UK: Canterbury. (Original work published in 2010).
Schmid, K., & Muldoon, O. T.
(
2015)
Perceived threat, social identification, and psychological well-being: The effects of political conflict exposure.
Political Psychology, 36(1), 75–92.
Tiwari, B. N.
(
2010)
Horizontal inequalities and violent conflict in Nepal.
Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, 28(1), 33–48.
Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T.
(
2013)
Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study.
Nursing & Health Sciences, 15(3), 398–405.
Walsh, F.
(
2007)
Traumatic loss and major disasters: Strengthening family and community resilience.
Family Process, 46(2), 207–227.
Young, G., & Johnson, R.
(
2010)
Posttraumatic stress disorder in the DSM-5: Group difference commentary.
Psychological Injury and Law, 3(4), 314–319.
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Muldoon, Orla T., Robert D. Lowe, Jolanda Jetten, Tegan Cruwys & S. Alexander Haslam
2021.
Personal and Political: Post‐Traumatic Stress Through the Lens of Social Identity, Power, and Politics.
Political Psychology 42:3
► pp. 501 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.