The People's War started by the Maoists in February 1996 has made a profound impact on Nepal. More than 12,000 people have lost their lives, hund¬reds of thousand of people have left their homes and have been displaced from their homes, moving to safer urban areas or to India. Democracy has received a serious setback as the 1990 Constitution which made the people the sovereign and introduced a parliamentary system of government has been made redundant in many respects since the King has taken over power on February 1, 2005. Some people believe that the rapid rise of the Maoists in Nepal was primarily due to lack of good governance, due to corruption, and due to the politicization of police and intelligence networks during the days of the multiparty democracy from 1990 to 2002. The Maoists on the other hand believe that the root of the insurgency lies in the inequality, poverty and deprivation that plagued Nepal since 1778 when its process of unification began. They have divided the country into nine "autonomous regions", seven of them on the basis of ethnicity. Almost a third of Maoist cadres are supposed to be women, and there is a large participation of the Dalits in their movement. There are allegations that they are kidnapping school children as recruits for their army. The government in turn has started to take women conscripts in its army and introduced positive discrimination (affirmative action) in favour of disadvantaged groups. Many widowed Hindu women have started to wear red now as they were supposed to wear white as a sign of widowhood.
Poli¬tical parties are now demanding restoration of the parliament that was elected in 1999 and dissolved under the recommendation of the elected Prime Minister, but no elections are possible unless the insurgents are disarmed. There does not seem to be a light at the end of tunnel at the present time.

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Nach Studien in den Fächern Stadtplanung und Entwicklungsstudien an Universitäten in den USA, in Großbritannien, in den Niederlanden und in Norwegen erwarb Prakash A. Raj einen "Master of Arts" in Politikwissenschaften an der Tribhuwan Universität in Nepal. Er war danach als Konsulent und Forscher für nepalesische Regierungs-einrichtungen und internationale Organisationen (UNO, Weltbank, UNHCR) an zahlreichen Projekten in Nepal, Pakistan und in den USA beteiligt.Seine vielfältige Publikationstätigkeit umfasst mehrere Reiseführer über Nepal und Indien (u.a. für Lonely Planet Publications) sowie über einzelne Regionen Nepals, ferner eine Biografie seines Großvaters, des großen Rājaguru Hem Raj Sharmā, (auf Nepalesisch), Nepali-Englisch- bzw. Englisch-Nepali-Wörterbücher, Romane und Kurz-geschichten, sowie in jüngerer Zeit zwei Werke zur aktuellen politischen Lage in Nepal: "The Royal Massacre in Nepal" (Rupa Publications, 2001) ist das erste englischsprachige Werk über die Ermordung mehrerer Mitglieder der Königsfamilie durch Prinz Dipendra am 1.6.2001, und "Maoists in the Land of Buddha" (Nirala Books, 2004) befasst sich mit dem Phänomen der maoistischen Bewegung.