‘Adequate stateness’ and  the ‘sovereignty’ of Nepal has been of much concern for Nepali state elites throughout history. The proverbial ‘Nepal is a yam between two boulders’ reflects these concerns as does the continuing stress on Nepal’s non-colonialised, bir (brave) history. The easy discourse of masculinised independence has always been threatened by the country’s geo-olitical situation, reliance on foreign aid for survival, and the periodic labelling of ‘Nepal in crisis’. The latter had recently become ighlighted again within the context of the Maoist war, international concerns of Nepal’s potential to be a ‘failed state’, and Nepal’s current portrayal as a ‘fragile state’.