Effect of Hippie Culture in Nepali Modernity: A study of Counterculture

Abstract

This work of dissertation is an attempt to explore the role of hippie culture in social and cultural transformation in Nepal Mandala. The wave of hippie movement arrived in Nepal Mandala exalting ‘Cultural Revolution’ through a total assault on culture; which opted for every tool, every energy and every medium they could get their collective hand on. But the motivation, influences of hippie movement into Nepal Mandala’s culture has not yet been studied properly. So, my study has attempted to study the historical importance of this unique culture displaying the shifts it provoked in the light of counterculture. To trace out the contribution of hippie culture in Nepali modernity this research paper centers on Nepal Mandala’s social and cultural scenario during the late twentieth century. Because the ‘ 50s and ‘70s were the decades of counterculture movement throughout the world as well as a turning point of Nepali modernity due to the direct contact with west through the hippies, the San Francisco Flower Children. As a structural pattern of its discussion on hippie’s role in socio-cultural transformation, this dissertation has used the theoretical supports from culture, popular culture counterculture and modernity. Using the dialectics between culture and counterculture this study shows the social and cultural transformation; shifts on social and cultural values, norms, costumes, behavior and practices of people. All these phenomena measured the map of modernity comparatively in the stable water of Nepal Mandala.