Sovereignty, Bare Life and Resistance in B.P.Koirala’s Life and Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis studies Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala's life, political principles and philosophy in the light of Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault's philosophical notions of sovereignty, bare life and power. Koirala’s concept of sovereignty that it must be in the hands of the people rather than in the grip of the ruler or a king stands in contrast to Carl Schmitt’s aristocratic concept of Sovereignty. Koirala has spent most of the times of his political struggle in prison living in a patheticcondition which turns him into Homo Sacer, a figure located both inside and outside the law. B.P. Koirala's struggle for establishing Democracy in Nepalreveals the unavoidable link between power and resistance whereby the resistance evolves out of the power and its exercise itself.