The gurkha recruitment: remittances and development

Author: 
Ratna Mani Nepal, PhD

Nepali's migration for foreign employment began with the Gurkha in the dawn of the nineteenth century, who were popular for their 'specialness' to be recruited in the British Army Brigade. This fact is often ignored in the studies of remittances and their applications in Nepal. This article analyzes Gurkha's recruitment pattern in different national armies, the remittances they send, and application and development function of the remittances. This article concludes that Gurkha's collective recruitment in the foreign armies involved social and financial forms of remittances. The social remittances significantly contributed social modernization in the isolated villages, while the financial remittances spurred entrepreneurships development thereby contributing to regional development.

Paper No: 
3337