The Gendered and Colonial Lives of Gurkhas in Private Security: From Military to Market

This book locates its analysis with Gurkhas: a group of militarised men from Nepal with over 200-years of military experience with the British and Indian armies and the Singaporean police, who now participate as security contractors in global markets. These men are celebrated in British popular culture for their heroic martial attributes and their broader military service to the United Kingdom. However, less well known, is the fact that many Gurkhas (located in Nepal) and their families are drawn into these markets under often exploitative relations. Drawing upon over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork with unprecedented access to these security communities throughout Nepal and in Afghanistan, the book’s motivating questions are: how is security made through these market relations and how is this security experienced by Gurkhas and their families?