SINHAS Vol 28 No 2 Sanjay Sharma

Migration Histories of Nepali Women Professionals and the Military Diktats of Domesticity

Abstract
This article explores the historical migration of Nepali nurses in the British Army, emphasizing the transnational mobility of Nepali/Gurkha women as professionals and skilled migrants long before neo-liberalization-led migration emerged in Nepal. Informed by colonial migration historiography, the article contends that the professional Nepali/Gurkha women’s migration was tied to the colonial project and civilizing mission, where they provided services to the uneducated wives of Gurkha soldiers. The article highlights the dilemma between the career and family of migrant military nurses and discusses at length those who chose a career over family, challenging social norms and the military diktats of domesticity. It also explores those who chose family over military life, those who resisted social norms after being widowed and joined the British Army as a nurse, and others who sought refuge from abusive marriages. The focus is largely on the period between the 1950s and the 1980s, using data from the Brigade of Gurkha’s journals—The Kukri and Parbate—and oral history and life history interviews with retired nurses and their family members.

Keywords: Nepali women, Gurkha women, nurses, military, transnational migration