Inherited futures: education as a gift among Gurkha women in post-1990 Nepal

This paper argues that in post-1990 Nepal, women’s education was treated as a gift rather than a right. Women from British Gurkha soldier families from Nepal (the Gurkha women), despite being denied education themselves, prioritised their daughters’ schooling. While earlier generations saw marriage and dowry as security, changing socio-economic conditions, development aid, and remittance income enabled these women to prioritise education. Although structural forces such as mandatory Gurkha schools and gender-equality policies expanded access, this paper argues that it was women’s agency that secured their daughters’ education. By redefining education as a gift—despite not inheriting education but ensuring their daughters’ futures—these women challenged patriarchal constraints, manoeuvred neoliberal market systems, and reshaped intergenerational aspirations. However, marriage continues to remain a dominant expectation, with education now enhancing a daughter’s value in the marriage market rather than entirely liberating her from gendered pressures.