Book excerpt: Nepal is passing through a historic transition from a unitary kingdom to a plural, democratic, multi\-religious, multi\-lingual, multi\-ethnic, multi\- cultural, republican, federal, secular, sovereign and modern nation\- state, embracing the aspirations of the Nepali people. During this historic transformation process, there are many political, social, economic, security and cultural issues that need to be restructured in line with the changed political, security and social context.