As she remembers the battle, Ranju becomes so vehement that another rebel steps in to calm her. "We don't kill people if they throw down their arms," he says. "There are many instances of us giving garlands to soldiers and police who surrender." But Ranju's eyes still glare fiercely. Born in eastern Nepal, she'd joined the Maoists at 15 after being harassed by government security forces. Her father had been an active Communist, and she was suspected of contact with the rebels. "People used to point fingers at girls like me," she says, referring to her independent attitude. "Most Nepali women are oppressed. Many end up as prostitutes in Bombay [Mumbai], or are beaten. It has to be changed." The other women soldiers standing near Ranju nod in agreement. She's a natural leader, and I sense that in other circumstances she might have made an excellent teacher—or police officer.

What's happened to Nepal, that young people like Ranju are killing each other with such fervor? And what future does the nation have, now that its ruler, King Gyanendra, has retaken absolute control, ending 12 years of government by political parties? This past February, supported by the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA), the king declared a state of emergency, briefly closing the international airport in Kathmandu, cutting off telephones and e-mail, and placing politicians under house arrest—all in the name of fighting the Maoists. In response, the rebels called a nationwide strike and continued their campaign of violence. The Himalayan kingdom seems poised on the brink.

The Maoist insurgency was born in the poverty of rural Nepal, with the first attacks against government posts taking place in 1996. The Maoists, an extremist faction among various communist groups, were led by a former agricultural student and teacher named Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who assumed the nom de guerre Prachanda. Now in his early 50s, he's rarely seen in public and almost never photographed.

When Nepal's democratic government ordered crackdowns on Prachanda's band of militants, the police were indiscriminately vicious. Suspects were tortured, villagers driven from their homes, and women raped. As the rebellion spread, the government's campaign widened. Security forces fired on a primary school in Jajarkot district during an evening dance performance. Killings mounted, and support for the Maoists grew. The rebels recruited a spectrum of disenfranchised Nepalis—women, ethnic minorities, Dalits (or Untouchables), the unemployed, and underemployed youths—offering them hope where there had been none.

Prachanda and his top rebel leaders are hard-core ideologues. They studied the works of Mao Zedong and—despite being disavowed by the Chinese government as not true Maoists—created a new Nepali version of Maoism, the Prachanda Path, a mélange of Mao's military strategy, Marxism, and Nepali patriotism. Prachanda himself commands both the People's Army and the rigidly hierarchical Maoist political wing. At the apex is a standing committee, supported by a politburo, central committee, regional bureaus, district committees, area committees, and cell committees.