The Politics of Ethnic Renewal in Darjeeling

Nilamber Chhetri is an assistant professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India. Before joining IIT Mandi, he taught at Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai. His broad areas of interest are politics of social and cultural identities in South Asia, scheduling of tribes and practices of state classification in India, ethnic groups and demands for recognition, and borderland politics and infrastructural issues in the Himalayan highlands. He regularly contributes research papers and book reviews to leading journals and has also served as referee to journals such as The Indian Anthropologists, Asian Ethnicity, Third World Quarterly, and Journal of South Asian Development.

List of Tables

List of Figures

Map of the study area

A Note on Transliteration

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Setting the Stage

1 Discreet Groups and Collective Identity: Consolidation of the Nepali/Gorkha Community

2 The Formation of Ethnic Associations and Changing Ethnopolitics in Darjeeling

3 Moving Forward to Become Backward: Claims for Recognition as Scheduled Tribes

4 Remembering the Past, Restructuring the Future: Demands for Recognition and Politics of Difference

5 Ritualizing Ethnicity, Ethnicizing Rituals: Engaging the State and Performative Claims

6 From Construction to Constitution: Negotiating Multiple and Overlapping Identities

Conclusion

Index