IIT Mandi faculty releases book on ‘Politics of ethnic renewal in Darjeeling’

The book interrogates the varied forms of ethnic practices and explores complex discourse of ethnic mobilisation in hills, thereby, linking it to wider politics of classification and categorisation in contemporary India.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi faculty Nilamber Chhetri, assistant professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, has released a book titled ‘Politics of ethnic renewal in Darjeeling’. The book talks about the ethno-politics of Darjeeling unfolding in recent years. 

The book discusses the upsurge of demands for recognition as a scheduled tribe which marks a watershed in the long quest to assert belongingness, rights, and autonomy in the nation-state. Empirical in approach, the book interrogates the varied forms of ethnic practices and explores complex discourse of ethnic mobilisation in hills, thereby, linking it to wider politics of classification and categorisation in contemporary India. 

From demands based on formation of a separate state, to current struggles for recognition as scheduled tribes, the book offers an in-depth understanding of the charred ethno-politics of Darjeeling. 

Speaking about the book, Nilamber Chhetri, IIT Mandi, said, “The book is timely as it considers the discursive strategies adopted by ethnic associations to frame their identities as primitive and indigenous groups inhabiting the hills. While doing so the book captures the practices through which ethnic groups re-cast their identities and retrace their genealogy in the ritual context.” 

The book illustrates the nature of such demands and the ways in which people in daily life negotiate with the collective and exclusive identity claims. The book demonstrates that the ethno-politics unfolding in Darjeeling have a wide-scale application to understand similar recognition struggles unfolding in South Asia. It argues that the recent mobilisations for ST status are determined by the wider politics of classification and categorisation in contemporary India and calls for a reassessment of the yardsticks for recognition. 

The book is designed for academics, students, and research scholars working on issues of state classification and politics of categorisation. The book in particular will be of specific interest to scholars adopting a multi-disciplinary approach to understand the South Asian reality. 

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