Journals
Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas
Vol IX, No.2 | December 2018
Contents
Salesian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas
ISSN: 0976-1861
Section: Contents
CONTENTS
DARJEELING AND EASTERN HIMALAYAS
| ISSN 0976-1861 | December 2018 | Vol. IX, No 2 |
CONTENTS
| Guest Editorial Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas Bidhan Golay | V |
| Indigenous Oral History Tradition in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas Shradhanjali Tamang | 1 |
| Museums and Metonyms: The Making of Tibet Parjanya Sen | 7 |
| Sampurna Rai: A Case Study Bedika Rai | 19 |
| Creating New Borderlines: Women and Marginality in Mamang Dai's Novel Stupid Cupid Resha Barman | 25 |
| The Margin Writes Back: Locating Desai's Loss of Inheritance in The Inheritance of Loss Smriti Singh | 37 |
| Tribal Livelihoods in Transition and Social Development: The Konyak Tribe of Nagaland Imnuksungla Pongen | 43 |
| Religio-Cultural Transitions in the Limbu Community of Darjeeling District: A Historical Perspective Sushna Subba | 53 |
| Ethnic Identities and Development in the Darjeeling Hills: A Critical Reasoning Terence Mukhia | 61 |
| Mirroring the Past into Future: Analysing Self-Rule in the Darjeeling Hills Biswanath Saha & Gorky Chakraborty | 69 |
| Historical Roots of Nepali Public Sphere in Colonial Darjeeling Privat Giri | 81 |
| Voice of the Unheard: Role of Social Media in Darjeeling Ugyal T. Lama Yolmo | 91 |
| Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights Susan Rai | 95 |
| Book Reviews Romana Lepcha, Cross Border Human Trafficking: Legal Dimension between India and Nepal. By Chimme Tamang | 101 |
| Terence Mukhia (ed), Tea Garden Literature By Pawan Rai | 105 |
| Middleton Townsend & Sara Shneiderman, Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Politics & Environments By Manisha Thami | 109 |
| Markus Viehbeck, Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands Kalimpong as a ‘Contact Zone’. By Srijana Singh Sarki | 113 |
Editorial
Guest Editorial
Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.v-viii
Cite: Golay, Bidhan. “Guest Editorial: Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 5–8. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.v-viii.
Section: Editorial
Editorial
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.v-viii | Page No: v-viii| Section: Editorial
Guest Editorial: Darjeeling and Eastern Himalays | v
Editorial:
Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas
Bidhan Golay teaches Political Science at the Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Sikkim University, Gangtok. His areas of interest are Nationalism, Identity and Bio Politics.
The region called Darjeeling and Eastern Himalayas has now come to acquire some kind of respectability in the world of academia. Those who ply their trade on the region will generally agree that their wares are now more freely displayed in the book racks of university libraries and sometimes even cited by an odd researcher from a metropolitan university. But these are first tender shoots that will require constant care and attention before they fully bloom some day in future. This is so because the journey from respectability to that of becoming a mainstream academic vocation is long, arduous and fraught with the possibility of being counterproductive.
Articles
Indigenous Oral History Tradition in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas
Shradhanjali Tamang
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.1-6
Cite: Tamang, Shradhanjali. “Indigenous Oral History Tradition in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.1-6.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.1-6 | Page No: 01-06| Section: Article
Indigenous Oral History Tradition in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas | 1
Indigenous Oral History Tradition in Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas
Shradhanjali Tamang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Film Studies in Jadavpur University. She is also pursuing her Ph.D. from the Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University. She has worked with translation of Indian Nepali short stories, Tamang Selo, Madaley Geet and Lahari-Sawai into English and Bangla.
Abstract
The term ‘oral’ has been widely used in oral literature and tradition. Even though literature may itself signify the aspect of writing, oral literature speaks of literature in an oral culture. The mode of composition, transmission, including performance and the source of the oral literature is important while trying to understand the oral literature. This paper will discuss the indigenous oral tradition of Tamang community from Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas. Tamang language and culture being primarily oral in nature, many forms of oral traditions exist. This paper shall particularly speak about the Tamba tradition of the Tamang community. Tamba is one of the social leaders in a traditional Tamang community. He acts as a master of ceremony in important functions and is both a poet and a historian. In his oral texts, the distinction between history and poetry, factual and fictional, reality and fantasy becomes blurred and hence complicates the notions of literary genres. Discussing the above mentioned modes of composition, transmission and source of the oral literature the paper also elaborate on the question of authorship and the dynamics between the written and the spoken.
Keywords: Tamba, Indigenous, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Himalayas, Tamang.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Museums and Metonyms: The Making of Tibet
Parjanya Sen
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.7-18
Cite: Sen, Parjanya. “Museums and Metonyms: The Making of Tibet.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 7–18. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.7-18.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.7-18 | Page No: 07-18| Section: Article
Museums and Metonyms: The Making of Tibet | 7
Museums and Metonyms: The Making of Tibet
Parjanya Sen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English in Sonada Degree College, Darjeeling. He is a Ph.D. Fellow, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, was Nehru Trust Visiting Fellow (2013-14), Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Abstract
Darjeeling, or Dorje-Ling, throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, along with Kalimpong, served as sites from which an entire corpus of knowledge regarding Tibet was produced and disseminated. These two sites served as spaces which facilitated not only a complex network of negotiations between the British and the Lhasa government through the Chogyal of Sikkim, but also ended up becoming metonyms of Tibet itself. As Thomas Richards writes in his book The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire1, for the Western world, particularly British historiographers and early explorers, Tibet was the ultimate Shangri-La, “the unmapped library where a complete knowledge lies in a state of suspended animation”. Post the British attempts of mapping Tibet through the Young Husband Expedition (1903-04) and its failure when Lhasa closed its doors once again to outsiders, Darjeeling and Kalimpong would emerge as crucial “contact zones” (to use Mary Louis-Pratt’s term) from which an “archive-state” vis-à-vis Tibet could be produced. My paper shall look at the figure of Sarat Chandra Das, a Bengali from Chittagong who was sent as headmaster of the Bhutia Boarding School in Darjeeling and later became one of the pundits sent as spy to Tibet by the British. Now a largely forgotten figure, Das would emerge as a key player within Anglo-Tibetan negotiations. Post his two expeditions to Tibet, he would retire permanently in Darjeeling, name his house Lhasa Villa and write the Tibetan-English dictionary along with a host of other articles which were serially published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Das, primarily an explorer and collector, needs to be read as an important part of the colonial pedagogy of knowledge production vis-à-vis Tibet, who contributed heavily to the rendering of Tibet as a knowable “archive-state”. The paper shall also be looking at the Himalayan Tibet Museum, founded in 2015 in Darjeeling, and how in framing its poetics of museumization, it has sought to recuperate figures such as Das, Csoma de Coros and Rahul Sanskritayana. In her book The Museum on the Roof of the World, Claire E. Harris describes how China has tended to present Tibet in its entirety as a museum “to proudly display the evidence that Tibet is its ‘inalienable’ territory” and how China has had no qualms with the perpetuation of Tibetan culture “so long as it is safely confined to the domains of artworks and museums”.2 By contrast, museums set up in India by Tibetans in exile, have tended to be implicated within a strong nationalist consciousness which translates itself into the museological rhetoric. The Himalayan Tibet Museum in Darjeeling, as I shall attempt to show, through its fore-grounding of figures such as Das and Coros, attempts to posit Tibet and Tibetans as part of a continuing lived history. Also, by doing so it seems to consciously lay claim to an earlier pedagogy of archive-making, in this case that of British India, to counter Chinese semioticization of Tibet’s peoples and cultures.
Keywords: Metonyms, Museum, Darjeeling, Sarad Chandra Das, Tibet
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Sampurna Rai: A Case Study
19 Bedika Rai
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.19-24
Cite: Rai, Bedika. “Sampurna Rai: A Case Study.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 19–24. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.19-24.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.19-24 | Page No: 19-24| Section: Article
Sampurna Rai: A Case Study | 19
Sampurna Rai: A Case Study
Bedika Rai is a senior faculty and an Assistant Professor at the Department of English in Salesian College Sonada. Her area of interest is translation studies. She is associated with the Translation Centre, Salesian College.
Abstract
The creation of a literary writing depends on the type of words and expressions used by the writers along with writer’s deep observations of everything within and outside. Sampurna Rai is one such Indian Nepali writer whose keen observation led to the creation of wonderful collection of short stories, essays, and poems. In one of her Kalimpong TV interviews she had expressed how she would look for a space to create a work of an art hinting at the necessity of an artistic space and time. It would be apt to remember Virginia Woolf’s words, “So, if we may prophecy, women in time to come will write fewer novels, but better novels; … when women will have what has so long been denied them- leisure, and money, and a room to themselves.”1 This article attempts to analyse Mrs. Rai’s works as an important part in the development of Indian Nepali Literature in post Gorkhaland Movement of 1980’s of Darjeeling Hills.
Keywords: Gorkhaland Movement, Indian Nepali literature, universal, politics
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Creating New Borderlines: Women and Marginality in Mamang Dai’s Novel - Stupid Cupid
Resha Barman
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.25-36
Cite: Barman, Resha. “Creating New Borderlines: Women and Marginality in Mamang Dai’s Novel Stupid Cupid.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 25–36. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.25-36.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.25-36 | Page No: 25-36| Section: Article
Creating New Borderlines: Women & Marginality in Mamang Dai’s Novel ‘Stupid Cupid’ | 25
Creating New Borderlines: Women and Marginality in Mamang Dai’s Novel ‘Stupid Cupid’
Resha Barman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English in APC Roy Government College, Siliguri.
Abstract
The paper strives to understand women of North East India through the women characters of Mamang Dai’s Stupid Cupid. It analyzes the status and problems of the North East women living in mainstream India, whose position in Indian society is multi-layered, with the help of neoliberal perspective. Socio-economic aspects of life of a woman may seem to liberate her but to what extent, is what Dai has beautifully presented in her Novel. It is also an attempt to explore the myth of woman empowerment in North East India.
Keywords: Women, City, Identity, Neoliberalism, North East
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
The Margin Writes Back: Locating Desai’s Loss of Inheritance in The Inheritance of Loss
Smriti Singh
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.37-42
Cite: Singh, Smriti. “The Margin Writes Back: Locating Desai’s Loss of Inheritance in The Inheritance of Loss.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 37–42. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.37-42.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.37-42 | Page No: 37-42| Section: Article
The Margin Writes Back: Locating Desai’s Loss of Inheritance in the Inheritance of Loss | 37
The Margin Writes Back: Locating Desai’s Loss of Inheritance in the Inheritance of Loss
Smriti Singh is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English in Darjeeling Government College.
Abstract
Literature is generally taken as a non-statist discourse: a discourse that supposedly represents a counter-hegemonic canon. Kiran Desai’s representation of the political and cultural aspirations of the Indian Nepalis in her much celebrated The Inheritance of Loss, however, makes literature a part of the dominant official narrative. By using the official developmentalist paradigm for understanding the political and cultural aspirations of the Indian Nepalis, Desai commits what may be called hermeneutical violence. Her deletion of the causes that led to the Gorkhaland movement, her systematic erasure of the history and politics of internal colonialism, her equation of the Movement with violence and arson, her polarised construction of the Indian Nepalis either as primitive idiots or failed soldiers or mercenary idealists at best leave us surprised given the fact that such hermeneutical violence was the major reason behind the Gorkhaland Movement. Moreover, Desai’s use of the overarching framework of globalisation to deal with the ethnic crisis in a largely pre-globalised world of Kalimpong and Darjeeling can only make the movement look parochial and provincial. Such blurring of the epistemic gear seems to be part of her political agenda. The seemingly de-politicised innocent genre of fiction –a genre that appears ontologically disassociated from the implicated genres of official narratives— becomes an instrument for articulating a politics that is hegemonic and statist. What needs to be underlined in our engagement with the text is how Desai’s attempt at fictionalisation of history has led to the fictionalisation of fact.
Keywords: Gorkhaland Movement, hermeneutical violence, statist discourse, developmentalist paradigm, globalisation, identity crisis.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Tribal Livelihoods in Transition and Social Development: The Konyak Tribe of Nagaland
Imnuksungla Pongen
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.43-52
Cite: Pongen, Imnuksungla. “Tribal Livelihoods in Transition and Social Development: The Konyak Tribe of Nagaland.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 43–52. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.43-52.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.43-52 | Page No: 43-52| Section: Article
Tribal Livelihoods in Transition and Social Development: The Konyak Tribe of Nagaland | 43
Tribal Livelihoods in Transition and Social Development: The Konyak Tribe of Nagaland
Imnuksungla Pongen is currently working as Assistant Professor at North East Institute of Social Sciences and Research (NEISSR) at Dimapur, Nagaland. She is a Doctoral Candidate at Department of Social Work, University of Delhi and has completed her M.Phil (Social Work) from the same university and Masters in Social Work (MSW) from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi. As a social work trainee, she worked with children in the slums of Jahangirpuri in association with the NGO Prayas and the campaign Wada Na Todo Abhiyan in Delhi.
Abstract
Tribal livelihoods are uniquely and intricately shaped by the social relations and norms of their society. They are inextricably linked to the specific social, economic and political contexts. This paper focuses on the livelihood challenges of the Konyak tribals of Nagaland as a result of the changing contexts and their relationship with social development. These changing contexts have caused the gradual demise and transformation of some of the traditional livelihoods. Most importantly, there are changes in the society and social relations around which their identity as individuals and members of a society is based. There are factors and agencies both internal and external that play various roles in the tribal livelihoods and they are inextricably linked with social development. Social Development could be looked at from a perspective of “regional modernities” whereby it simultaneously repudiates and acknowledges the unevenness of the Eurocentric dictates on the notion of development. It gives voice to the sub-altern and propagates plurality. According to the indicators used by the government, the Konyak tribe ranks the lowest in the human development index amongst all the tribes in Nagaland. They are identified as a “backward” tribe. Although the Konyak tribal society is marked with its own set of specificities, their experiences can also find resonance with the various tribal groups in the country that have found themselves caught in a similar livelihood and societal transition. It is critical for civil society, voluntary organizations and the government that are concerned for social development to critically understand and analyse the process of transition and the challenges they pose.
Keywords: Konyaks, Nagaland, Tribal Livelihood, Social Development, Transition
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Religio-Cultural Transitions in the Limbu Community of Darjeeling District: A Historical Perspective
Sushna Subba
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.53-60
Cite: Subba, Sushna. “Religio-Cultural Transitions in the Limbu Community of Darjeeling District: A Historical Perspective.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 53–60. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.53-60.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.53-60 | Page No: 53-60| Section: Article
Religio-Cultural Transition in the Limbu Community of Darjeeling District: ... | 53
Religio-Cultural Transitions in the Limbu Community of Darjeeling District: A Historical perspective
Sushna Subba is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History in Tufanganj Mahavidyalaya, Coochbehar.
Abstract
Religion and culture are neatly interwoven making one composite whole in a tribal community. Yet it is possible to determine religious and cultural elements separately for our studies. It is impossible to conceive of a tribal identity in absence of such religio-cultural elements. The Limbus are one of the prominent ethnic tribes of East Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills having their own religious belief system, rich culture and a unique history. In the ancient past the Limbus had their own independent Kingdom called Limbuwan, which comprised of the present day Eastern Nepal from Arun river to Sikkim and Northern parts of West Bengal. The process of the disintegration of the Limbuwan seems to have begun in 1641 in Sikkim with the establishment of Namgyal Dynasty and in 1774 in Nepal after their subjugation by the Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah. Unfortunately, the boundaries of the land within which the Limbus were dwelling were shifted again and again influencing their religio-cultural life. Thus, a history of religio-cultural transition was initiated. As time passed waves of changes were visible in the religio-cultural arena of the Limbu community due to the societal amalgamation, modernisation, globalisation and so on. The thrust of the paper will be on such religio-cultural transitions in the Limbu community of Darjeeling.
Keywords: Darjeeling, Limbu, Religion, Culture, Transition
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Ethnic Identities and Development in the Darjeeling Hills: A Critical Reasoning
Terence Mukhia
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.61-68
Cite: Mukhia, Terence. “Ethnic Identities and Development in the Darjeeling Hills: A Critical Reasoning.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 61–68. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.61-68.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.61-68 | Page No: 61-68| Section: Article
Ethnic Identities and Development in the Darjeeling Hills: A Critical Reasoning | 61
Ethnic Identities and Development in the Darjeeling Hills: A Critical Reasoning
Terence Mukhia is Dean and Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy in Salesian College Sonada.
Abstract
Over exaggeration of community spirit can lead to ethnicism creating a closed in society. It is highly probable that this is the current threat that the ethnic communities of Darjeeling are beginning to face. Language, culture and identity are significant pillars of ethnicity. Darjeeling has been witnessing a series of developments based on the assertion of ethnic identities. The cultural and development boards established for the promotion of culture and people are not without price. Each ethnic community is busy tracing its root and asserting its identity. There have been attempts to recreate the past and live in it. This has led to the creation of two contrasting and conflicting images of the ethnocentric insider and the intruding alienating outsider. Darjeeling apparently is one but multiplied from within. The objective of the paper is to pour forth a critical reasoning on the interplay between the assertion of ethnic identities and development. The method followed will be basically qualitative complemented by both deductive and inductive method of logical enquiry.
Keywords: Darjeeling, Ethnic, Identity, Development, Philosophical
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Mirroring the Past into Future: Analysing Self-Rule in the Darjeeling Hills
Biswanath Saha & Gorky Chakraborty
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.69-80
Cite: Saha, Biswanath, and Gorky Chakraborty. “Mirroring the Past into Future: Analysing Self-Rule in the Darjeeling Hills.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 69–80. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.69-80.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.69-80 | Page No: 69-80| Section: Article
Mirroring the Past into Future: Analysing Self-Rule in the Darjeeling Hills | 69
Mirroring the Past into Future : Analysing Self-Rule in Darjeeling Hills
Biswanath Saha is a Ph.D. Fellow at Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK).
Gorky Chakraborty is a member of the faculty at the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK).
Abstract
The aspiration to usher in self-rule in Darjeeling has been a century old phenomenon beginning from 1907. The movement has gone through several stages raising various expectations for the ‘people’ in the region. From being referred as ‘excluded’ and ‘partially excluded’ areas in Government of India Act in 1919 and later in 1935, Darjeeling and its people have travelled a long way in the process for the ‘creation’ of a space of their own. With the aspiration of self-rule expressed through memorandum submitted in 1917 to the inclusion of Nepali Language in the Constitution of India, the movement has added new dimensions over the years. Later on, the upheaval under the leadership of Subhash Ghising in 1980s, who for the first time coined the term ‘Gorkhaland’ in the history of Darjeeling, provided some breathing space to the struggling masses in the region which seemed to have been fulfilled with the signing of Accord granting Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) in 1988. The regime change in West Bengal politics has created a new administrative arrangement through another Accord called the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in 2011. The region and its people are at crossroads today, the question remains, where is it heading towards in the emerging future? This paper will throw light on the historical continuity of the aspiration of the people of Darjeeling for self-rule and the emerging contradictions in the contemporary times by attempting to analyze the perspectives of different stakeholders- namely the Government at the Centre and the State, the present leadership of the movement in the hills, the people there in general and Nepalis in particular- in fulfilling the aspiration of the people. The paper will also deal with the concepts of identity based spatiality and geographical imaginaries associated with the movement in Darjeeling.
Keywords: Gorkhaland, Self-Rule, GTA, Development Boards, Darjeeling
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Historical Roots of Nepali Public Sphere in Colonial Darjeeling
Privat Giri
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.81-90
Cite: Giri, Privat. “‘ Historical Roots of Nepali Public Sphere in Colonial Darjeeling.’” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 81–90. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.81-90.
Section: Article
Articles
Historical Roots of Nepali Public Sphere in Colonial Darjeeling
Privat Giri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Salesian College Sonada. He is also a Ph.D. Fellow at the Department of Mass Communication, Sikkim University. His study interest areas includes new media studies, political communication, crtitical media studies, public sphere, among others. Abstract The focus of this article is to trace the roots of the early Nepali public sphere in colonial Darjeeling. It tries to establish that the Nepali public sphere here emerged within the context of a gradual transformation in the social organisation of symbolic power beginning from the last decades of nineteenth century; a transformation led by three significant changes viz. the adoption of Nepali language as the lingua franca of the Darjeeling Hills, spread of western liberal education, and the development of Nepal literature. The paper argues that these changes pressed for an increasing desire among the Nepalis of Darjeeling to create their own discursive space where the issues concerning their community could be highlighted and deliberated upon. This guided the development of various institutions of Nepali public sphere towards the early twentieth century giving rise to new forms of interaction and new kinds of social relationships in which information and symbolic content could be exchanged between individuals. The transformation in the social organisation of symbolic power enabled the construction of a new type of Nepali community and along with it the emergence of the early Nepali public sphere in colonial Darjeeling. Keywords: Public sphere, Darjeeling, Nepali, Colonialism, British.License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Voice of the Unheard: Role of Social Media in Darjeeling
Ugyal T. Lama Yolmo
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.91-94
Cite: Yolmo, Ugyal T. Lama. “Voice of the Unheard: Role of Social Media in Darjeeling.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 91–94. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.91-94.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.91-94 | Page No: 91-94| Section: Article
Voice of the Unheard: Role of Social Media in Darjeeling | 91
Voice of the Unheard: Role of Social Media in Darjeeling
Ugyal T. Lama Yolmo is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mass Communication, Salesian College Siliguri. He is also Ph.D. Fellow at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University.
Abstract
This research paper discusses how social media has become a platform for providing voice to the section of the nation whose voices remained unheard until the emergence of the social media especially the social networking mediums. It is believed that media has always acted as the facilitator of information for its consumers in the form of readers, listeners or viewers. The different forms of media are supposed to provide the public with information such that they become “well informed citizens”. However, when it comes to coverage of newsworthy events in the Darjeeling Hills (Darjeeling District) the conventional media viz. Print, T.V. and Radio seems to turn a blind eye. In most occasions the news coverage from the region provided on the national platform is a far cry from what it deserves. The news from the Darjeeling Hills always seem to be covered at a minimal level or limited to local coverage only. However, with the emergence of social media the scenario seems to be changing. The absence of coverage by mainstream media in the region might have provided a perfect platform for social media to flourish and be the source to disseminate information regarding the Hills on a much larger level than ever before. The current research intends to review the effect of social media, the way in which Darjeeling connects and communicates socially and politically.
Keywords: Darjeeling, Social Media, Social Networking, Traditional Media, Communication
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights
Susan Rai
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.95-100
Cite: Rai, Susan. “Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 95–100. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.95-100.
Section: Article
Articles
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.95-100 | Page No: 95-100| Section: Article
Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights | 95
Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights
Susan Rai is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Gyalsing College, Sikkim. She is also Ph.D. Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Sikkim University.
Abstract
Violence against women is often known as “gender-based violence” because it mainly stems from women’s subordinate position in society. Considered as one of the most pervasive human right violations in the world, gender based violence violates the rights of women. World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates about 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced either physical or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Crime against women is committed every three minutes and 70 percent of women are victims of domestic violence in India. According to a survey conducted, 38 percent of Indian men admit that they have physically abused their
partners and 65 percent of Indian men believe women should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together. This paper seeks to study gender based violence in relation to human rights violations and its impact on the women of India in a special way.
Keywords: Gender-based Violence, Human rights, Women, Intimate Partner.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Book Reviews
Romana Lepcha, Cross Border Human Trafficking: Legal Dimension between India and Nepal.
By Chimme Tamang
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.101-104
Cite: Tamang, Chimme. “Book Review: Romana Lepcha, Cross Border Human Trafficking: Legal Dimension between India and Nepal.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 101–4. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.101-104.
Section: Book Review
Book Reviews
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.101-104 | Page No: 101-104| Section: Book Reviews
Book Review: Cross-Border Human Trafficking: Legal Dimension Between India and Nepal | 101
BOOK REVIEW
Romana Lepcha, Cross Border Human Trafficking: Legal Dimension between India and Nepal, (Mittal Publication, New Delhi, 2018), Rs 900, pp. xvii+252, ISBN 81-8324-913-2
Human Trafficking is a heinous crime of global concern. It has grown to the level of largest crime in the world. The national and international legal institutions have formulated various laws to combat this menace. It is a question of concern whether these legal institutions are effective in their objective to eradicate this crime or it is deficient in performing their role as a key organisation. The book under review examines the role and the nature of legal institutions particularly taking the region of South Asia between the border lines of India and Nepal that indicates human trafficking as one of the vicious crimes. The author gently explores the socio legal dimension of human trafficking, its causes and critically examines the role of legal institutionalised frameworks in/between India and Nepal. It discusses the major loopholes that are linked with the weak implementation of the laws and legal frameworks in India and Nepal with regard to human trafficking.
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Terence Mukhia (ed), Tea Garden Literature
By Pawan Rai
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.105-108
Cite: Rai, Pawan. “Book Review: Terence Mukhia (Ed), Tea Garden Literature.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 105–8. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.105-108.
Section: Book Review
Book Reviews
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.105-108 | Page No: 105-108| Section: Book Reviews
Book Reviews: Tea Garden Literature | 105
BOOK REVIEW
Terence Mukhia (ed), Tea Garden Literature, (New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 2017), Rs. 895, pp. xii+106 (ISBN 9789386771483).
Tea garden Literature is a broader framework given by the local intellectuals which aims at providing a holistic representation of the society and the factors which influences Tea Garden people. It is the outcome of the seminar held on September 22, 2012 at Sahitya Academi in New Delhi. Mr. Mukhia says that the uniqueness of Tea Garden Literature is its reconciliation and representation of man, mind, land and environment. The exclusion of any of this above mentioned element makes a Tea Garden Literature a Tea Literature which has completely different meaning. Tea literature is a partial study of one element of tea whereas tea garden literature is a holistic approach to unravel the reality of the environment one resides in. Tea literature is a dominant discourse and voice of the powerful whereas tea garden literature is the voice of dissents and centres around humanism. The contextual prism mentioned by Dr. Jiwan Namdung, and the primacy to the subjectivity given by Dr. Mukhia regarding the idiosyncrasies of each state is remarkable. The entire treatise is the dialogue between individual and the society where one lives and his encounter with truth and beauty. It is the amalgamation of living and non-living entity.
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Middleton Townsend & Sara Shneiderman, Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Politics & Environments
Manisha Thami
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.109-112
Cite: Thami, Manisha. “Book Review: Middleton Townsend & Sara Shneiderman, Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Politics & Environments.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 109–12. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.109-112.
Section: Book Review
Book Reviews
BOOK REVIEW
Middleton Townsend & Sara Shneiderman, Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Politics & Environments, (Oxford University Press, 2018), Rs. 950, pp. xviii+316, (ISBN 9780199483556). Darjeeling has always been the centre of attraction for people from different corners of the world. Being an integral part of Eastern Himalayas, it often mesmerises people with its lofty view of Kanchenjunga invigorating fresh air and splendid valleys which fetch flavoured tea. Darjeeling is not only famous for its divine bliss of natural beauty and the precious tea leaves but also for its uncertain socio-economic and political scenario. Therefore, many renowned scholars have made immense effort to explore the latent subaltern history and have tried to understand the dynamics of ethnic-identity of this region. Middleton Townsend and Shneiderman Sara have attempted to give a systematic direction to the countless whispers and conversations from this region. Scholars from Europe, North America and different regions of India have contributed their insightful articles in this edited volume, commenting on the tremendous influence it has had on the colonial and post-colonial discourse. The editors of this volume attempt to explore the colonial and post-colonial history of Darjeeling by employing contemporary theories of social sciences and humanities. They analyse the ways in which Darjeeling could contribute to the available resources of the subaltern and post-colonial history of Eastern Himalayas, South Asia and to the world. Colonial Darjeeling was leased from Sikkim by the British for the purpose of building up a sanatorium and also for setting up a strategic military outpost for monitoring the Himalayan frontier. The authors strongly adhere to the history of Darjeeling as one of the important trading centres of the Trans-Himalayan trade networks be it in Nepal, Sikkim or Tibet. Bennike Rune has expressed the implications of economic and political issues on tourism and the tourists. In her article, she has tried to show the reflected impact of political uncertainty in tourist’s gaze. Darjeeling has earned the title ‘a summer place’ because it offers tranquillity to tourists from the entire globe. This is the reason why it is also denoted as the ‘land of magic potion’. Here, tourists can gobble serenity with the mesmerising beauty of nature with the sip of Darjeeling tea. But the political situation has left horrible and awful impact in the mind of some tourists, which has also affected the image of Darjeeling internationally. She narrates the presence of a blonde tourist in front of the Madan Tamang’s memorial where 20-30 locals had assembled to pay tribute to their leader. Madan Tamang, the leader of All India Gorkha League (AIGL) and an ardent critic of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) was brutally murdered leaving unhealed wounds in the political scenario of Darjeeling.License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Markus Viehbeck, Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands Kalimpong as a ‘Contact Zone’.
Srijana Singh Sarki
DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.113-118
Cite: Sarki, Srijana Singh. “Book Review: Markus Viehbeck, Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands Kalimpong as a ‘Contact Zone’.” SALESIAN JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES 9, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 113–18. https://doi.org/10.51818/sjhss.09.2018.113-118.
Section: Book Review
Book Reviews
Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 2 (December 2018)
ISSN: 0976-1861 | DOI: 10.51818/SJHSS.09.2018.113-118 | Page No: 113-118| Section: Book Reviews
Book Review: Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands Kalimpong as... | 113
BOOK REVIEW
Markus Viehbeck, Transcultural Encounters in the Himalayan Borderlands Kalimpong as a ‘Contact Zone’, (Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing; 2017), pp.viii+350, £38.48, (ISSN 2365-7987).
This book depicts Kalimpong during the early 19th century. It focuses upon the cultural interchange that took place before the Sino-Indian war. The migration of Tibetans, the trade activities between Tibet, China and India are the main concern of the book. The articles contained in the book also discuss some important figures such as Reverend John Anderson Graham, Thomas Parr, Dalai Lama, Charles Bell, Prince Peter’s, Rindzin Wangpo and many more who played an essential role in the phase of transcultural activities. Further, the book is an amalgamation of cultural history and introduction of western education, and it dwells upon the importance of Kalimpong as a contact zone due to its location. However, the book only focuses upon the early phase of 19th century and overlooks the cultural variation that is witnessed in the district. Especially because apart from Tibetans, Bhutanese, and Lepchas it fails to record the arrival of the other cultural groups that migrated to Kalimpong and also played a significant role during that period. However, the boo
License : Salesian Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
