This book explores the modern transformation of state and society in the Indian Himalaya. Centred on three Rajput-led kingdoms during the transition to British rule (c. 1790-1840) and their interconnected histories, it demonstrates how border making practices engendered a modern reading of 'tradition' that informs communal identities to date. By revising the history of these mountain kings on the basis of extensive archival, textual, and ethnographic research, it offers an alternative to popular and scholarly discourses that grew with the rise of colonial knowledge. This revision ultimately points to the important contribution of borderland spaces to the fabrication of group identities.

This book explores the changes to native senses of place, the conception of border - simultaneously as limitations and opportunities - and what the authors call "affective boundaries," "livelihood reconstruction," and "trans-Himalayan modernities."

Focusing on the Nepali ethnic group living on the borderlands of Sikkim, Darjeeling, and east Nepal, the book 'Ethnicity and Democracy in the Eastern Himalayan Borderland' analyses the growth, success, and proliferation of ethnic politics on the peripheries of modern South Asia. Based on extensive historical and ethnographic research, it critically examines the relationship between culture and politics in a geographical space which is replete with a diverse range of ethnic identities. The book explores the emergence of new modes of political representation, cultural activism, and everyday politics in regional South Asia. Being Nepali offers new perspectives on political dynamics and state formation across the eastern Himalaya which is fuelled by the resurgence of ethnic culture. NB CATALGUSTEKST CHICAGO: This book presents a close look at the growth, success, and proliferation of ethnic politics on the peripheries of modern South Asia, built around a case study of the Nepal ethnic group that lives in the borderlands of Sikkim, Darjeeling, and east Nepal. Grounded in historical and ethnographic research, it critically examines the relationship between culture and politics in a geographical space that is home to a diverse range of ethnic identities, showing how new modes of political representation, cultural activism, and everyday politics have emerged from the region.

Drawing from extensive archival work and long-term ethnographic research, this book focuses on the so-called Bhotiyas, former trans-Himalayan traders and a Scheduled Tribe of India who reside in several high valleys of the Kumaon Himalaya. The area is located in the border triangle between India, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR, People’s Republic of China), and Nepal, where contestations over political boundaries have created multiple challenges as well as opportunities for local mountain communities. Based on an analytical framework that is grounded in and contributes to recent advances in the field of border studies, the author explores how the Bhotiyas have used their agency to develop a flourishing trans-Himalayan trade under British colonial influence; to assert an identity and win legal recognition as a tribal community in the political setup of independent India; and to innovate their pastoral mobility in the context of ongoing state and market reforms. By examining the Bhotiyas’ trade, identity and mobility this book shows how and why the Himalayan border region has evolved as an agentive site of political action for a variety of different actors.

Paper Tiger shifts the debate on state failure and opens up new understanding of the workings of the contemporary Indian state.

Reveals how British imperial border-making in the Himalayas transformed a crossroads into a borderland and geography into politics.