The present volume tries to fill the gap of the missing voices of the people of the Darjeeling hills and their cultures through re-writing inclusive history of society and culture from ‘below’.
History has always dealt with people, yet often gazing at the people from the perspectives of the non-people – colonizers, intruders, outsiders and the privileged elite insiders – who seem to have internalized the ‘mainstream’ perspective framed by the outsiders. In this context a group of scholars working on Darjeeling felt that there was a need for an inclusive people’s history of the Darjeeling hills.
The present volume tries to fill this gap of the missing voices of the people of the Darjeeling hills and their cultures through re-writing inclusive history of society and culture from ‘below’, not only by decoding the elements that are treated as tradition, but also the transformations in the realms of arts and ecology. For, the tribal-scape of the Darjeeling hills is not a static/frozen zone and the people (hence, the geo-space) are in continuous transition from traditional beings towards becoming neo-traditional. Accepting history as constantly ‘extra mural’ the objectives of the book are to focus on undocumented histories related to harmony, intimacy, belongingness and environmental care and thereby, interact the living with what is often projected as ‘dead’, by rejecting to abide by any given set of references as the final/‘scientific’/authentic and, thereby, opening up with other kinds of historical dialogue with the understated historical items that are accessible in Darjeeling.
Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print version of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Introduction PART 1: THEORETICAL CONCEPTS AND CONCERNS
1. Do People
Exist?: The Problems of Writing Peoples History
2. Darjeeling: In Search of
Peoples History PART 2: DARJEELING HILLS AND THE COLONIZERS
3. A Discourse
on Control, Discipline and Punishment: Prisons in Colonial Darjeeling
(1835-1947)
4. Transforming Land and Landscape in Colonial Darjeeling:
Readings in History
5. Popularizing Western Sports in Darjeeling Hills: The
Context of Educational Institutions
6. Tourism and Recreation in Colonial
Darjeeling: A Social History of Leisure PART 3: PEOPLE AND THE CONSTRUCTION
OF AN IDENTITY
7. Multiple Imaginations: Exploration of the Different Notions
of Homeland Present in the Darjeeling Hills
8. The Formation of Nepal, Nepali
and Gurkha in the Colonial Discourse
9. Contextualizing Nepali Nationalism in
the History of Darjeeling: Issues and Challenges
10. Geographies of
Exclusion, Identity and Gorkhaland Movement PART 4: PLURALITY AND SYNCRETISM
11. Cultural Pluralism in Darjeeling and Kalimpong: Reflections from Oral
History
12. Christianity and Indigenization: Sociocultural Impact on the
Lepchas of Darjeeling Hills
13. Politics of Ethnic Solidarity: A
Post-colonial Analysis in Darjeeling Hills and sub-Himalayan Region of North
Bengal
14. Cultural Synthesis of Darjeeling Concerning Leisure during
Colonial Rule PART 5: POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION: LANGUAGE, ARTS AND
LITERATURE
15. Origin and Growth of Nepali Language in India: An Exploratory
Survey
16. The Third Space in the Tea Garden Literature: Revisiting Select
Works from Darjeeling
17. Birth of Gorkha Janapustakalaya in Kurseong: An
Outcome of Peoples Consciousness during the Colonial Period
18. Ethnic and
Cultural Identity in Music: Study of the Ethnomusic of Some of the Ethnic
People of Darjeeling PART 6: HISTORIES FROM THE PERIPHERY
19. The Unwritten
History of the Balmiki Community in Darjeeling Hills: History from Below
20. Misery of the Tea Garden Workers: Immediate Effect of the Garden Shutdown
Dinesh Chandra Ray, Ph.D., is presently Assistant Professor in History, Southfield College, Darjeeling. As Joint Editor he edited Discourses on Darjeeling Hills (2013).
Srikanta Roy Chowdhury, Ph.D., is presently Assistant Professor in History, Southfield College, Darjeeling. He has published From Bnglr Itihsa to Bnglr Itihsa: History in Making (2007) and edited 1857: Text & Beyond (2013) and Darjeeling Hills University & the Prospects of Higher Education in the Hills (2020).
