Darjeeling: In Search of People’s History of the Hills

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.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART 1: THEORETICAL CONCEPTS AND CONCERNS 1. Do ‘People’ Exist?: The Problems of Writing People’s History 2. Darjeeling: In Search of People’s 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 People’s 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

About the Author :
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 Bāngā­lār Itihāsa to Bāngālīr Itihāsa: History in Making (2007) and edited 1857: Text & Beyond (2013) and Darjeeling Hills University & the Prospects of Higher Education in the Hills (2020).