Table Of ContentDARJEELING
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 de
coding the elements that are treated as tradition, but also the trans
formations 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 und ocumented
histories related to harmony, intimacy, belongingness and environ
mental 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.
Dinesh Chandra Ray, Ph.D., is presently Assistant Professor in
History, Southfield College, Darjeeling. As Joint Editor he edited
Dis courses on Darjeeling Hills (2013).
Srikanta Roy Chowdhury, Ph.D., is presently Assistant Professor in
History, Southfield College, Darjeeling. He has published From Bān< gā
lār Itihāsa to Bā<ngālīr Itihāsa: History in Making (2007) and edited
1857: Text & Beyond (2013) and Darjeeling Hills University & the
Prospects of Higher Education in the Hills (2020).
Darjeeling
In Search of People’s History
of the Hills
Edited by
DINESH CHANDRA RAY
&
SRIKANTA ROY CHOWDHURY
MANOHAR
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Dinesh Chandra Ray, Srikanta Roy Chowdhury and Manohar Publishers
The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
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trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Pakistan or Bhutan)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 9781032424453 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032424460 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003362791 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003362791
Typeset in Adobe Garamond 11/13
by Kohli Print, Delhi 110051
Dedicated
to the
People of the Darjeeling Hills
Contents
Introduction
DINESH CHANDRA RAY and SRIKANTA ROY CHOWDHURY 11
PART I: THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
AND CONCERNS
1. Do ‘People’ Exist?: The Problems of Writing
People’s History
TANKA B. SUBBA 27
2. Darjeeling: In Search of People’s History
ICCHIMUDDIN SARKAR 35
PART II: DARJEELING HILLS AND
THE COLONIZERS
3. A Discourse on Control, Discipline and Punishment:
Prisons in Colonial Darjeeling (1835-1947)
DAHLIA BHATTACHARYA 49
4. Transforming Land and Landscape in Colonial
Darjeeling: Readings in History
TAHITI SARKAR 67
5. Popularizing Western Sports in Darjeeling Hills:
The Context of Educational Institutions
AWASHES SUBBA 89
6. Tourism and Recreation in Colonial Darjeeling:
A Social History of Leisure
SUMAN MUKHERJEE 99
8 Contents
PART III: PEOPLE AND THE CONSTRUCTION
OF AN IDENTITY
7. Multiple Imaginations: Exploration of the
Different Notions of Homeland Present in the
Darjeeling Hills
RAHUL GANGULY 117
8. The Formation of Nepal, Nepali and Gurkha in the
Colonial Discourse
DEEPJOY KATUWAL 129
9. Contextualizing Nepali Nationalism in the History
of Darjeeling: Issues and Challenges
SOMOSHREE DE 155
10. Geographies of Exclusion, Identity and
Gorkhaland Movement
BISHAL CHHETRI 173
PART IV: PLURALITY AND SYNCRETISM
11. Cultural Pluralism in Darjeeling and Kalimpong:
Reflections from Oral History
KISHAN HARIJAN 201
12. Christianity and Indigenization: Sociocultural
Impact on the Lepchas of Darjeeling Hills
DEWAKAR THATAL 217
13. Politics of Ethnic Solidarity: A Post-colonial Analysis
in Darjeeling Hills and sub-Himalayan Region
of North Bengal
NIRMAL CHANDRA ROY 241
14. Cultural Synthesis of Darjeeling Concerning Leisure
during Colonial Rule
VIVEK THAPA 251
Contents 9
PART V: POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION:
LANGUAGE, ARTS AND LITERATURE
15. Origin and Growth of Nepali Language in India:
An Exploratory Survey
SUSHMA RAI 279
16. The Third Space in the Tea Garden Literature:
Revisiting Select Works from Darjeeling
NIMA DOMA LAMA and RATHIKA SUBBA 303
17. Birth of ‘Gorkha Janapustakalaya’ in Kurseong:
An Outcome of People’s Consciousness during the
Colonial Period
ILLORA SHARMA 317
18. Ethnic and Cultural Identity in Music: Study of the
Ethnomusic of Some of the Ethnic People of Darjeeling
SUDASH LAMA and ANAND SHERPA 329
PART VI: HISTORIES FROM THE PERIPHERY
19. The Unwritten History of the Balmiki Community in
Darjeeling Hills: History from ‘Below’
LEKHRAJ BALMIKI 347
20. Misery of the Tea Garden Workers: Immediate Effect
of the Garden Shutdown
SAURAV CHETTRI 361
List of Contributors 373
Index 375
