Sohan Prasad Sha
There are contesting ideas among academicians with
regard to ‘identity’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘caste’, ‘religion’,
‘linguistic’, and ‘regional’ boundaries. Globalisation has
led to the movement of people in the Himalayan as well
as trans-Himalayan regions in South and West Asia,
and opened up new socio-political space that has an
inherent impact on these contesting ideas which often
transcend national bonds or are repackaged in new
narratives. In this context, researchers seek new
methodological or analytical tools to reflect these
complexities through the prism of “belonging” “to
uncover crucial shifts in the meaningful constellations
reproduced and evolving in global era.”
This book has emerged from an earlier volume in the
same series, The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas:
Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics , published in
2011. The editors of this volume, Gerard Toffin and
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, bring together a range of
dynamic contributors from diverse disciplines like
anthropology, religious studies, international studies,
sociology, cultural studies etc, who have been working
in Nepal and Himalayan India. At best, this book
problematises the myths about globalisation that is
often popularised to integrate the world into a single-
space and promote homogenisation. It offers a new
dimension to the features of globalisation - connectivity,
interdependence, and openness - as a multifaceted
process impinging upon the relations of ‘belonging’.
Belonging and the Politics of Self is conveniently
organised in five parts and sixteen chapters which
provide historical and (trans)migration anthropological
analyses and perspectives on the politics of the
Himalayan region, and asserts the concept of
‘belonging’ circumstantially.
The first section, 'Shifting Horizons of Belonging',
contains three essays. In chapter 2, Blandine Ripert
attempts to understand the Tamang community of
central Nepal where religious conversion to Christianity
is a process to connect the local to the global and to
avoid the full sense of belonging attached to Hinduism
at the national-level, which has led to the overall
marginalisation of Tamangs in their own local social
space. Sara Shneiderman discusses the case of the
Thangmi ethnic group (chapter 3) and narrates the story
of their circular migration from Nepal (Dolkaha and
Sindhupalchok district) to India (Darjeeling district) in
which their ‘politics of belonging’ describes the
processes of social inclusion (in India) and exclusion (in
Nepal, in terms of caste, ethnic and economic
exploitation). The last essay of this section by Pascale
Dollfus (chapter 4) deals with the changing life of
nomads, once known to be pastoralists from Ladakh in
India.
The second section, 'Migrant Experiences in South Asia
and Beyond', contains three essays. Jeevan R Sharma
discusses the case of male migrants from rural hill
villages in Western Nepal to Mumbai, India, in which the
narratives of belonging (chapter 5) are attached to their
identities as men and as a way to transcend their status
due to material, symbolic and emotional pressure to
look after their families back home. Mitra Pariyar et al.
deal with Nepali diaspora communities in two social
spaces (Xhapter 6), ex-Gurkhas in the UK and the
Newar community in Sikkim (India), in which the UK is
characterised as a weak multicultural society as
compared to Sikkim. The last essay in this section by
Tristan Brusle deals with Nepali labour migrants in Doha
(Qatar) and Uttarakand (India). Here, the sense of
belonging varies along caste and regional lines (chapter
7). For instance, the stereotype of Nepali migrant
labourers as Bahadur vs Dhotiwala and Madhesis vs
Pahadis blurs as well as complicates the sense of
belonging.
The third section, 'Creating Transnational Belonging',
contains four essays. Sondra L Hausner discuss the
case study of Nepali nurse migrants to the UK and how
they reconcile identity and belonging in two nation-
states (chapter 8) while struggling for professional
integrity and against discriminatory policies their in host
country. Ben Campbell contextualises the
multiculturalism aspect (chapter 9) of Manchester city,
UK and the Nepali festival held there “to make a make a
show of their belonging to Manchester, at the same time
as their affective belonging to Nepal.” The other two
essays narrate the story of Nepali immigrants in the US.
Bandita Sijapati (chapter 10) draws attention to how
Nepali youth feel alienated from a “sense of ‘being in
America’ but not ‘belonging to America’.” The last essay
in this section by Susan Hangen deals with the Gurung
ethnic community (chapter 11) in the US and their sense
of belonging through “promoting and preserving their
[Gururg] identity abroad” and their simultaneous
“commitment [to projects] to end ethnic inequality…of
indigenous nationalities in Nepal.”
The fourth section, 'Globality and Activist Experience'
contains three chapters. Chiara Letizia (chapter 12)
shows how Buddhism among some ethnic groups like
Tharu and Magar in Nepal becomes a politics of their
global recognition and helps in the imagination of new
forms of belonging through liberation from a
discriminatory Hindu state. The two subsequent essays
by Tanka Subba and Vibha Arora draw attention
towards the proposed power project in Dzongu, North
Sikkim, and the Lepcha community’s socio-political
belonging which is “to the place and its
culture” (chapter 13) and “belonging with cyber
activism” ( chapter 14) to promote their identity.
The fifth section, 'National Reconfiguration', contains
three chapters. Mark Turin (chapter 15) brings in
linguistic assertion to (re)claim identity in the case of
Nepal through Nepali vs Hindi which often blurs the
sense of belonging to a community in the larger national
identity. However, the Lepcha community of Sikkim
(India) has constructed its own sense of belonging by
“becoming Indian through Sikkimese, becoming
Sikkimese being Lepcha”, while the English language
acts as a glue that defies territorial boundaries. Martin
A Mills (chapter 16) narrates the complex history of
Tibet in the Tibet Autonomous Region to contextualise
the sense of belonging in the trans-Himalayan socio-
political landscape. Michael Hutt (chapter 17) discussed
the sense of belonging called ‘institution (monarchy)’ to
explain why the Shahs of Nepal could not survive
institutionally while the Bhutanese Wangchuck monarchy
survived. Moreover, the complexity of language, religions
etc help to explain through comparative perspective the
belongingness of the monarchy as an institution in
Nepal which could not survive, while the Bhutanese
monarchy did as it embodies national identity.
The bringing together of diverse case studies in one
volume makes it difficult to give conceptual clarity to
‘belonging’, which blurs considerably. That being said,
the volume’s introduction makes a sincere effort to
distinguish ‘belonging’ and various categories like
identity, religion, language, ethnicity, caste, region in
theory. However, for the reader, ‘belonging’ and ‘the
politics of self’ might be difficult to reconcile
conceptually. The reader can certainly look forward to
new insights on ground realities, problematic social and
political landscapes and fascinating narratives, rather
than the movement of the people of the Himalayan
region.
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