Governing the Hills Imperial Landscapes, National Territories and Production of Place between Naya Nepal and Incredible India! Bennike, Rune Bolding Publication date: 2013 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (APA): Bennike, R. B. (2013). Governing the Hills: Imperial Landscapes, National Territories and Production of Place between Naya Nepal and Incredible India! Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen . Download date: 03. okt.. 2021 Ph.D. dissertation 2013/4 RUNE BOLDING BENNIKE ISBN: 87-7393-696-0 ISSN: 1600-7557 RUNE BOLDING BENNIKE Governing the Hills Imperial Landscapes, National Territories and Production of Place between Naya Nepal and Incredible India! Incredible India! has ostensibly stepped out of the “imaginary waiting room of G overning the Hills RUNE BOLDING BENNIKE history” and joined the ranks of modern, developed and branded nations. And Naya Nepal is moving towards a “federal, democratic, and republican” future. Concomitantly, a range of claims to local autonomy brings together local move- ments and global processes in novel ways. In fact, local place-making itself has been globalised. This dissertation asks what happens when the increasingly globalised production of places collides with a resilient national order of things in the Himalayan hills. It investigates movements for the establishment of a Limbuwan and Gorkhaland state on either side of the border between eastern Nepal and north-eastern India. Through the engagement with this area, the dissertation argues that we need to rethink the spatiality of government in order to understand the contemporary conditions for government as well as local autonomy. Across imperial landscapes, national territories and global place-making, the dis- sertation documents novel collisions between refashioned imperial differences and resilient national monopolies on political authority. It argues that these collisions Governing the Hills bring out old problems as well as new opportunities in relation to the aspiration Imperial Landscapes, National Territories and for a larger say in local decision-making: While global connections can provide normative leverage to demands for increased local autonomy, the consequence of Production of Place between Naya Nepal and global connectivity might also be new imperial arrangements of government at Incredible India! distance. Governing the Hills Imperial Landscapes, National Territories, and Production of Place between Naya Nepal and Incredible India! Rune Bolding Bennike PhD Dissertation Department of Political Science University of Copenhagen April 2013 Content Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................. 1! Chapter 2: Ecology, Territory, People ..................................................................... 19! Chapter 3: Paths Through the Landscape ................................................................ 49! Chapter 4: Imperial Landscapes .............................................................................. 69! Chapter 5: Teaching a Language of Difference ...................................................... 95! Chapter 6: Ethnic Fluency in Naya Nepal ............................................................. 129! Chapter 7: ‘Ruly Hills’ .......................................................................................... 163! Chapter 8: Darjeeling Disquiet .............................................................................. 199! Chapter 9: Conclusion ........................................................................................... 229! Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 239! i List of Words and Abbreviations • ABGL: Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (All India Gorkha League, AIGL) • Bikas: Development • Bir: Bravery • DGHC: Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council • DICA: Department of Information and Cultural Affairs of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council • FLSC: Federal Limbuwan State Council • GJM: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha • GNLF: Gorkha National Liberation Front • GTA: Gorkhaland Territorial Administration • KYC: Kirat Yakthum Chumlung • Naya Nepal: New Nepal • NEFIN: Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities • NFDIN: • ST: Scheduled Tribe ii iii Acknowledgements gave me their time – not least: Balkrishna Mabuhang, Arjun Limbu, A long list of people and several institutions have contributed to this and Kumar Lingden. study in various ways. First of all, my two supervisors: For over three In India, a range of great academics associated with the revision years now, I have received loyal and un-wavering support from Anders of Indian textbooks gave me their time and reflections. Although – due Berg-Sørensen, even as my study gradually moved away from to unforeseen twists along the research path – too little of their academic landscape he usually frequents. Ravinder Kaur, has interesting thoughts made it into the present dissertation, I would like continuously incited me to rethink and re-evaluate what I do. I hope she to thank Krishna Kumar, Nandini Sundar, Yogendra Yadav, Sarada will continue to do se in the future. My thinking was especially pushed Balagopalan, Neeladri Bhattacharya and Savita Sinha. Similarly, during two summer workshops at NYU. Thanks are due both to although my observations from a school in Darjeeling did not make it Ravinder and to David Ludden for organising these and to the into the present form, I would like to thank the kind people there for participants who helped me view my project from new angles. Another opening their workplace to me and for engaging me in interesting workshop in Kathmandu, organised by Michael Hutt and Pratyoush discussion about the local politics. Onta provided a more grounded perspective – thanks are also due to the The research for this dissertation has been supported by the organisers and participants there. Department of Political Science and the Asian Dynamics Initiative at In Copenhagen, I would especially like to thank Dan Hirslund, the University of Copenhagen. Hence, a final thanks to both these Thomas Blom-Hansen, Finn Stepputat and Nandini Sundar for incisive institutions, to Thomas Basbøl for great advice on writing towards the comments on various drafts. Also, before going on my first fieldwork end of the project, and to Amila Cirkinagic for meticulous last-minute trip, Birgitte Lind Petersen gave me all the small and caring advice I editing. needed to feel relatively at home even in this new discipline. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to my grandfather, Haakon In Nepal, I would especially like to thank my friend and assistant Bennike Madsen. I believe he would have been very pleased to see a Narayan Adhikary who helped me in more ways than one can imagine. second doctor in the family. Yubaraj Ghimire helped me in the considerable work of translating Panchayat era textbooks, Lynn Bennett and Shiva Bhusal provided thoughtful advice, and a long range of people across the various offices of the Nepali education administration gave me generous amounts of their time. Finally, the lovely teachers of a school around Ilam opened their world to me much more that I would have expected. Thanks are due to all of them, as well as the range of ethnic representatives that iv v Introduction 3 Chapter 1: Introduction things in the Himalayan hills. Combining global connections with Over the past two decades, major changes have taken place in claims directed at the nation-state, contemporary movements for local governmental paradigms and national self-representations across South autonomy provide an important site for such collisions. Here, I Asia. A broad range of events, from Maoist insurgency and Hindu investigate movements for the establishment of a Limbuwan and nationalism to constitution-writing and neoliberal economic policies Gorkhaland state on either side of the border between eastern Nepal are pushing the subcontinent through processes of internal and global and north-eastern India. My study is motivated by the aspirations for a refashioning. Incredible India! has ostensibly stepped out of the larger say in local decisions that these movements fundamentally “imaginary waiting room of history” and joined the ranks of modern, express – although, as I illustrate, these aspirations are often obscured developed and branded nations.1 And Naya Nepal is no longer the and overrun by other interests. In this study, I thus ask about the world’s last Hindu kingdom, although the country’s transition towards contemporary conditions for government and local autonomy in the a “federal, democratic, and republican” future is still rife with Himalayan hills. To unpack these conditions, I ask how government uncertainty.2 Concomitantly with changes in governmental paradigms, was first extended over these hills by imperial regimes. I then ask how a range of claims to local autonomy brings together local movements this government changed with the national territorialisation of the and global processes in novel ways. Place-making itself has been subcontinent. And finally, I ask how these governmental legacies are globalised. Local movements face global images of ‘their’ locality. played out in the contemporary politics of local autonomy. Through my State-encouraged commercial dynamics of tourism, heritage and analysis, I show how contemporary political dynamics reactualise geographical branding furthers a global