©2011 Chelsea L. Booth ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
2011 Chelsea L. Booth ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THESE PEOPLE DEPRIVED OF THIS COUNTRY: LANGUAGE AND THE POLITICS OF BELONGING AMONG INDIANS OF NEPALI DESCENT by CHELSEA L. BOOTH A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Anthropology written under the direction of Dr. Laura M. Ahearn and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May, 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION These People Deprived of This Country: Language and the Politics of Belonging among Indians of Nepali Descent By CHELSEA L. BOOTH Dissertation Director: Dr. Laura M. Ahearn This dissertation explores the way ‗language,‘ like other forms of social designations— e.g. race, ethnicity, or caste—gains meaning through social, legal, and linguistic practices and ideologies. Indians of Nepali descent have lived and worked in the Darjeeling hills for more than 150 years yet are, throughout India, often labeled as ‗foreigners,‘ ‗tribals,‘ and ‗squatters.‘ They also speak Nepali, a major factor that contributes to such perceptions despite their Indian citizenship. To counteract these labels and those discriminatory policies and practices they have incited, the Indian Nepali community in Darjeeling founded an organization in 1972 whose goal was the constitutional recognition of Nepali a national language of India. This recognition would, they argued, lead to an acceptance of their language and, more importantly, the recognition of their Indian citizenship. Although the Nepali language was finally included in the constitution in 1992, the anticipated social, political, and legal acceptance of the community was not forthcoming.
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