Suchergebnisse

This book presents a close look at the growth, success, and proliferation of ethnic politics on the peripheries of modern South Asia, built around a case study of the Nepal ethnic group that lives in the borderlands of Sikkim, Darjeeling, and east Nepal. Grounded in historical and ethnographic research, it critically examines the relationship between culture and politics in a geographical space that is home to a diverse range of ethnic identities, showing how new modes of political representation, cultural activism, and everyday politics have emerged from the region.

This paper is an interrogation of the relationship between democracy and ethnic identity politics in Sikkim, Darjeeling and east Nepal and proposes that ethnic politics represents a regionally speci c form of democracy. The paper discusses the way that socio-economic grievances are transformed into ethnic grievances in order to facilitate political mobilization and deeper engagement with the state. In this process, discussions and debates are framed around ethnicity but are presented and deliberated within state approved democratic practices. In the eastern Himalaya, ethnic identity is one of the most important and powerful bases for political mobilization and while its ability to attain desired political outcomes is debatable, what ethnic politics has led to is the further entrenchment of democracy in the region.

Development Zones in Asian Borderlands maps the nexus between global capital flows, national economic policies, infrastructural connectivity, migration, and aspirations for modernity in the borderlands of South and South-East Asia. In doing so, it demonstrates how these are transforming borderlands from remote, peripheral backyards to front-yards of economic development and state-building. Development zones encapsulate the networks, institutions, politics and processes specific to enclave development, and offer a new analytical framework for thinking about borderlands; namely, as sites of capital accumulation, territorialisation and socio-spatial changes.

ABSTRACTNamchi, in the Indian state of Sikkim, is undergoing a building boom that is transforming a small district headquarters into an urban showpiece. Centred on religious theme parks and urban beautification, the boom captures Sikkim's emphasis on tourism as a development strategy. Growth in hydropower and pharmaceutical industries within the state, and infrastructure enabling this growth, seek to reduce dependency on the Indian government and have turned Sikkim into a 'backyard' for Indian capital. In contrast, Namchi epitomizes the transition from rural to urban space through tourism‐led growth, creating a 'front yard' exhibit which was recently awarded Smart City status despite its small size and relative unimportance. This article explores Namchi's boom by analysing the politics that drive it, the buildings and landscapes that capture its excess, and the town's lived urban spaces. The authors focus on three aspects of Namchi's boom: first, it is crucial for projections of success in Sikkim and aligns urban transformation with a particular vision of development actively promoted by the Chief Minister and ruling party; second, it is not based on resource extraction or agrarian expansion but on funds transferred to cultivate and reward loyalty in this border region; and third, it is drawing migrant workers to the town in large numbers, causing fissures and tensions, and simultaneously creating an emergent, though uneasy, cosmopolitanism.

Namchi, in the Indian state of Sikkim, is undergoing a building boom that is transforming a small district headquarters into an urban showpiece. Centred on religious theme parks and urban beautification, the boom captures Sikkim's emphasis on tourism as a development strategy. Growth in hydropower and pharmaceutical industries within the state, and infrastructure enabling this growth, seek to reduce dependency on the Indian government and have turned Sikkim into a 'backyard' for Indian capital. In contrast, Namchi epitomizes the transition from rural to urban space through tourism‐led growth, creating a 'front yard' exhibit which was recently awarded Smart City status despite its small size and relative unimportance. This article explores Namchi's boom by analysing the politics that drive it, the buildings and landscapes that capture its excess, and the town's lived urban spaces. The authors focus on three aspects of Namchi's boom: first, it is crucial for projections of success in Sikkim and aligns urban transformation with a particular vision of development actively promoted by the Chief Minister and ruling party; second, it is not based on resource extraction or agrarian expansion but on funds transferred to cultivate and reward loyalty in this border region; and third, it is drawing migrant workers to the town in large numbers, causing fissures and tensions, and simultaneously creating an emergent, though uneasy, cosmopolitanism.