‘Land’ as a site of contestation: Empire, identity, and belonging in the Darjeeling Himalayas

Abstract

As the dominant narratives of ethnicity have been centered on the issues of ethnic identity and nationalism as a form of pre-given category, the invocation of ‘land’ remains marginal to ethnic politics. Many studies on the politics of ethnic homelands in South Asia has further marginalized the notion of ‘land’ in the study of ethnicity and nationalism and overemphasized ethnic identity as a dominant approach to understand the relationship between state and society. However, land is fundamental to ethnic claims for belongingness in a previously colonized society where indigenous land policy has been reconfigured by the intrusion of British colonialism—took away native land for private interest and subsequently remodified land and citizenship criteria. This article examines an ethnic demand for a homeland in the Darjeeling Hills by bringing to the fore the discussion on land contestation, linguistic politics, and regional aspiration for belongingness. The movement for Gorkhaland in Darjeeling Hills has been articulated as a demand for recognition of Gorkha as Indian citizenship and reflects a distinct attachment of Gorkha to land. Although there has been very little discussion on the issue of land in the demand for Gorkhaland and focused solely on ethnic identity and the development of the Nepali language, we argue in this article that the ethnic movement in Darjeeling has its genesis in the contention of ethnic differences in control over land, resources, and identity, and it is land that has historically framed the politics of ethnicity in the region. Therefore, ‘land is identity’ and must be viewed as a fundamental unit of analysis in ethnic politics.

L'environnementalisme dans les collines de Darjeeling : une enquête

“…This created a land accumulation policy for European planters and foresters (Sarkar 2013), and restricted local land usage. As I have discussed elsewhere, land encroachment through various mechanisms, such as the 'wasteland rule', lay at the heart of imperial governance in the eastern Himalayas (Tamang andKipgen 2022, Tamang 2022). This challenged local ownership of land, and access to forest and other natural resources.…”

“…The absence of people (local communities), according to colonial narratives, helped the British to encroach on the land in order to build their hill station in the Himalayas. In the Darjeeling Hills, the colonial encroachment of land not only resulted in the alienation of humans from nature, but led also to the local community's struggle in terms of belonging, identity and citizenship in India (Tamang and Kipgen 2022).…”

“…Local communities predictably continue to be left out of the discourse on environmental conservation, since they struggle every day for recognition and identity within the rhetoric of regional political outfits. This was further articulated when Subash Ghising and the Gorkha National Liberation Front claimed Party bhanda Jati Thulo, Jati Vanda Maato (community is above party and land is above community) as their political stance and emerged as a powerful regional party in the 1980s (Tamang and Kipgen 2022). In these instances, the categorical representation of humans as citizens and political actors occupied central stage but failed to receive recognition as a true subject in terms of environmental conservation.…”

“…Landownership plays a crucial role in both of these domains. In the former, symbolic belonging to land (ownership in a symbolic sense) pertains partly to the ethno-political movement for rights and access to resources (Tamang 2022), while in the latter, the state controls ownership through institutions such as the Forest Department, designated land for tea plantations and so on. In the Darjeeling hills, where the majority of the land since colonial times is either covered in forest or tea plantations -comprising two of the largest industries in the region -this separation between humans and nature became more acute within the prism of regional identity politics in postcolonial Darjeeling.…”

“…This recognition comes from efforts to acknowledge their relationship to the land and to grant them material ownership of the land. The latter is central to the environment, as well as to identity politics for many tribal communities in South Asia (Jairath 2021, Tamang andKipgen 2022); therefore, manifestations of landownership in the Himalayas can provide an avenue to encompass the narratives of local communities and what constitutes their environment. Therefore, the discussion about environmentalism within the grand 34 Having said this, environmentalism of the hills is also about recognising the differences and co-existence of diverse Himalayan ethnic communities whose relationship to nature has, in one way or another, been impacted by British colonialism.…”