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Drawing fromextensive archival work and long-term ethnographic research, this book focuseson the so-called Bhotiyas, former trans-Himalayan traders and a Scheduled Tribeof India who reside in several high valleys of the Kumaon Himalaya. The area islocated in the border triangle between India, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR,People's Republic of China), and Nepal, where contestations over politicalboundaries have created multiple challenges as well as opportunities for localmountain communities.Basedon an analytical framework that is grounded in and contributes to recentadvances in the field of border studies, the author explores how theBhotiyas have used their agency todevelopa flourishing trans-Himalayan trade under British colonial influence; to assertan identity and win legal recognition as a tribal community in the politicalsetup of independent India; and to innovate their pastoral mobility in thecontext of ongoing state and market reforms. By examining theBhotiyas' trade, identity and mobilitythisbook showshow and why the Himalayan border region has evolved as an agentive siteof political action for a variety of different actors.
List of contents
Introduction.-Trans-Himalayan Trade in an Imperial Environment.-Ethnic Identities and Scalar Politics in a World of National States.-
Constellations of Mobility in a Market-Oriented Border Region.- Epilogue: Politics and Poetics of Central Himalayan Pastoralism.
About the author
Christoph
Bergmann is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of
Geography at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University (Germany). As an
interdisciplinary scholar with particular expertise in the domains of social
anthropology and geography, much of his work has sought to establish a locally
and historically contextualized understanding of stakeholder activities in High
Asia and, more recently, Sub-Saharan Africa. He adopts an actor-oriented approach
to scrutinize processes of border-making and to unravel geographically and
socially uneven patterns of development, with a particular focus on the
knowledge, aspirations and agendas of those considered as socio-economically or
socio-culturally marginal.
Summary
Drawing from
extensive archival work and long-term ethnographic research, this book focuses
on the so-called Bhotiyas, former trans-Himalayan traders and a Scheduled Tribe
of India who reside in several high valleys of the Kumaon Himalaya. The area is
located in the border triangle between India, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR,
People’s Republic of China), and Nepal, where contestations over political
boundaries have created multiple challenges as well as opportunities for local
mountain communities.Based
on an analytical framework that is grounded in and contributes to recent
advances in the field of border studies, the author explores how the
Bhotiyas have used their agency todevelop
a flourishing trans-Himalayan trade under British colonial influence; to assert
an identity and win legal recognition as a tribal community in the political
setup of independent India; and to innovate their pastoral mobility in the
context of ongoing state and market reforms. By examining the
Bhotiyas’ trade, identity and mobilitythis
book showshow and why the Himalayan border region has evolved as an agentive site
of political action for a variety of different actors.
