Negotiating Recognition: Between Strategic Essentialism and Cultural Revival in the Darjeeling Hills

The Politics of Ethnic Renewal in Darjeeling: Gorkhas and the Struggle for Tribal Recognition by Chhetri, Nilamber.

Routledge India, 2023.

In The Politics of Ethnic Renewal in Darjeeling: Gorkhas and the Struggle for Tribal Recognition, Nilamber Chhetri delivers a timely and rigorous engagement with Darjeeling’s shifting ethnopolitics. He blends historical analysis with ethnographic fieldwork (2013-2015) in Darjeeling and Kalimpong. His work is a multifaceted exploration of how Gorkha ethnopolitics is being reshaped through ethnic renewal. This book appears at a critical moment when movements for Scheduled Tribe status are intensifying, with various hill groups seeking to revive their traditions. 

Chhetri explores ethnopolitics through concepts like ‘ethnic renewal’ (p. 28) and ‘ethnic switching’ (p. 107). These concepts reveal how ethnopolitical movements in the Darjeeling hills constantly evolve, and how ‘renewal’ and ‘switching’ function as forms of strategic essentialism. In these movements, communities revive and recast cultural practices as acts of strategic essentialism. Through this deliberate process, they intentionally resurrect traditions for political purposes. He connects this strategy to the broader pursuit of attaining Scheduled Tribe status, through which the hill communities claim both legitimacy and material benefits from the state. He emphasizes that this ethnic revivalism is not an unselfconscious return to their tribal roots. Rather, it is a deliberate, choreographed performance in which ethnic leaders and associations consciously curate the tribal image to secure state recognition.

The idea of the ‘ethno-contemporary’ (Middleton, 2016:17) closely aligns with Chhetri’s analysis. In this framework, Darjeeling’s ethnic groups consciously use ethnological categories, like the label of ‘tribe’, to reclassify themselves and claim state recognition. Both scholars argue that the politics of recognition in the hills is best understood as a dialogue. It is shaped equally by the aspirations of local actors and the classifications that the state imposes.

While such framing captures the strategic side of revivalism, it tells only part of the story. My fieldwork (2022-2024) shows that not everyone engages in this ethnic renewal for strategic reasons. The community members I interviewed revived rituals and traditions because they genuinely desired to reconnect with their indigenous heritage. For them, this revival marked a sincere return to their ancestral roots and traditions. It is a way of reclaiming a culture that was eroded through historical assimilation. In this sense, ethnic renewal extends beyond political strategy. Instead, it is an embodied practice through which people reconstitute meaning, belonging, and continuity within their own moral worlds.

These embodied practices- wearing ethnic attire, observing indigenous festivals, speaking ethnic languages, and teaching forgotten rituals to the younger generation- reveal two contrasting perspectives. From the state’s perspective, it is a calculated performance. For community members, it is an emotional return to one’s roots. Chhetri notes these tensions, but he does not clearly distinguish performance from authenticity. Nor does he engage extensively with the voices of grassroots participants. Sharpening this distinction and situating it within the lived experience of ordinary participants would have further enriched his analysis.

Chhetri explores the strategies employed by the ‘ethnic entrepreneurs’ (p. 135) to regulate, augment, and shape their demands. His work captures the multiple roles of these actors, whom he calls ‘ethnic identity framers’ (p. 138). Through this term, he highlights their ability to selectively draw elements from the ancestral repertoire and contemporary political idioms to construct a credible vision of the ‘tribal’ within the state’s modern classificatory model.

Extending this argument, Chhetri examines the transnational dimension of these ethnopolitical currents in the hills. He shows how ethnic entrepreneurs navigate cross-border linkages to legitimize their tribal claims. His argument highlights how aspiring ethnic groups consciously draw on Himalayan-wide links to frame their identity. For instance, they invoke Kirati myths from eastern Nepal or the origin tale of the Mangar community as part of their narrative repertoire (p. 110). He frames these transnational references not only as a romantic pursuit of roots, but as a strategic response to the politics of recognition. This transnational angle is insightful, as it shows how ethnic leaders and entrepreneurs anchor their authenticity in wider Himalayan histories and cultures. It reflects their resilience and relentless pursuit of redefining ‘tribe’ within the state’s framework. 

Chhetri’s attention to cross-border strategies employed by ethnic leaders is noteworthy. However, my personal encounters with communities such as the Mangar, Newar, and Khambu Rai suggest a rather different emphasis. While ethnic leaders and entrepreneurs tend to draw on cross-border narratives to strengthen their political position, ordinary members pursue revival in more personal terms. For them, revival means not crafting a strategy but feeling whole again. It serves as a way for different ethnic groups to reconnect with their traditions. 

Finally, Chhetri examines the dilemma confronting ethnic groups struggling for Scheduled Tribe status. This is the dilemma of negotiating the collective pan-Gorkha identity and the particular sub-group identity. This tension often produces ambivalence. Groups aspiring to tribal status fear that emphasizing sub-group identities could fracture the long-standing collective Gorkha identity. The author proposes a more fluid and evolving notion of identity, one that allows individuals to inhabit both identities without compromising either. Echoing Chhetri, the path forward is to work towards a political culture that values diversity while sustaining a collective purpose.

Endnotes

1. For example, the Bhujel, Dewan, Gurung, Jogi, Khas, Majhi (in Sikkim), Mangar, Newar, Rai, Sunuwar, Sanyasis, and Thami communities.

2. As Chhetri (2023) notes, what begins as performances initially staged for the state can gradually begin to influence local audiences, who then start learning and practising what they perceive as authentic culture. What began as deliberate performance has now become an integral part of people’s everyday lives. 

3. PhD dissertation, Presidency University (forthcoming)

References

Middleton, T., 2015. The Demands of Recognition: State Anthropology and Ethnopolitics in Darjeeling. Stanford University Press.