Borders and Connectivity in the Sikkim-Nepal Borderlands
This paper examines the transformations of the Limbu “native” or “indigenous space” in the borderlands between eastern Nepal and Sikkim since the early twentieth century. It approaches “native space” as the region where most Limbu reside today, where trans-local and intra-ethnic relationships predom...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud
2024-12-01
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| Series: | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/9969 |
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| Summary: | This paper examines the transformations of the Limbu “native” or “indigenous space” in the borderlands between eastern Nepal and Sikkim since the early twentieth century. It approaches “native space” as the region where most Limbu reside today, where trans-local and intra-ethnic relationships predominantly occur, and which they associate with their shared memory and collective identity. The paper explores how the border has shaped both the representation and experience of this space by the Limbu, critically examining the scholarly analysis of the dynamics of this space as a mere alignment of ethnic boundaries with state territory. Beginning with a review of the first large-scale Limbu cultural-political mobilization in West Bengal during the 1920s, the paper highlights how transborder connections and imagination served as a resource for this movement. However, by the 1980s, in a broader context of redefinition of ethnicity among all communities in Nepal, Sikkim, and West Bengal, the Limbu “homeland” became increasingly envisioned within the confines of state borders. While acknowledging this shift, the paper argues that this political process did not entirely erase other spatial imaginaries, particularly those sustained through religious practices in the borderlands. Transborder connections and the memory of past sovereignty also remained central to the Limbu community, maintaining their transborder identity. Ultimately, ethnographic fieldwork reveals the present day’s significance of a Limbu “native space,” and its “indigenous geography,” which coexists with the state border regime. |
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| ISSN: | 1960-6060 |