Papers by Swargajyoti Gohain
China Report, 2023
Lachlan Fleetwood's book is a wonderful new addition to the scholarly literature on the Himalayas... more Lachlan Fleetwood's book is a wonderful new addition to the scholarly literature on the Himalayas. Using the huge but often overlooked trove of colonial-era European naturalists' and surveyors' journals, reports, memoirs and scientific papers on the Himalayas, Fleetwood shows how the science of mountains are related to geopolitics and colonialism. In 1800, the Himalayas were not recognised as the world's highest mountain ranges. How did they achieve this status in 1856? What happened in the intervening years that led to this paradigm shift in the geological sciences? How was this connected to imperialist knowledge production on the part of the East India Company, which was ruling India then? The author clarifies that he is making an intervention in studies of global science in terms of how scientists tried to understand mountains in the framework of commensurability they developed. Verticality became increasingly important in global science in the mid-nineteenth century as scientists were keen to define earth's topography through roundness as well as altitude. But it was inextricably woven with imperial decisions regarding unstable frontiers. Scaling heights for conquest (used for survey and measurement and demarcation of territorial control) was related to the impulse to conquer people and territories. Chapter one probes how European attempts to measure the Himalayas were fraught with many tensions, between the objective of making global science on one hand, and the insecurity of frontiers, imperial competition and reliance on local labour, on the other. The author emphasises that 'insecurity is thus intended to signal a relative lack of knowledge and the threatening nature of this lacunae' (p. 52). Therefore, insecure frontiers and the need to map them formed the impetus for imperial knowledgemaking, including scientific discovery. Conversely, imperial acquisition of new territories allowed travel and science of the mountains. Empire and science were entangled in different ways. Imperial rivalry-between British India, China and Russia, meant that scientific explorations and measurements often had to be curtailed midway in order to avoid diplomatic tension. Empire entered also in the actions of naturalists
The Routledge Companion to Northeast India, edited by Jelle J.P. Wouters and Tanka B. Subba, 2022
Peace Prints- A South Asian Journal of Peace Building, 2021
and is the author of Imagined Geographies in the Indo-Tibetan Borderlands (2020, Amsterdam Univer... more and is the author of Imagined Geographies in the Indo-Tibetan Borderlands (2020, Amsterdam University Press) based on her ethnographic research in Tawang and West Kameng, two Tibetan Buddhist majority districts in west Arunachal Pradesh. Her research interests include borders and state, culture and politics, migration, development, infrastructure, education, and Tibetan Buddhist communities.
South Asian History and Culture, 2022
As the world speculates about a post-Dalai Lama scenario, what is the response among India's bord... more As the world speculates about a post-Dalai Lama scenario, what is the response among India's borderland Buddhists? In this paper, I show that there is a growing need among Tibetan Buddhist people of the Indian Himalayan borderlands to forge a cultural unity that is Buddhist but removed from Tibet. With the decline of Tibet as a spiritual and cultural centre for Tibetan Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhist communities of India are strategically cohering around new identities and spaces that are firmly rooted in India. Given an impending future, when Buddhists around the world, and particularly in Asia, will no longer be able to depend on the figure of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama for guidance, there are concerted efforts underfoot to unite the Himalayan Buddhists of Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and other border regions of India under a common platform. In this regard, research organizations, cultural associations, and educational institutions are assuming a key role. While many scholarly works have studied the role of associations and institutional spaces in the formation of a transnational identity for Indian Buddhists, this paper focuses on the transregional networks forged through cultural and educational institutions in the Himalayan border regions of India, focusing on the Delhi-based Himalayan Buddhist Cultural Association (HBCA) and other new organizations working for an Indian Himalayan Buddhist unity. I draw on my ethnographic work in Monyul, a Tibetan Buddhist cultural region in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India, to show how the Buddhist Monpas of Monyul are drawn into the pan-regional networks of Indian Himalayan Buddhism.
Vernacular Politics in Northeast India. Ed. Jelle J.P Wouters, 2022
When elections to the sixty assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh ... more When elections to the sixty assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India were held concurrently on 11 April 2019, three monks filed nominations to contest the elections from the predominantly Buddhist district of Tawang. Lama Lobsang Gyatso was given a Janata Dal (secular) ticket to fight against Pema Khandu, the incumbent chief minister from the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mukto constituency; he later withdrew his candidature to give way to Geshe Thupten Kunphen fielded by the Indian National Congress (INC). In Lumla, another constituency, National People's Party (NPP) candidate Lama Jampa Thrinley Kunkhap, fought against and subsequently, lost to BJP's Jambey Tashi. The electoral foray of the three monks drew much media attention, but they were only the latest in a long line of monkpoliticians, as I term monks who choose politics as their vocation. Across the world, monks joining parliamentary politics is becoming increasingly normalized; however, there is a wide variation from country to country in the degree of monastic participation in politics. At one extreme is Thailand, where the Buddhist monastic order (Sanskrit. sangha) is enveloped by the state, curtailing the freedom of monks to join politics. Bhutan, where the monk body is disenfranchised, presents a similar case, although monks have greater political and civic authority here (Mathou, 2000). The other extreme is Sri Lanka, where monks justify and institutionalize their role in politics, and many monks have served as members of the parliament. Myanmar is a middle case where monks cannot
New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 2021
Buddhist monks have become increasingly visible in environmental movements in the last few decade... more Buddhist monks have become increasingly visible in environmental movements in the last few decades, including in Arunachal Pradesh, India, my fieldwork site. Monks in environmental protests have contributed to the popular representation of Buddhism as ecological. A review of existing literature suggests that what we are looking at is a re-interpretation of Buddhist traditional philosophy by modern environmentally conscious people and contemporary Buddhists. I argue that as anthropologists, we have to note that while Buddhism can help mobilise lay activism, local practices about the environment do not often overlap with Buddhist doctrine. I illustrate this through the example of the ban on yak meat in Arunachal Pradesh, which is linked to wider Hindu nationalist politics in India. Environmental activities in the Buddhist Himalayas cannot be understood simply through the lens of Buddhism and one has to adopt a more pluralistic approach that is accommodating of customs that do not fit within an imagined "environmental identity" (Sharma 2009). I propose Himalayan environmentalism as an alternative to Buddhist environmentalism, not to disregard the role of Buddhist belief but to show how Himalayan environmentalism goes beyond Buddhism in scope. Second, my intention is not to propose a uniform model for the Himalaya, but to point to the processes at work between culture, politics, and ecology, and to the role of power in fashioning environmental identities. I support my argument with empirical data from my own fieldwork and those of scholars working in other parts of the Himalaya.
Dhabas, highways, and exclusion, 2021
This chapter is an ethnographic study of 'hybrid dhabas' or inns that have emerged in the wake of... more This chapter is an ethnographic study of 'hybrid dhabas' or inns that have emerged in the wake of massive highway construction all over India. Focusing especially on the dhabas on National Highways NH 1 and NH 37 passing through Murthal, Haryana, and Nagaon, Assam, this chapter argues that these hybrid dhabas, which combine features of traditional dhabas and city-based restaurants, reveal a particular social character of highways. These dhabas cater to a mostly middle-class clientele, while remaining inaccessible to less privileged classes and former users of highway inns, such as truck drivers. While scholars of urban studies have shown how material constructions such as shopping malls, theme parks, or gated communities give the city a middle-class character, this chapter shows how dhabas play a similar role in peri-urban areas by constructing the highways as middle-class spaces and sites of neoliberal exclusion.
Book reviews, 2021
Jiwei Ci is correct to point to the fragility of the CCP's next leadership transition as a concer... more Jiwei Ci is correct to point to the fragility of the CCP's next leadership transition as a concern, one that he predicts will lead to a democratic transition in the future. Indeed, Xi Jinping has purposely fostered personalist and populist appeals based on framing himself as a charismatic leader on a par with the "Great Helmsman" Mao Zedong. A post-Xi era could be characterized as one in which ideological legitimation in this fashion is ineffectual. Again, this is known to the Party, and a shift to other CCP-led legitimation strategies is the most likely outcome, as has been the case during leadership transitions in the postmarket reform era. Change in the context of China, as Jiwei Ci begrudgingly admits, generally occurs on the CCP's terms rather than working against it. In sum, Democracy in China is an aspirational, philosophical discussion without stringent empirical support for many of its meta-claims. The monograph will be of interest to China scholars. Although it confirms many of the biases that exist within the field, it simultaneously acts as a scintillating springboard to disaggregate many of the salient themes and concepts that will engulf China in the 2020s.
Sociological Bulletin, 2021
Ethno-Linguistic Identities, Society, and State: Challenges to a Sound Refugee Policy. Interview ... more Ethno-Linguistic Identities, Society, and State: Challenges to a Sound Refugee Policy. Interview with CIDS, O.P Jindal Global University
Book review, 2020
Dolly Kikon places her ethnography in the foothills of Assam and Nagaland, a region beset by long... more Dolly Kikon places her ethnography in the foothills of Assam and Nagaland, a region beset by long-term militancy and militarisation. Going beyond a geopolitical lens, Kikon focuses on the people living and working in the foothills. She shows how the foothills provide a site to study how people navigate extractive activities of both state and nonstate actors, where militarisation overlaps with coal and oil extraction; where carbon forms the connective tissue, bringing together residents and traders, militants and security forces, ethnic competitors and seasonal friends in a variety of social relations. The book, which merges ethnographic writing and creative non-fiction in its narrative style, has seven short, readable chapters, and an Epilogue. The author calls it a multi-perspective ethnography, although typically all ethnographic inquiries record multiple perspectives.
Border studies and Northeast India The study of borders is a relatively new field within the soci... more Border studies and Northeast India The study of borders is a relatively new field within the social sciences. Borders were generally seen as the territorial limits defining political entities such as states, and legal subjects such as citizens of a state, whereas boundaries were considered to be social constructs establishing differences between identities of class, gender, race, religion or other cultural communities (Fassin 2011). This article traces developments in border studies and outlines directions for this field of study in Northeast India
Modern Asian Studies, 2019
This article focuses on the Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh, northeast Indi... more This article focuses on the Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India, collectively known as Monyul. It was ruled by Tibet for three centuries before the 1914 McMahon Line boundary included it in India. Even after that, cross-border exchanges between Monyul and Tibet continued until the 1962 Sino-Indian war, following which border passages between the two were closed. Today, Monyul is a marginal region, geographically distant from centres of industry and education, and lacking in terms of infrastructure. This article traces Monyul's marginality not simply to the border war, but to spatial practices of the British colonial state, beginning with the mapping of the boundary in 1951. It shows how Monyul was constructed as a buffer, despite being within a delimited boundary, first, by excluding it from regular administration, and, secondly, by pushing back the older Tibetan administration, thereby, making it (what I call) a 'zone of difference/indifference'. But the buffer project was subject to contestation, mostly from the Tibetan religious aristocracy, whose temporal hold over, and material interests in, Monyul were challenged by the latter's incorporation into colonial India.
Social Anthropology, 2019
Selective access: or, how states make remoteness What makes a place remote? Is remoteness a facto... more Selective access: or, how states make remoteness What makes a place remote? Is remoteness a factor of geography and topography, is it a construct of connect ivity, or is it an outcome of politics and history? For the Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh in North East India, inhabiting the Indo Tibetan borderlands, remote denotes multiple aspects: lack of material infrastructure and transport, improper communication and geographical isolation. Living an enclave existence far away from centres of commerce, governance and industry, Monpas consider themselves to be backward. Yet, Monyul, the traditional homeland of the Monpa communities, is of high strategic importance in the still unresolved India-China border conflict. Its present remoteness is woven into the politics of borders and frontiers. Through a focus on the particular history and politics of Monyul, I show how colonial and postcolonial policies transformed the region into a remote periphery. While infrastructure and connectivity can lead to the economic and political integration of a region, the withholding of the same makes a region appear remote. I bring the concept of selective connectivity to understand how road infrastructure is a particular form of exercising state control.
Routledge Handbook of Asian Borderlands
It is now common to see borderlands as spaces that transcend the territorial logic of nation stat... more It is now common to see borderlands as spaces that transcend the territorial logic of nation states. Yet, in particular instances of conflict, in territories disputed between two states, national borders tend to become reified or larger than life. In this chapter, I show how the "disputed border" introduces nuances in the general understanding of borderlands as spaces of flows. I do this in relation to my ethnographic experiences in a border region that has been at the center of territorial contention between two nation states -India and China. This is the western part of Arunachal Pradesh, consisting of Tawang and West Kameng districts, which is claimed by China as the southern extension of Tibet.
Routledge Handbook of Asian Borderlands
We live in a world of military metaphors. Military images, symbols, and technologies have invaded... more We live in a world of military metaphors. Military images, symbols, and technologies have invaded all aspects of public life and consumption practices. War-time terminology such as "collateral damage" and "engage the enemy" have entered popular jargon (Van Dongen 2015). 1 Security technologies such as surveillance cameras and metal detectors are now used by prisons as well as schools, shopping malls, and the tourist industry. Popular culture plays on military-themed entertainment and patriotic images (Weaver 2011: 684; Schepher-Hughes 2014: 645).
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Papers by Swargajyoti Gohain