Abstract
ABSTRACT Darjeeling town in West Bengal has been marked by centuries of migration. As the area variously came under Sikkimese, Nepalese, and British colonial rule, migration has become a constitutive element of life in this Eastern Himalayan town. Drawing on discussions around the relationship between migration and belonging-ness, in this paper I examine the relationships between migration and materialities of belonging in the context of borderland urbanism. To do this, I look at two forms of migration and the ways in which they complicate the question of belonging in Darjeeling: (a) migration from tea-gardens and rural areas to the town and (b) migration from Darjeeling to other parts of India and abroad. Based on almost two years of fieldwork in Darjeeling between 2021 and 2023, and using participant observation and semi-structured interviews, I argue that migration is central to understanding belonging and urban transformations in Darjeeling.
Published Version
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