MONTHLY SEMINAR SERIES
SPECIAL CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF NORTH EAST INDIA
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES – BUILDING I
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY
HIMALAYAS AS AN IMAGINED GEOGRAPHY
Swargajyoti Gohain
Ashoka University
In the contemporary global order of nation-states, how can we think about modes of belonging that do not conform to conventional political geographies and identities? Zomia, a concept given by Willem Van Schendel and popularized by James Scott was an attempt to describe spatial identity in a non-contiguous territorial frame, for Zomia covered dispersed hill-dwelling minorities in several Southeast Asian states. I use the notion of imagined geography both in a parallel and contrasting sense to the idea of Zomia – to understand new forms of cultural identity in the Himalayan region. Based on ethnographic work in the Monyul border of Western Arunachal Pradesh, I show how in certain discursive practices in this Tibetan Buddhist cultural region, the Himalayas are reconfigured to indicate not simply a physical geography, but also an imagined geography. This imagined space of belonging materializes through particular visions of Monyul as a Tibetan space, supported by collective programmes for upholding Tibetan Buddhist traditions in the region. These new circuits of belonging that I call a Himalayan imagined geography draws into its fold not only Monpas living in Monyul, but also Buddhist people from surrounding Himalayan regions, such as Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal. Although arising in and manifesting through a political demand for local Mon autonomy, the Himalayan imagined geography does not have only Monyul as its single territorial referent but covers politically discontinuous units spread across the entire Himalayas. I show how reimagining the Himalayan geography in this manner enables us to reflect on the contours of post-national geographies (Appadurai 1996) that may not have a territorial character.
DATE: March 29, Friday, 2019
TIME: 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
VENUE: Room no.324, 3rd Floor, SSS-I, JNU
