Borderland Geographies of the Sikkim Himalaya

Abstract

The Himalayan borderlands have been distinct in its physical and socio-economic attributes. This landscape of dramatic diversity have been a channel of trans-ecological flows and exchanges. Thus, witnessingrhythmic but considerable footfall across the frosty heights. Consequently, it transformed the fragile mountain ecosystem and it's wilderness into an area of humane-wilderness rather than an absolute wildscape. Such places of wilderness have beensignificant but frequented and interfered at the same time in the era of modern nation-state. Despite this, the Himalayan borderland geographies have been relatively less understood. The borderlands have had markers both tangible and intangible cultural signs. As people moved across valleys and ridges, they transmitted various signs attributed to their socio-cultural traits. With the changing geo-political realities of the recent decades, such signs often got either transformed or got reduced to mere symbolism. The geo-political changes made the Himalayan region sensitive because of the presence of international borders in the region; it altered how people moved and who moved. Accordingly, the narratives around various signs has been gradually shifting in the Himalayan borderland.

This paper is set in Sikkim which is a part of Indian section of the Eastern Himalayas. As departure from often the unidimensional perspective of security, it treats borderlands as homeland and probes various signs of the society in their space-relation through the cartographic readjustments. Accordingly, it incorporates participant observation as well as snow-ball sampling for in-depth interviews conducted in the region.