Unbecoming Citizens: Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan

Unbecoming Citizens: Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan

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Book Specification

Item Code: IDE906
Author: Michael Hutt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, New Delhi
Language: English
Edition: 2005
ISBN: 0195670604
Pages: 327 (Color Illus: 6, B & W Illus: 9, Maps: 2)
Cover: Paperback
Other Details 8.5" X 5.5"
Weight 330 gm

Book Description

From the Jacket :

This book recounts the plight of about a hundred thousand refugees of Nepali ethnic origin who claim to have wrongly evicted from Bhutan. They arrived in Nepal during the early 1990s and since then not a single one of them has returned. The author explains who these people are and analyses the Bhutanese government's new policies on citizenship, language, and that ultimately led to the flight of many erstwhile citizens. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian and Himalayan politics, anthropology, cultural studies, and refugee studies.

About the Author :

Michael Hutt is a Professor in Nepali and Himalayan Studies and Dean in the Faculty of Languages and Cultures, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Excerpts From Reviews:

'[This] is a rich, carefully researched and important book. It provides rare case study of the dynamics of nationalism in the Himalayas.'

- Journal of Refugee Studies

'The most memorable part of the book are the narratives, the stories the refugees try to tell, the memories they try to evoke.'

- Frontline

'It is for the historical construction of the migration of Nepalis into south Bhutan and the recording of their history from their settlement to expulsion that the book is valuable.'

- Himal South Asia

'In this absorbing book, Michael Hutt provides a cogent analysis of the problems and challenges of nation-building '

Hindu

CONTENTS

Preface vii
Acknowledgements xi
Illustrations vii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Context: lands on a rim 1
1.2 Bhutan and the Bhutanese 2
1.3 Authenticity and historical truth 8
1.4 Unbecoming citizens 13
2. Matters of history 15
2.1 The history of Umbho 15
2.2 Nepali migration to Bhutan: the historical context 22
2.3 'Since the time of the Shabdrung' 24
2.4 'Priests and patrons' 27
2.5 'To protect the land of Dharmadeva' 29
3. Southern Bhutan in early British accounts 33
3.1 Early encounters 33
3.2 'A narrow slip of land' 34
3.3 Bhutan and the Younghusband mission 39
3.4 'First sightings' 40
4. The legend of Garjaman Guring 46
4.1 Ponlops and thekadars 46
4.2 D.B. Gurung's memoir 47
4.3 Using the legend 51
4.4 Questions of historicity 54
5. The settlement and administration of the south 58
5.1 A chronology of Nepali settlement 58
5.2 The ethnic boundary 61
5.3 The administration of southern Bhutan 63
5.4 The Paro Ponlop and the Dorjes 65
5.5 The Mandals 68
5.6 Land ownership and registration 71
5.7 The payment of taxes 74
5.8 Revenue from below 80
5.9 The contribution of labour 82
6. The changing bases of subjecthood 85
6.1 Calling the raiyats back home 85
6.2 The case of Akhal Singh 89
7. Lhotshampa culture 94
7.1 Bhutanese Nepaliness 94
7.2 Caste and ethnicity 95
7.3 Assumed characteristics 99
7.4 Ascribed characteristics 102
7.5 The absence of Nepali literature 105
7.6 Of pandits and pathshalas 106
8. The first activists 113
8.1 'Jai Gorkha!' 113
8.2 The death of Masur Chetri 116
8.3 The Bhutan State Congress 120
9 Coming closer to the King 127
9.1 Coming down from Tongsa 127
9.2 Political representation 130
9.3 The granting of citizenship 134
9.4 Opening the schools 137
9.5 Building the roads 139
9.6 Moving east 141
9.7 A sense of belonging 145
10. The conditions for belonging 147
10.1 Legislation on citizenship 147
10.2 Censuses 150
10.3 The 1988 census 152
11. Becoming the same 160
11.1 A homogenizing nationalism 160
11.2 Driglam Namzha 165
11.3 A national costume 167
11.4 Enforcing culture 170
11.5 Anxieties and dissent 177
11.6 A national language 178
11.7 Demoting Nepali 183
11.8 Bhutanizing buildings 190
12. 'Now we will be criminals' 193
12.1 'Nepali politics in India' 193
12.2 The petition to the King 197
12.3 Early Lhotshampa dissidence 200
12.4 Arrests and reprisals 201
12.5 Demonstrations 204
13. The Ngolops 211
13.1 The creation of the Ngolop 211
13.2 The propagation of fear 214
13.3 The closure of schools 220
13.4 'Voluntary emigrants' 221
13.5 The punishment of Tek Nath Rizal 227
14. Dil Maya: fragments of a life 231
14.1 Refugees and life histories 231
14.2 Introducing 'Dil Maya' 234
14.3 Dil Maya's life 238
14.4 Becoming afraid 246
14.5 Leaving Bhutan 251
14.6 The future 253
15. Refugees from Shangri-la 256
15.1 A postscript 256
15.2 The gaps between nation-states 263
15.3 The construction of national cultures 266
15.4 A small state, a Shangri-la 270
15.5 Repairing the tear in the fabric 272
15.6 Some legal perspectives 276
15.7 The Brahmans of Shambhala 280
Appendix 283
Bibliography 286
Index 300


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