Democratisation in the Himalayas: interests, conflicts, and negotiations/ Vibha Arora & N Jayaram eds.

Includes index

Introduction: steering democratisation and negotiating identity in the Himalayas,
Part I Shifting selves and competing identities,
1. Seeking identities on the margins of democracy,
2. The politics of census: fear of numbers and competing claims for representation in Naga society,
3. The making of the subaltern Lepcha and the Kalimpong stimulus,
Part II Negotiating democracy,
4. Monks elections and foreign travels: democracy and the monastic order in western Arunachal Pradesh, North-East India
5. 'Pure democracy' in ' Nepal': conceptions practices and anxietiesnew
Part III Territorial conflict and after,
6. Demand for Kukiland and Kuki ethnic nationalism,
7. Displacement from Kashmir: gendered responses
Index

This volume discusses competing interests; identity politics that permeates political formations, the transformations in the traditional forms of governance and their adaption to democratic institutions; the genesis and periodic eruptions of ethnic assertions, and attempts to resolve ethnic conflict. It shows how recent efforts at deepening democratic values and implementing social justice have been resisted and contested. The book argues that the play of ethnicity, the creation of political parties and interest groups, the emergence of social movements, and the voice of protest and opposition do not indicate a crisis in democracy but comprise the instruments by which the state is pushed towards reform, welfare, and inclusive politics, and is obliged to listen to the people.