Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity

The main inhabitants of Byans, Chaudans, and Darma, three adjacent Himalayan valleys in the Mahakali (Kali) drainage system, call themselves ‘Rang’ in their own languages. Their homeland, which has long constituted part of the extensive frontier between South Asia and Tibet, has been politically di...

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Main Author: Katsuo Nawa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Arnold Bergstraesser Institute 2023-10-01
Series:International Quarterly for Asian Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/iqas/article/view/20369
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author Katsuo Nawa
author_facet Katsuo Nawa
author_sort Katsuo Nawa
collection DOAJ
description The main inhabitants of Byans, Chaudans, and Darma, three adjacent Himalayan valleys in the Mahakali (Kali) drainage system, call themselves ‘Rang’ in their own languages. Their homeland, which has long constituted part of the extensive frontier between South Asia and Tibet, has been politically divided between Nepal and India for nearly two centuries. Even though the Rang have maintained their socio-cultural unity across the international border, the Rang in India and the Rang in Nepal have had to deal with different minority policies and discourses, coping with various ‘foreign’ ethnonyms as well as meta-level categories like ‘scheduled tribe’, ‘jan(a)jāti’, and ‘indigenous people,’ as most Rangs live as citizens of either one of the two states. Primarily based on my ethnographic fieldwork in Darchula district in Far Western Nepal and elsewhere, I discuss in this paper how Rang in Nepal have coped with changing institutional frameworks and discourses on minority populations on both sides of the Mahakali or Kali River.
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spelling doaj.art-c61d099021254c9ab4ffa14e532506142023-11-17T13:58:29ZengArnold Bergstraesser InstituteInternational Quarterly for Asian Studies2566-686X2566-68782023-10-0154310.11588/iqas.2023.3.20369Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and IndigeneityKatsuo Nawa The main inhabitants of Byans, Chaudans, and Darma, three adjacent Himalayan valleys in the Mahakali (Kali) drainage system, call themselves ‘Rang’ in their own languages. Their homeland, which has long constituted part of the extensive frontier between South Asia and Tibet, has been politically divided between Nepal and India for nearly two centuries. Even though the Rang have maintained their socio-cultural unity across the international border, the Rang in India and the Rang in Nepal have had to deal with different minority policies and discourses, coping with various ‘foreign’ ethnonyms as well as meta-level categories like ‘scheduled tribe’, ‘jan(a)jāti’, and ‘indigenous people,’ as most Rangs live as citizens of either one of the two states. Primarily based on my ethnographic fieldwork in Darchula district in Far Western Nepal and elsewhere, I discuss in this paper how Rang in Nepal have coped with changing institutional frameworks and discourses on minority populations on both sides of the Mahakali or Kali River. https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/iqas/article/view/20369NepalIndia-Nepal borderRangRungByansijanajāti
spellingShingle Katsuo Nawa
Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity
International Quarterly for Asian Studies
Nepal
India-Nepal border
Rang
Rung
Byansi
janajāti
title Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity
title_full Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity
title_fullStr Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity
title_full_unstemmed Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity
title_short Coping with Discourses on Minority Populations among the Rang of Far Western Nepal: Nation, Scheduled Tribe, Janajāti, and Indigeneity
title_sort coping with discourses on minority populations among the rang of far western nepal nation scheduled tribe janajati and indigeneity
topic Nepal
India-Nepal border
Rang
Rung
Byansi
janajāti
url https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/iqas/article/view/20369
work_keys_str_mv AT katsuonawa copingwithdiscoursesonminoritypopulationsamongtherangoffarwesternnepalnationscheduledtribejanajatiandindigeneity