Edited Books | Sara Shneiderman

2018. Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Politics, Environments. Edited by Townsend Middleton and Sara Shneiderman. Oxford University Press.

Darjeeling Reconsidered provocatively rethinks Darjeeling’s legendary status in the postcolonial imagination. Mobilizing diverse disciplinary approaches from the social sciences and humanities, this definitive collection of essays sheds fresh light on the region’s past and offers critical insight into the issues facing its people today. The historical analyses break with hackneyed colonial accounts to provide alternative readings of systems of governance, labour, and migration that shaped Darjeeling. The ethnographic chapters present cutting-edge accounts of dynamics that define life in 21st century Darjeeling: among them the realpolitik of subnationalism; Fair Trade tea; indigenous struggle; gendered inequality; ecological transformation; and resource scarcity. Through these eye-opening perspectives, Darjeeling Reconsidered figures Darjeeling as a vital site for South Asian and Postcolonial Studies-and calls for a timely re-examination of the legend and hard-realities of this oft-romanticized region and its people.

“Darjeeling Reconsidered is an essential and timely book on a place of special significance in Northeast India. The essays within question the longstanding colonial and tourist romance surrounding the ‘Queen of the Hills,’ and examine the political, social, environmental, and labour movements that shape its contemporary life. With this collection, Townsend Middleton and Sara Shneiderman upend outdated myths in favour of rigorous new scholarship. The reader is left with a portrait of Darjeeling that is as complex and dynamic as it is intricate.”—Manjushree Thapa, Author and Translator of Indra Bahadur Rai’s There’s a Carnival Today

Purchase the book from Oxford University Press (Global)

Purchase the book from Oxford University Press (India)

Read sections of the book for free on Google Books

Reviews:

Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty (Presidency College) in The Hindu

Selma K. Sonntag (Humboldt State University) in Pacific Affairs

Prem Poddar (Roskilde University) in Studies in Nepali History and Society

Anna Pradhan (University of Melbourne) in European Bulletin of Himalayan Research

2003 The Gauri Shankar Trekking Area (including Rolwaling) – A Cultural Tour Book. Edited by Patricia East, Susan Höivik, Max Petrik, Sara Shneiderman and Mark Turin. Kathmandu: Eco Himal and Mandala Book Point