The Land in Gorkhaland: Rethinking Belonging in Darjeeling, India

Since the mid-1980s, regional political parties in Darjeeling have been agitating for the creation of an Indian state of Gorkhaland, which would comprise the region’s Nepali majority. Besky argues that for many Gorkhas, the salient political struggle was as much with land as it was for land. This paper, then, brings attention to the land in Gorkhaland as a means of differently understanding the material and environmental bases of subnational demands and sovereignty.