This article is a critique of the project modernity from the vantage point of an indigenous occupational community of Goa which for centuries has been pursuing sustainable livelihood practices. It revolves around the traditional occupation of fishing in the context of modernist threat it faces. Informed by the theoretical insights provided by Frank’s theory of development of underdevelopment, this article argues that our understanding of environmental change as a social process is inextricably linked with the expansion and contradiction of the world economic system. While delineating Frank’s theory of underdevelopment as theoretical support, it captures the indigenous knowledge systems of the fishing community of Goa, highlighting its ecological sensitivity. It then addresses the changes that have affected this community in the wake of enforced modernisation and development. It specifically focuses on the social movements carried out by the traditional fishermen of Goa in an attempt to protect their traditional fishing practices.

The recruitment to military in modern nation states, by and large, is voluntary. Although it is commonly assumed that a soldiers’ job in the army is to fight against the enemies of their motherland, the Indian Army has a regiment of Tibetan soldiers who are not Indians as per the law of the land. Known as Special Frontier Force (SFF), this regiment was until recently a secret wing of the Indian Army. Joining the Indian Army during the heydays of their diasporic dispersal due to the Chinese territorial aggrandizement and Sino-Indian war of 1962, with a hope of direct encounter with their enemies, Tibetans continue to be voluntarily recruited to the now non-secret SFF. As part of the Indian Army, they should be ready to fight the enemies of their host country. In fact, over the decades, they have been requested by India to take part in several military exercises. In the changed international geopolitics, Tibetans in exile may not get another opportunity to fight against their own enemies. The trajectory of the value orientations of the Tibetan soldiers in the Indian Army constitutes the axial concern of this article.

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Before the exodus of many people and the political leadership from the territory of Tibet, both the macro-governmental and micro everyday sociocultural existence were dominated by Buddhist religion and religious personalities. The wealth of the nation was decided and measured by the ever-increasing number of grand monasteries and religious personalities. This article argues that after more than six decades of democratic internal governance in exile, the earlier dominance of religion and religious personalities has now taken a hegemonic turn in this democracy without territory. Despite the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s unprecedented decision to relinquish his formal governmental authority in exile, the continued dominance of religion in the polity and everyday life of Tibetans is notable and is critically examined in this article.

The 20th century was the century of refugees. Several wars and territorial aggrandisement policies of nascent nation–states were responsible for the exodus of persecuted people across the world. Tibet, an isolated Himalayan nation, lost its freedom and thousands of Tibetans along with their leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled Tibet and took refuge in India after a long walk in the month of March 1959. The exodus has been an example not only of forced de-territorialisation of a people but also of their government. When the traditional Tibetan polity consisting of diverse cultural and regional elements came in contact with the modern democratic political institutions of the host nation–state, attempts are being made to consolidate their diverse identities through homogenising nationalistic programmes. Such attempts are fraught with multiple responses in the institutions and the public sphere among the Tibetan refugees which the article attempts to interpret.