Rethinking Hill-Valley Binary: Methodological Nationalism and the Trends of Writing Sociology in India

Abstract

This article attempts to engage with the trends of writing sociology in India by locating the argument within the discourse of coproduction of space, identity and belonging. It aims to interrogate colonial as well as post-colonial construal of hill-valley binaries in the context of the dictum of methodological nationalism in India. It is categorically imperative on our part to posit ‘the historicising the Himalayas’ in terms of colonial dispensation and coevolution of economy, culture, space, identity, belonging, nationalism, historiography and polity. Moving beyond established methodological, nationalism would not be an easy task as it entails heavy criticism mostly in the domain of political construction of national identity. However, the change of our analytical tools, objects and methods might contribute in developing a more inclusive social theory, not painted by self-evident sociological theory of the nation-state.

L'environnementalisme dans les collines de Darjeeling : une enquête

“…The hill-valley distinction in colonial cartography (Suan 2009, Tamang andKipgen 2019) shaped the British ecological reaction in the Himalayas. The hills appeared to be naturally prosperous and would allow the colonial state to establish a 'resource frontier' on the periphery, while providing a strategic location in the Himalayas.…”