Frontier commodification: governing land, labour and leisure in Darjeeling, India
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Frontier commodification : governing land, labour and leisure in Darjeeling, India. / Bennike, Rune Bolding.
In: South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2017, p. 256-271.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Frontier commodification
T2 - governing land, labour and leisure in Darjeeling, India
AU - Bennike, Rune Bolding
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - In the contemporary global imagination, Darjeeling typically figures on two accounts: as a unique tourism site replete with colonial heritage and picturesque nature, and as the productive origin for some of the world's most exclusive teas. In this commodified and consumable form, Darjeeling is part of a wide array of frontier places that are increasingly incorporated into the circuits of global capitalism. In the present article, I argue that Darjeeling is in fact an early and emblematic example of such incorporation. By connecting emerging literature on the pre-colonial history of the area with a critical reading of colonial sources, I trace the shifts and erasures that enabled Darjeeling's commodification—a process that involved its transformation from a ‘wild’ Himalayan frontier into a speculative wasteland and, ultimately, into a picturesque and productive ‘summer place’. Reading through a range of material and representational interventions, I uncover the particular assemblage of government and capital that enabled this transformation and highlight its potential resonances with contemporary cases of frontier commodification in South Asia and beyond.
AB - In the contemporary global imagination, Darjeeling typically figures on two accounts: as a unique tourism site replete with colonial heritage and picturesque nature, and as the productive origin for some of the world's most exclusive teas. In this commodified and consumable form, Darjeeling is part of a wide array of frontier places that are increasingly incorporated into the circuits of global capitalism. In the present article, I argue that Darjeeling is in fact an early and emblematic example of such incorporation. By connecting emerging literature on the pre-colonial history of the area with a critical reading of colonial sources, I trace the shifts and erasures that enabled Darjeeling's commodification—a process that involved its transformation from a ‘wild’ Himalayan frontier into a speculative wasteland and, ultimately, into a picturesque and productive ‘summer place’. Reading through a range of material and representational interventions, I uncover the particular assemblage of government and capital that enabled this transformation and highlight its potential resonances with contemporary cases of frontier commodification in South Asia and beyond.
KW - Faculty of Science
KW - Commodification
KW - Darjeeling
KW - Frontier
KW - Landscape
KW - Land
KW - Tourism
U2 - 10.1080/00856401.2017.1289618
DO - 10.1080/00856401.2017.1289618
M3 - Journal article
VL - 40
SP - 256
EP - 271
JO - South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies
JF - South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies
SN - 0085-6401
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 176542333