Mainstream Weekly

Parliamentary Elections and Gorkhaland: Message from Darjeeling

Swatahsiddha Sarkar — 2014-10-24T09:12:56Z

The exposure of the Darjeeling hills towards the tit-bits of electoral politics can be traced back to 1937, the year when the first-ever elections in the hills took place. According to the provisions of the Government of India Act 1935, the Darjeeling hill region was declared as a ‘partially excluded area' and allotted one member to be elected to the Provincial Legislature of the then Bengal. Again in 1946 the political enthusiasm registered by the people and hill leaders regarding the (…)

- 2014

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration: An Overview

Swatahsiddha Sarkar — 2012-05-22T00:22:02Z

The recent tripartite agreement on the Gorkha-land Territorial Administration (GTA) held between the Central Government, State Government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) to usher in normalcy, peace and development in the hill region of the district of Darjeeling, West Bengal has set in motion the potentialities for controversies and politics.
While the new arrangement of the GTA is considered both by the GJM and the Trinamul Congress (TMC), the ruling party of West Bengal, as a great (…)

- 2012

Recasting Tradition: Dress, Difference and Dissent in Darjeeling Hills

Swatahsiddha Sarkar — 2008-12-21T14:42:32Z

As a non-verbal mode of communication clothing often represents the cultural identity and cultural value premises of a group living in any society. Within its space biased and time biased limits of operation the clothing pattern is capable enough to negotiate between the distinctiveness of a cultural self, expressions of group conformity and individual status, and the malleability of individual taste and sense of aesthetics all at once. Furthermore, a specific dress code may be indicative of (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008