Erasing Indigenous Topography

Colonial Aestheticization, Land Appropriation, and Ecological Afterlives in the Eastern Himalayas

Abstract

This paper examines the historical and ongoing effects of colonial and postcolonial land appropriation on the ecological and cultural landscapes of the Eastern Himalayas, focusing on Darjeeling and Sikkim. These mountain ecosystems, essential for biodiversity and environmental balance, have undergone significant changes due to two centuries of extraction and development activities. Using postcolonial ecocriticism and Indigenous knowledge systems within Cultural Geography, the study examines how colonial practices of aestheticisation and commodification turned Himalayan landscapes into leisure destinations and various other sites of extraction. It examines how hill stations, administrative infrastructures, and missionary institutions altered the way Indigenous people interacted with the land, resulting in long-lasting ecological effects such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and glacial lake outburst floods. The paper also examines how monocultural tea plantations in Darjeeling and hydropower projects in Sikkim maintain exploitative land use models, leading to the displacement of Indigenous ecological relations. Using Tim Ingold’s concept of the “dwelling perspective,” it highlights Lepcha, Bhutia, and Limbu views of land as sentient and interconnected, emphasising the need to recognise Indigenous landscapes as sites of resistance and resilience amid ongoing ecological and cultural challenges.