 | Contours of South Asian Social Anthropology: Connecting India and Nepal Subjects: Area Studies; Behavioral Sciences; Geography; Development Studies Environment Social Work Urban Studies; Social Sciences; Anthropology; Sociology & Social Policy; Asian Studies; Psychological Science; Human Geography; Anthropology; Asian Studies (General); South Asian Studies; Developmental Psychology; Cultural Geography; Social Geography; Cultural Studies; Social & Cultural Anthropology; Sociology of Culture; This book presents a conceptual and methodological framework to understand South Asia by engaging with the practices of sociology and social anthropology in India and Nepal. It provides a new imagination of South Asia by connecting historical, political, religious and cultural divides of the region. Drawing from the experiences of Indian and Nepali social anthropology, the book discusses the presence of Nepal studies in Indian social anthropology and vice versa. It highlights Nepal or South Asia as a subject for social anthropological research and stresses on pluriversal knowledge production through regional scholarship, dialogic social anthropology, South Asian episteme, post-Western social anthropology and the decolonisation of disciplines. In exploring the themes and problems of doing social anthropology in Nepal by Indian scholars, the book assesses the scope of developing the South Asian social anthropological worldview. It explains why social anthropological and sociological inquiry in India has failed to surpass its focus beyond the territorial limits of the nation state. The book examines the issues of methodological nationalism and social anthropological research tradition in South Asia. By using the Saidian framework of travelling theory and Bhambra's idea of connected sociologies, it shows how social anthropology can develop disciplinary crossroads within South Asia. This book will be of interest to students, teachers and researchers of South Asian studies, anthropology, sociology, social anthropology, South Asian sociology, cultural anthropology, social psychology, area studies, cultural studies, Nepal studies and Global South studies. Swatahsiddha Sarkar is Professor and Director (2019-2021) of the Centre for Himalayan Studies, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling, India. He has been engaged in Nepal studies in various capacities and was the recipient of Scholars Exchange Grants (2016-2017) under the Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme. Besides publishing Gorkhaland Movement: Ethnic Conflict and State Response (2013) and the co-edited volume Ethnicity in India: Issues in Community, Culture and Conflict (2013), he is engaged in research and teaching and has published widely. |
