Ethnicity and protective policies in Sikkim: Consolidation and reconfiguration

Abstract

This article examines how ethnicities in the state of Sikkim have evolved and emerged as fluid but potent instruments that are deployed by the state’s constituent ethnic groups in their efforts to marshal and retain control over its socio-economic and political resources, in conjunction with the policies of the central government. The process of validating ethnic identities that began in the colonial period has now been strengthened and shapes the protective polices of governments at both levels, the central and the state, for Sikkim. The processes of modernisation and development set in motion after Sikkim’s merger with India have resulted in consolidation and reconfiguration of ethnicities across the structural and cultural spheres of Sikkimese society.