ABSTRACT
Democracy as a process of nation-building has somehow attempted to 'recognise' some units, classify them, and then create a sense of symbolic unity that has been identified by most students of the nation-state as 'constructed' or 'imagined'. This chapter discusses one such case that of the Jad Bhotiyas, who, according to the Gazetteer of Uttar Pradesh, have been identified as one of the 'tribal' groups in the state and classified as scheduled tribe. B. S. Bisht mentions that 'in Uttar Pradesh only five tribal communities, that is, Bhotiyas, Buxas, Tharus, Rajis and Jaunsaries [were] declared as Scheduled Tribes in 1967'. The Jads have been subjected to displacement and relocation simultaneously – shifted from their upper Himalayan villages near the Neilang Pass and relocated in the slightly lower and pre-existing village at Harsil – following the China–India border conflict of 1962. Over the years, the Jads have come to realise their importance within the local pahari society.
