ABSTRACT
Migration has been an inevitable phenomenon in the history of human existence. It becomes institutional when the borders with the surrounding states are virtually open. Eastern Himalayas provides us with such a case where mobility across the Indo-Nepal, Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Sikkim borders are encouraged through treaties. In these circumstances, when the successive treaties encouraged migration, what happened to the nationality and citizenship questions of the mobile persons becomes an issue to ponder over. In the Eastern Himalayas, specifically the Nepalis(ese), along with others, were encouraged to migrate in subsequent times by the colonial, as well as the postcolonial, state. In such situations, what happened to their citizenry question in the host state is a pertinent question to ask! Is there any role of the growing numbers of Nepalis(ese) in Bhutan and their subsequent ousting in the early 1990s! All these incidents provide us the conjecture that the Nepali citizenry question is still silent and buried under the prevalent discourse of Nepali nationalism and identity. It becomes more alarming when we notice that the Nepalis(ese) in the Eastern Himalayas had been struggling to secure their territorial identity, for example the Gorkhaland Movement. The veracity of this struggle of the Nepali-speaking people can well be apprehended when one notices that more than one lakh Gorkhas were declared ‘foreigners’ in Assam as their names failed to appear in the National Register of Citizens. Hence, this chapter seeks to historicise the Nepalis(ese) migration in the Eastern Himalayas to contemporaries their citizenship anxiety in India.
