The Universal Meets the Himalayan Particular: Indigeneity, Race, and Decolonization in India

Abstract

When it comes to the study of South Asia, many scholars consider theoretical frameworks related to indigeneity, race, and decolonization as impositions of Euro-American academia and generally inapplicable to the region. Drawing on research in the Indian Himalayan region—specifically in places with a contested history of incorporation into the Indian Union, this paper argues that engaging with these frameworks allows scholars to more clearly identify the specific universalisms operating within both disciplinary and area studies approaches. The paper outlines three kinds of universalisms—European racial theories, the nation-state, and Hindu nationalism—and discusses how these have been operationalized in colonial and postcolonial state discourse and academic approaches to the region in ways that obscure alternative renderings of the region’s history and future. Throughout, the paper emphasizes the political struggles and aspirations of Himalayan and Indigenous communities in South Asia, arguing for a deeper engagement with their grounded particularities as a way to expand our conceptual perspectives and geographical imaginations.