Tea, Tribes and Dooars: A Geographical Perspective

The book "Tea, Tribes and Dooars: A Geographical Perspective" is the description of tribal people living in Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills of North Bengal. Dooars is the term applied as gateway into Bhutan from India and vice-versa. The region was sparsely inhabited by indigenous Indo-mongoloid communities, e.g. Koch-Rajbanshis, Mech, Garo, Toto, Rabha etc. The British imperial power took initiatives to establish tea gardens in the Dooars in the second half of the 19th century, but local people were reluctant to work as tea garden workers, as a consequence different tribal community people were brought from the Chhotonagpur plateau, e.g. Oraons, Santal, Malpaharia, Kharia, Munda, Lohars, Mahali etc. Continuous pressure of population and assimilation of several groups i.e. two distinct group of tribal communities, Rajbanshis, Bengalis, Nepalese and others creates several problems to the livelihood of tribal communities who are gradually facing challenges of economic sustainability and socio-cultural identity crisis. The chapters of this book are dealt with the present socio-economic challenges of the tribal communities and other related aspects of their miseries.

Autorentext

Dr. Bipul Chandra Sarkar, Assistant Professor of Geography, Ananda Chandra College, Jalpaiguri, affiliated to the University of North Bengal wrote two books for UG students of Geography and published many research papers in reputed national and international journals. Two research projects funded by UGC and ICSSR have been completed by him.

Klappentext

The book "Tea, Tribes and Dooars: A Geographical Perspective" is the description of tribal people living in Dooars region of the Himalayan foothills of North Bengal. Dooars is the term applied as gateway into Bhutan from India and vice-versa. The region was sparsely inhabited by indigenous Indo-mongoloid communities, e.g. Koch-Rajbanshis, Mech, Garo, Toto, Rabha etc. The British imperial power took initiatives to establish tea gardens in the Dooars in the second half of the 19th century, but local people were reluctant to work as tea garden workers, as a consequence different tribal community people were brought from the Chhotonagpur plateau, e.g. Oraons, Santal, Malpaharia, Kharia, Munda, Lohars, Mahali etc. Continuous pressure of population and assimilation of several groups i.e. two distinct group of tribal communities, Rajbanshis, Bengalis, Nepalese and others creates several problems to the livelihood of tribal communities who are gradually facing challenges of economic sustainability and socio-cultural identity crisis. The chapters of this book are dealt with the present socio-economic challenges of the tribal communities and other related aspects of their miseries.