Mona Chettri

Mona Chettri is a researcher from Gangtok, Sikkim, with a PhD in South Asia Research from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She is the author of Constructing Democracy: Ethnicity and Democracy in the Eastern Himalayan Borderland (Amsterdam University Press, 2017) and the series editor of the Eastern Himalaya Series (Rachna Books and Publications). Her research focuses on the intersections between gender, development, labour, ethnicity and politics in the eastern Himalaya of India and Nepal.

What really makes a Sikkimese?

India’s Supreme Court set off a storm by describing Sikkimese-Nepalis as people of “foreign origin.” As “Indian” Old Settlers fight for new rights, Sikkim’s Bhutia-Lepcha and Nepali communities face a reckoning over belonging and identity.

May 01, 2023

Latest Articles

Podcast: Uttar Pradesh’s halal ban, Myanmar’s armed groups expose military junta’s weakness, and more

Your Southasia news roundup from 20 Nov - 1 Dec 2023, plus an interview with Aung Kaung Myat on Operation 1027 in Myanmar

India’s slow-burn affair with Israel heats up

Azad Essa’s 'Hostile Homelands' explores the ideological convergence of Hindutva and Zionism, and the consequences for Kashmir and Palestine – but there is much more driving India and Israel’s deepening ties

Disillusioned with the Taliban, Pakistan reverses its four-decade Afghan policy

As Kabul refuses to act against the TTP and Baloch militant groups, Pakistan is ending the support it has extended to the Taliban since 1994 and its welcome to refugees from Afghanistan since the 1980s

The limited genius of Geoffrey Bawa

‘Geoffrey Bawa: Drawing from the Archives’ allows an exploration of the rift between the celebrated architect’s vision for nation-building in Sri Lanka and the country’s present reality