Through the India-China Border

Prem Poddar is Professor in Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University in Denmark and Alexander von Humboldt Senior Fellow in Germany. He is former and founding Vice-Chancellor of Darjeeling Hills University, India. He is currently ICAS:MP Senior Fellow. His research interests include cultural theory, nationalisms, and the politics of the passport. Lisa Lindkvist Zhang is Postdoctoral Fellow at Tohoku University and Analyst at the Swedish National China Centre. She defended her PhD dissertation Re-thinking Indian Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century China at Heidelberg University in 2023. Her research focuses on philosophy and history in light of Chinese politics and China-India relations.

• Preface; Acknowledgments; Glossary; 1. Introduction: Kalimpong as Interface – Post/colonial and Transcultural; 2. Kalimpong as Metonym: India–China Correlation; 3. Chinese (and Tibetan) Certification in Himalayan India: Foreigner Registration Files 1940s–1960s; 4. Espionage, Intrigues and Politics: Kalimpong Chung Hwa School as International Playhouse; 5. Shangri-la (Gyalthang) to Kalimpong: The Road of Trade, Transculture and Conflict; 6. Inconclusion: Not The Last Word; Bibliography; Index.

This book is a model of international scholarship, instructive and a delight to read. Variously a booming border town, a strategic asset, a listening post, a 'nest of spies', an ideological flashpoint and a cosmopolitan retreat, topsy-turvy Kalimpong amply merits the story told here. Through the India–China Border will be of absorbing interest to Himalayanists and to anyone concerned with the interplay of external expectations and internal realities within a contested border region. John Keay, Author of Himalaya: Exploring the Roof of the World (2022)