2018/07/19 by Georgina Drew, Roshan P. Rai · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Social and Economic Development in India #Disconnection #Poverty #Geography #Tourism #Face (sociological concept) #Sociology #Political science #Economic geography #Development economics #Social science #Archaeology #Law #Economics
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780199483556.003.0011
openalex publication_date 2018/07/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Darjeeling residents face regular water stress despite a high annual amount of rainfall and an abundance of nearby springs and lakes. This chapter examines how the struggle for water manifests in the everyday lives of Darjeeling residents who come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and live in a range of geographical locations within the burgeoning tourist town. The text explains who is connected to municipal waters, who is not connected to them, and how a physical disconnection to municipal water supplies fosters abjection along with social affinities that can lead to productive adaptations. Emphasis is placed on how support systems, such as social collectives known as <italic>samaj</italic>, have begun to address the structural inadequacies of the municipal water supply system. These decentralized efforts are promising, but they also speak to the wider geographies of exclusion prevalent in Darjeeling—a town that is spatially marked by extreme contrasts between wealth and poverty.