Representing Bhutan
A Critical Analysis of the Politics of Knowledge Production
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11944597 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nitasha Kaul (0000-0002-2245-0171, University of Westminster, London, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 629-657 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03086534.2021.1883245 |
| OpenAlex | W3135679660 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 21 |
Historical knowledge production about Bhutan by outsiders has generally relied upon the dominant lens of understanding the place and people through accounts that combine narratives of travel and strategy. In this article, I interrogate the complexly layered itinerary of such accounts to demonstrate how their imperial ethos has either been ignored or underplayed. I critically analyse the systematicity, selectivity, and the positionality in knowledge-making on Bhutan. I find that imperial knowledge production endeavour tends to be projected as casual and unintentional, innocent of its biases, unaware of its calculations, and oblivious to how it prioritises its own interests at the expense of the native Others and their worldviews. Thus, the sourcing of knowledge on Bhutan is linked to the histories of power in the region and marked by asymmetries in terms of whose views were heard and reproduced over time. Understanding the politics of knowledge-making on Bhutan – constructed as a peripheral non-Western region of the world, and having been subjected to multiple and overlapping imperial forces – has the potential to inform, and be informed by, other similar understudied areas
Casual · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ethos · Knowledge production · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Production (economics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Patterns of discovery.
Patterns of Discovery
Europe and the people without history
Selective access
Orientalist imaginaries of travels in Kashmir
Where Empires Meet
Some Geographical and Medical Observations in North Bhutan
Demystifying Some Ethnographic Texts on the Himalayas
Exploration and Survey with the Tibet Frontier Commission, and from Gyangtse to Simla Via Gartok
Kishen Singh and the Indian Explorers
The Pundits
"Where Is Bhutan?" The Production of Bhutan's Asymmetrical Inbetweenness in Geopolitics
The Pundits
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |