| Summary/Abstract |
‘Old Settlers’ is a name that people commonly known as ‘Marwari’ and others ‘Sikkimese of Indian origins’ have adopted for themselves following 2008 Amendment 26AAA, which exempted from income tax Sikkim Subject Certificate holders; ‘Sikkim Subject’ status was the form of citizenship granted during the monarchy, and it remained basis of access to citizenship rights after the inclusion of Sikkim into India in 1975. Whereas some of their families had settled in the nineteenth century, which would have qualified them for Sikkim Subject status, Marwaris living in Sikkim were not given this status. Why ‘old settlement’ became central to their claims after 2008? This paper analyses the emergence of label ‘old settlers’ as an outcome of the specific connection in Sikkim between formal recognition as an ethnic minority and distribution of state benefits, and of increased importance given to a territorial form of recognition after 1975.
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