The book presents pioneering efforts of numerous scholars from India and Nepal to uncover various aspects of the life of the Indians of Nepalese origin?The Nepamul Bharatiya. It is divided into twenty-one chapters and three parts: The Background; Predicament of Existence; and Issues: Imagined and Real. Many of the authors have written about their own communities: history, culture, recruitment in the armed forces, politics, settlement pattern, and language & literature. Apart from that, it documents the contributions of the community in consolidation of the Indian Union, its efforts to cave out a distinct Indian identity and its resolve to emphasize its Indian destiny. This book will be read by every educated Nepamul, historians, sociologists, soldiers, planners, anthropologists, political scientists and any body who is concerned with the Himalayan studies.

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Professor Awadhesh Coomar Sinha teaches Sociology at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. With degrees in Anthropology and Sociology, he has taught in a number of Indian and foreign universities over three decades. He has been the Head, Department of Sociology for over a decade and Dean, School of Social Sciences, at NEHU, Shillong. His academic interests include political sociology of environment, among others. Among his major publications Politics of Sikkim (1975), Bhutan: Ethnic Identity and National Dilemma (1991), Hill Cities in Eastern Himalayas (1993), Beyond the Trees, Tribes and Tigers: Historical Sociology of Eastern Himalayan Forests (1993), and Bhutan: Tradition, Transition and Transformation (2001) may be counted.

Professor Tanka Bahadur Subba holds Masters and Doctorate degrees from the Department of Sociology & Social Anthropology, North Bengal University, and represents the first generation in higher academy from among the Indians of Nepalis origin. With over two decades of teaching and research, he has extensively published on the ethnography and sociology of the Eastern Himalayan region. His major academic interests include ethnicity and migration. Among his major publications are: The Quiet Hills: A Study of Agrarian Relations in Hill Darjeeling (1985), Dynamics of a Hill Society: The Nepalis in Darjeeling & Sikkim Himalayas (1989), Ethnicity, State and Development: A Case Study of Gorkhaland Movement in Darjeeling (1992), Politics of Culture (1999). Currently, Dr. Subba is Professor of Anthropology and Dean, School of Human & Environmental Sciences, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong.