Jaipur, India (Short-term Program)
From the storied tea plantations of Darjeeling to the terraced fields of Gangtok, the idyllic Himalayan twin cities at the gateway of India’s Northeast are simultaneously at the forefront of sustainable development in a globalized economy and a reminder of a colonial era economy that is quickly vanishing in the face of unplanned development and environmental degradation. The state (formerly Kingdom) of Sikkim is the first territory to move to entirely organic agriculture in India. Meanwhile, the women and men who labor on the tea plantations of Darjeeling continue a practice established by the British colonial power in an earlier age of globalization. This program will explore how environmental, labor and identity politics intersect in these areas which are simultaneously at the periphery and forefront of our global economy.