Saturday, Oct 29, 2022 22:00 [IST]
Last Update: Saturday, Oct 29, 2022 16:23 [IST]
GANGTOK,: Former journalist Nirmalya Banerjee from Kolkata is on a week-long book tour of Sikkim and Kalimpong for promotion of his debut book “The Buddha & The Borders” which explores Buddhism in the eastern/trans Himalaya belt, mainly Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Darjeeling Hills and Bhutan.
The book was launched in 2020 and is currently available on e-commerce platforms.
During a book reading session here at Journalists Union of Sikkim (JUS) on Saturday, Banerjee informed that the book is a “journalistic exercise and not an academic book with few historical references which turned into a reality with the help of people who shared their real experiences, opinions added with historical facts and figures.”
“As a journalist with Times of India and The Statesman, I have travelled and worked extensively in the Eastern Himalayan region. This book is an outcome of the ideas and observations which couldn’t make it to the column of the newspapers”, said Banerjee.
Speaking about both the beauty and the issues of this region, Banerjee said that this trans-Himalayan region has a distinct identity and they have got cultural, economic and family ties since centuries which unfortunately got tampered due to the big power rivalries since British era and subsequently India-China border disputes.
“The region has been divided, trade links snapped, family ties cut and as a result people have suffered at large”, he stressed.
Talking further about the book, Banerjee mentioned that he has tried to go in detail about the border trades in the region, the problems and prospects of it. He has also touched upon the good and bad sides of mega hydro power projects.
The sole message of this book is, the border dispute as long as it is not settled, will get aggravated, stressed Banerjee.
