Rachna Books completes its Sikkim History Trilogy with ‘A Kingdom Remembered’ by Jackie Hiltz

GANGTOK, :Rachna Books and Publications has announced the publication of ‘A Kingdom Remembered: A Personal and Political History of Sikkim’ by Jackie Hiltz, the third book in its ‘Sikkim History Trilogy’. With this publication, the series brings together three major works that look into the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial facets of Sikkim’s past.

The trilogy began with Dr. Saul Mullard’s‘Opening the Hidden Land: State Formation and the Construction of Sikkimese History’ (2019), which examined the early political and cultural foundations of Sikkim as a kingdom. It was followed by Dr. Alex McKay’s ‘The Mandala Kingdom: A Political History of Sikkim’ (2021), based on material from Project Denjong’s digitisation of the Sikkim Palace archives under the British Library’s ‘Endangered Archives Programme’.

According to a press release, ‘A Kingdom Remembered: A Personal and Political History of Sikkim’ traces its journey from a Buddhist Himalayan kingdom to Indian statehood. “Hiltz looks at the complex and contested histories of this transition and what transpired in the events leading up to 1975. Since her first visit to Sikkim in 1997, she has returned frequently, interviewing key participants and observers and combining this with archival research. It is both an account of rigorous academic scholarship and a deeply personal journey of inquiry.”

Jackie Hiltz is an independent scholar based in the US whose work focuses on the Eastern Himalayas.She has also contributed to publications from Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Deorali.

The book has received strong praise from leading scholars. Prof. Tsering Shakya, author of ‘The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Tibet Since 1947’, described the book as a “reflect(ion) on the intersection of history, culture and memory in a region often overlooked in mainstream narratives.” Historian Alex McKay said, “This absorbing account of a long and dogged pursuit … draws on many previously unknown documents, as well as on interviews with many of the key players”. Mona Chettri, author of ‘Constructing Democracy: Ethnicity and Democracy in the Eastern Himalayan Borderland’shared,“This is a timely book, not just for a generation that lived through Sikkim’s political transitions, but especially for a new generation of Sikkimese people.”

The book will hit the markets at the end of April and is available for pre-booking at www.rachnabooks.com.