Mountain Livelihoods in Transition: Constraints & Opportunities in Kinnaur, Western Himalaya

This dissertation research, funded by a Fulbright award to South and Central Asia, investigated the transformation of the tribal District of Kinnaur in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Indian Himalaya. I examined Kinnauri adaptation to political, economic, environmental, and social events of the last seven decades, including state intervention, market integration, and climate change. Based on findings from one year of ethnographic field work, this investigation found that Kinnaur’s transformation and current economic prosperity have been chiefly induced by outside forces, creating a temporary landscape of opportunity. State-led interventions including land reform and a push to supplement subsistence agriculture with commercial horticulture initiated a significant agrarian transition beginning with India’s Independence. 

This research further examined the historical implications of different land reform programs and their repercussions on land allocation to landless Kinnauris. Findings suggested that despite the initial inequitable allocation of land under these reforms, landless Kinnauris have predominantly become landowners. My work illustrated how other socio-economic measures, including the construction of a strategic national highway through Kinnaur, access to wage labor, provision of government jobs and government promotion of commercial apple production, all converged to change the socio-economic dynamics of Kinnaur leading to a currently prosperous region.