"By looking at Gurkhas as a migrant and diaspora population, as well as a global military/police community, this book explores transnational policing, often by people from the Global South, and the linkages of such policing with ideas of migration and belonging"--
Bracketed Belonging addresses how nations and their governance of security determine social constellations and shape socio-political and legal assertions of belonging and allegiance. Kelvin E. Y. Low examines the contours and limits of belonging that underlie the complex social contract between mobile migrants and nations in the context of a global military-security market. He explores these core themes through the case of Nepali Gurkhas and their families as military and paramilitary migrants. Recruited to serve in the military or police force, Gurkhas are trained in jungle warfare skills that other police groups do not possess. There is thus the professional link to military training and the formation of a unique paramilitary police force with the backdrop of colonialism. In these contexts, this book offers fresh perspectives on studying global security, migration and diasporic lives. It sets a new agenda by analytically bridging empire, military and security maneuvers, and migratory pathways and options. In doing so, Bracketed Belonging serves as a novel contribution to current scholarship on migration and transnationalism, and on police and security studies.
Introduction: Gurkhas and Bracketed Belonging
1. Constructing a Gurkha Diaspora
2. The Warrior Gurkha
3. The Migrant Gurkha
4. Gurkha Wives and Children
5. At the Edge of Belonging?
Conclusion: In the Wake of Empire
Kelvin E.Y. Low is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. His core research interests include sensory studies, migration and transnationalism, foodways and heritage, and social memory and historiography. He is the author of Sensory Anthropology.
