Rangrez and Rangdār are two commonly used words in north India. ‘Rangrez’ is a painter/dyer, and in Sufi tradition is also a word for Allah. ‘Rangdāri’ is an illegal extortion tax, and the person who collects this tax is called the ‘Rangdār’. In all likelihood, ‘Rangdāri tax’ originates from the geo-political landscape of coal and mining regions of India (in districts which are now in the state of Jharkhand). The term is closely linked with the rise of mafia/gangsters in the region for usurping coal contracts and for effective/extra-legal management of coal workers from the mid-1940s and in the 1950s. The figure who collects this tax is called ‘Rangdār’. Both terms Rangrez and Rangd a-ri centre upon ‘rang’, which largely means colour across the South Asian milieu. Engaging with different terrains occupied by these terms, this article ventures into a less traversed domain of colours in the South Asian context. It uses this occasion to disentangle some of the knots present in the dark abyss of post-colonial political practices while looking back to the roots of the word ‘rang’ (colour). While tracking the historically changing meanings of the word ‘rang’, the article stumbles upon Sufi tradition and argues that this tradition has decisively structured the association of ‘rang’ with colour in South Asian context. Creatively mobilizing the darkness embedded in the word ‘Rangdāri’ tax, I extend my analytical frame to a larger question of addressing hierarchies which go into the making up of the post-colonial chromatic landscape. It is at this level, the figure of the ‘Rangrez’, shrouded in Sufi mystery, appears laden with a number of possibilities and creative tensions.

中文翻译：

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从朗达里税到朗格勒齐：后殖民时代的色彩景观

Rangrez和Rangdār是印度北部两个常用词。朗格兹（Rangrez）是画家/染料，在苏菲派（Sufi）传统中也是真主的意思。“Rangdāri”是一种非法勒索税，而收取该税的人称为“Rangdār”。“兰加里税”极有可能源于印度煤炭和采矿区（现为贾坎德邦州的地区）的地缘政治景观。这个词与该地区黑手党/匪徒的崛起密切相关，该黑手党/匪徒在1940年代中期至1950年代期间篡夺了煤炭合同并有效/合法地管理了煤炭工人。收取这项税款的人称为“Rangdār”。Rangrez和Rangd a-ri这两个词都以“ rang”为中心，这在很大程度上意味着整个南亚环境的颜色。接触这些术语所占据的不同地形，本文探讨了在南亚语境中遍历较少的颜色领域。它利用这个机会来解开在后殖民政治实践的黑暗深渊中存在的一些难题，同时回头看看“ rang”（彩色）一词的根源。在追踪“ rang”一词的历史变化含义时，这篇文章偶然发现了苏菲派的传统，并认为这种传统在南亚语境下决定性地构成了“ rang”与色彩的联系。我创造性地动员了“Rangdāri”税一词中所包含的黑暗，将我的分析框架扩展到一个更大的问题上，即解决构成后殖民彩色景观的层次结构。正是在这个层次上，笼罩着苏菲神秘色彩的“朗格兹”人物，