scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Building a Mountain Fortress for India: Sympathy, Imagination and the Reconfiguration of Ladakh into a Border Area

Karine Gagné1
10 Apr 2017-South Asia-journal of South Asian Studies (Routledge)-Vol. 40, Iss: 2, pp 222-238
TL;DR: The authors examines the relationship between affect and the state in post-colonial India, foregrounding sympathy as a feeling that arises from the embodied encounters and interactions between the state and a local population through state-building in the Himalayas.
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between affect and the state in post-colonial India, foregrounding sympathy as a feeling that arises from the embodied encounters and interactions between the state and a local population through state-building in the Himalayas. It establishes the emergence of sympathy in the materiality of the Himalayas and in the historical conjuncture of the passage to Indian nationhood in Ladakh, which was marked by the mobilisation of the local population in the defence of the territory of India amid the first Indo-Pakistani war (1947–48). This article argues that sympathy, in leading the state to reimagine the population of Ladakh, is integral to the reconfiguration of the region into a border area and to the rethinking of the sovereignty of the Indian state at its Himalayan frontier.
Citations
More filters
Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1879

64 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the efficacy of 14 ice reservoirs through a long-term analysis of their functioning within the environmental and socioeconomic context of Ladakh, and provided an inventory and typology of these ice reservoirs and estimate storage volume of one selected structure, which ranges from 1010 to 3220 m3 of water.
Abstract: The consequences of even small glacier decrease and changes of seasonal snow cover are critical for the functioning of meltwater-dependent mountain agriculture. In order to deal with recurrent water scarcity, different types of ice reservoirs, commonly called “artificial glaciers,” have been introduced in Ladakh and promoted as appropriate adaptive strategies to cope with changes in the cryosphere. The resulting seasonal ice reservoirs increase meltwater availability during the critical period of water scarcity in spring. We examine the efficacy of 14 ice reservoirs through a long-term analysis of their functioning within the environmental and socioeconomic context of Ladakh. Using multi-temporal satellite data (1969–2017), close range photogrammetry, and repeat field measurements (2014 and 2015), we provide an inventory and typology of these ice reservoirs and estimate storage volume of one selected structure, which ranges from 1010 to 3220 m3 of water. We extrapolate this volume to all ice reservoirs and estimate potential irrigation cycles of cropped areas, which vary between less than 0.1 in unfavorable cases and almost 3 in optimal cases and years. Based on interviews and field surveys (2007–2017), we discuss the benefits perceived by local smallholders, such as the reduction of seasonal water scarcity and resulting crop failure risks together with the possibility of growing cash crops. We argue that “artificial glaciers” are remarkably suited to the physical environment. However, their usefulness as a climate change adaptation strategy is questionable because climatic variability, natural hazards, and an incomplete integration into the local socioeconomic setting significantly reduce their efficacy.

50 citations


Cites background from "Building a Mountain Fortress for In..."

  • ...Ladakh is a geopolitically sensitive region with contested boundaries and heavy military presence (Baghel and Nüsser 2015; Gagné 2017)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of Leh town, located in the Indian Himalaya, reveals an array of diverse patterns, drivers, and challenges that characterise the process of mountain urbanisation.

44 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argued that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region's primary concern and argued that international relations (IR) approach to the Himalaya is not suitable.
Abstract: This article examines international relations (IR)'s approach to the Himalaya We argue that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region's primary int

28 citations


Cites background from "Building a Mountain Fortress for In..."

  • ...Included within the Kashmir dispute was the majority Tibetan-Buddhist, high altitude region of Ladakh....

    [...]

  • ...This has been well established, particularly in anthropological and ethnographic studies of the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (Gagné 2017; Smith 2013), and in historical studies of Tibet (Gros 2020)....

    [...]

  • ...The largest of the Himalayan states that Patel was tasked with bringing into the new Indian state was Kashmir....

    [...]

  • ...India and Pakistan fought a war before establishing a Line of Control in Kashmir in 1947....

    [...]

  • ...During the same period the Qing Dynasty was sinicising eastern Tibet (Giersch 2006; Tsomu 2013), the British were turning Sikkim and Kashmir into dependent princely states (Naik 2014) and forcing uneven trading treaties on Nepal and Bhutan....

    [...]

References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the multiple forms and layers of porosity that give borderlands, such as the Bengal borderland, their distinctive nature as zones of contestation, and examine the significance of such daily cross-border transactions.
Abstract: This paper will address the multiple forms and layers of porosity that give borderlands, such as the Bengal borderland, their distinctive nature as zones of contestation. Cross-border interactions continue to be an integral feature of everyday life in the Bengal borderland despite increasing militarisation and regulation by the Indian government in the last decade. Criminalization of local cross-border flows has driven them underground - while organized cross-border crimes (smuggling and trafficking) enjoy considerable attention, the breadth and depth of informal cross-border interactions in the quotidian lives of borderlanders remain understudied. What is the significance of such daily cross-border transactions? How do they feed into the local perceptions of the state policies of border control? How do they relate to larger organized flows of smuggling and trafficking? Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork in the border district of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal, India, this paper critically examines the...

34 citations

Trending Questions (1)
Is Leh Ladakh open for tourist now?

This article argues that sympathy, in leading the state to reimagine the population of Ladakh, is integral to the reconfiguration of the region into a border area and to the rethinking of the sovereignty of the Indian state at its Himalayan frontier.