South Asian Borderlands: Mobility, History, Affect

Description

This is an interdisciplinary volume exploring a range of historical, anthropological and literary ideas and issues in South Asian Borderlands. Going beyond the territorial and geo-political imaginaries of contemporary borderlands in South Asia, chapters in this book engage with the questions of sovereignty, control, policing as well as continuing affections across politically divided borderlands. Modern conceptions of nationhood have created categories of legality and illegality among historically, socially, economically and emotionally connected residents of South Asian borderlands. This volume provides unique insights into the interconnected lives and histories of these borderland spaces and communities. Cover South Asian Borderlands Title Copyright Contents Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Introduction BORDERS, FRONTIERS AND STATES: RETHINKING SOVEREIGNTY, MARGINALITY AND TERRITORIALITY MOBILITY AND AFFECT: TOWARDS A DIACHRONIC VIEW OF BORDERLANDS REFERENCES 1. Paradise at the Frontier: Kashmir as a Political Terrain and Literary Landscape in the Mughal Empire KASHMIR AS AN INTERNAL BORDERLAND TALES OF WONDER EARLY DISCUSSIONS ON KASHMIR IN AKBAR’S COURT Dar wasf i Kashmir: In Praise of Kashmir ANXIETIES OF THE EMPIRE Imperial Journeys to Kashmir MUGHAL GARDENS OF KASHMIR CONCLUSION NOTES REFERENCES 2. Borders in the Age of Empire and Nation-States: The Honeycomb of Borderlands—Kumaun, Western Tibet and Far Western Nepal THE BACKGROUND: GORKHA EMPIRE 1768–1815 THE KUMAUN–RAMPUR AND MORADABAD BORDERLANDS WITHIN BRITISH INDIA KUMAUN (INDIA) AND ACROSS THE KALI RIVER–FAR WEST REGION (NEPAL) BORDERLANDS KUMAUN–WESTERN TIBET BORDERLANDS CHANGING CONFIGURATIONS: NATIONALIST NARRATIVES AND DIVERGENT HISTORIOGRAPHIES NOTES REFERENCES 3. Borders, Difference, Recognition: On the Cause(s) of Gorkhaland STIRRINGS AT THE BORDER UNSPEAKABLE HISTORIES ENTANGLED FORMATIONS AGITATIONS AT THE BORDER TRIBAL BECOMINGS A TRIBAL AREA? GORKHALAND RETURNS CRISES RECONSIDERED NOTES REFERENCES 4. Embattled Frontiers and Emerging Spaces: Transformation of the Tawang Border FROM MONASTERY SPACE TO ADMINISTRATIVE BASE CUSTOM, CONFLICT AND CHANGE BARTERING BORDER LOYALTIES NOTES REFERENCES 5. Relative Intimacies: Belonging and Difference in Transnational Families across the Bengal Borderland JAWA-ASHAR MAJHE: IN BETWEEN COMINGS AND GOINGS ACROSS THE BENGAL BORDER PULLED BY HEARTSTRINGS: AMBIVALENCES OF KINSHIP, ASYMMETRIES OF BORDER CONTROL TRANSNATIONAL SEPARATION, NATIONAL STEREOTYPES: LEARNING TO LIVE AS NEIGHBOURS ‘WE HAVE BEEN HERE, THE BORDER HAPPENED’; OR, ACCIDENTALLY TRANSNATIONAL IN CONCLUSION NOTES REFERENCES 6. Reading Parijat in Nepal: The Poetics of Radical Feminism Negotiating Self and Nation WOMEN WRITING CULTURE AND NATION IN SOUTH ASIA PARIJAT: SELF AND NATION LIBERATING PARIJAT FROM SHIRISHKO PHUL FROM FICTION TO POETRY: FROM PRIVATE ESCAPISM TO PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PARIJAT AND THE IDEOLOGICAL BORDERS OF NATION AND BEING BORDERS TALKING BACK NOTES REFERENCES 7. Commodity Journeys and Market Circuits: Making Borders ‘Natural’ in Colonial Western Himalayas TRADE AND THE BRITISH IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS HIMALAYAN TRADE IN CONTEXT SHIMLA AS A MARKET NETWORKS OF CIRCULATION CONCLUSION NOTES REFERENCES 8. Frontiers, State and Banditry in the Thar Desert in the Nineteenth Century I II III NOTES REFERENCES 9. Bureaucracy and Border Control: Ethnographic Perspectives on Crime, Police Reform and ‘National Security’ in Kutch, 1948–52 PARTITION AND BUREAUCRACY: MAKING NEW BORDERS Police Reorganisation and Cross-Border Crime in Kutch, 1948–52 NATIONALISM AND CITIZENSHIP ON THE BORDER: VOICES FROM THE ‘MARGINS’ CONCLUSION NOTES REFERENCES 10. Frontier as Resource: Law, Crime and Sovereignty on the Margins of Empire CRIME, LAW AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY POLICING IMPERIAL BORDERS ‘VERY DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN ANY CLUE’: THE LIMITS OF COLLABORATION INTERESTS OF JUSTICE VERSUS THE PROTECTION OF SOVEREIGNTY YELLAMMA’S FLIGHT: FRONTIER AS FIELD OF POSSIBILITY BEYOND STATE SOVEREIGNTY: INFORMERS AND THIEVES IN RURAL SOCIETY BANDITRY, SOCIETY AND STATECRAFT FRAGMENTED SOVEREIGNTIES, UNRULY STATES NOTES REFERENCES About the Contributors Index