Frontier Complex - Geopolitics and the Making of the India-China Border, 1846-1962

Kyle J. Gardner reveals how colonial border-making practices in the Himalayas transformed a historical crossroads into a disputed borderland and geography into politics. Despite a century of attempts, experts failed to produce a border through the mountainous Himalayas, leading to war between India and China in 1962.

List of contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; A Note on the Text; Introduction; 1. Territory before Borderlines: Trade, Cosmology, and Modes of Seeing in Pre-Colonial Ladakh; 2. Surveys: Boundary-Making Principles, Mapping, and the Problem with Watersheds; 3. Communication: Roads, Regulation, and the British Joint Commissioners; 4. Reading the Border: Gazetteers, Tribute Missions, and the Problem with Goats; 5. Trans-Frontier Men: Invasion Anxieties and Frontier Heroes; 6. The Birth of Geopolitics: Frontier Experts, Boundary Commissions, and Trans-frontier Information; 7. Lines of Control: From Empire to Nation-State; Epilogue.

About the author

Kyle J. Gardner is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University.

Summary

Kyle J. Gardner reveals how colonial border-making practices in the Himalayas transformed a historical crossroads into a disputed borderland and geography into politics. Despite a century of attempts, experts failed to produce a border through the mountainous Himalayas, leading to war between India and China in 1962.

Product details

• Authors: Kyle J Gardner, Kyle J. Gardner, Kyle J. (George Washington University Gardner
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.03.2022
• EAN: 9781108814256
• ISBN: 978-1-108-81425-6
• No. of pages: 302
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science; China, Geopolitics, India, Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899, Early 20th century c 1900 to c 1950, the Himalayas, Asian History, Historical Geography, Himalayas, HISTORY / Asia / South / General