Shadow States
India, China and the Himalayas, 1910–1962

This book explores Sino-Indian tensions from the angle of state-building, showing how they stem from their competition for the Himalayan people's allegiance.

Bérénice Guyot-Réchard (Author)

9781107176799, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 October 2016

348 pages, 20 b/w illus. 6 maps
23.5 x 16 x 2.3 cm, 0.63 kg

'This is a remarkable work of scholarship in a long-neglected area … Unlike other books which have dealt with the high politics of the India-China relationship and boundary, it studies these issues from the ground up, from the point of view of the peoples and society … the result of her considerable scholarship is an important book that covers significant themes in an increasingly important area with a professional historian's care and precision … Do read this book. It is of value well beyond the limited circle of academic readers that the title might attract.' Shivshankar Menon, The Indian Express

Since the mid-twentieth century China and India have entertained a difficult relationship, erupting into open war in 1962. Shadow States is the first book to unpack Sino-Indian tensions from the angle of competitive state-building - through a study of their simultaneous attempts to win the approval and support of the Himalayan people. When China and India tried to expand into the Himalayas in the twentieth century, their lack of strong ties to the region and the absence of an easily enforceable border made their proximity threatening - observing China and India's state-making efforts, local inhabitants were in a position to compare and potentially choose between them. Using rich and original archival research, Bérénice Guyot-Réchard shows how India and China became each other's 'shadow states'. Understanding these recent, competing processes of state formation in the Himalayas is fundamental to understanding the roots of tensions in Sino-Indian relations.

Introduction
Part I. 1910–50: 1. False starts: the first rush towards the eastern Himalayas
2. The return of the fair-weather state: World War Two and the Himalayas
Part II. 1950–59: 3. Exploration, expansion, consolidation? State power and its limitations
4. The art of persuasion: development in a border space
Part III. 1959–62: 5. A void screaming to be filled: militarisation and state-society relations
6. Salt tastes the same in India and China: a different kind of security dilemma
7. Open war: state-making's dress rehearsal
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF], Regional & national history [HBJ], General & world history [HBG]