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

Reveals how British imperial border-making in the Himalayas transformed a crossroads into a borderland and geography into politics.

Kyle J. Gardner (Author)

9781108814256, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 January 2022

302 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'Gardner gives us a comprehensive account, at once compelling and authoritative, of what he calls the 'frontier complex' along the high Himalayas from its early exploration to the 1962 war between India and China … This impressive volume will engage the interest not only of scholars of South Asia but also of geographers, political scientists, and environmental historians who seek to understand the interplay of geography, geopolitics, and the making of states.' Thomas R. Metcalf, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Kyle J. Gardner reveals the transformation of the historical Himalayan entrepôt of Ladakh into a modern, disputed borderland through an examination of rare British, Indian, Ladakhi, and Kashmiri archival sources. In so doing, he provides both a history of the rise of geopolitics and the first comprehensive history of Ladakh's encounter with the British Empire. He examines how colonial border-making practices transformed geography into a political science and established principles that a network of imperial frontier experts would apply throughout the empire and bequeath to an independent India. Through analyzing the complex of imperial policies and practices, The Frontier Complex reveals how the colonial state transformed, and was transformed by, new ways of conceiving of territory. Yet, despite a century of attempts to craft a suitable border, the British failed. The result is an imperial legacy still playing out across the Himalayas.

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.

Subject Areas: Geopolitics [JPSL], International relations [JPS], Historical geography [HBTP], Asian history [HBJF]