Producing Liminal Spaces: Borders, Sovereignty, and Governance in the Gilgit Agency.
Qayyum, Amna.
2013
-
Abstract: Since 1947 the people of Gilgit-Baltistan have called for
integration within the Pakistani state and the extension of fundamental rights to them.
This thesis examines how the region's liminality stems from the ambiguities in sovereignty
in the colonial and post-colonial period. British policymakers chose to keep the political
status and territorial limits of the Gilgit Agency undefined, ... read moreleading to its position as an
anomalous space within the patchwork of empire. Legally part of the princely state of Jammu
and Kashmir, administered by the British, and ruled by local leaders - sovereignty was not
monolithic in the Gilgit Agency. Even though the Agency was a cartographically unified
entity, its internal dynamics prevented the imposition of centralized authority. Although
part of the princely state of Jammu Kashmir, the Gilgit Agency was administered and
governed by the British. Much like other parts of the Indian frontier, the British ruled
through `natural leaders'. By subsidizing these rulers heavily the British fashioned a mode
of governance that was primarily concerned with ordering these societies, rather than
incorporating them into debates over rights and citizenship. The local leaders continued to
exert substantial authority over their subjects. Sovereignty in the Gilgit Agency was not
rooted in the Westphalian notion of asserting authority and jurisdiction over territory,
but rather in the power to "declare the colonial exception". The nature of sovereignty was
then divisible, and at times ambiguous. The colonial government used the ambiguous nature
of this sovereignty to legally administer, but not possess the Gilgit Agency. The `handing
back' of the Gilgit Agency to the Dogras in 1947 meant its incorporation into a princely
state that had never asserted complete political authority over it before. With the linking
of Gilgit-Baltistan to the Kashmir issue, the area has been placed in permanent limintality
until the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Since Pakistan cannot legally claim
Gilgit-Baltistan as its territory, it has used this pretext to place the region in a state
of permanent exception until the issue of sovereignty is resolved. The Kashmir dispute has
been used as a premise to deny rights and self-governance, and ensure a strong grip on
Gilgit-Baltistan. With the tying of the Gilgit Agency to the Kashmir issue, the Pakistani
state continued to treat it as a colonial outpost and adopted the same political, legal,
and economic policies as the British imperial government up till the 1970s. The ambiguities
in sovereignty still continued since the Gilgit Agency and Baltistan were legally disputed
territory. The post-colonial state used this pretext to deny basic constitutional rights to
the people, deprive them from participating in decision-making at the center, and provide
them limited powers of self-governance. In 1970 limited reforms were made, and the Gilgit
Agency and Baltistan were formed into an administrative unit called the Northern Areas.
Although these two regions shared certain similarities, they had never been politically
united in pre-colonial or colonial times. In certain historiography there has been a
tendency to examine these regions as one entity - however such works tend to read back in
time, assuming the Northern Areas as a historical reality. Whereas the states comprising
the Gilgit Agency were linked more closely to Chitral and Badakshan, Baltistan had strong
ties to Tibet and Ladakh. The latter was also not incorporated into British structures of
governance unlike the Gilgit Agency. Given their varied historical trajectories, this
thesis will then focus on the geographic area comprising the Gilgit Agency. The first
chapter "Creating Spaces" examines imperial conceptions of the northern frontier of India,
and how this led to the establishment of a political entity labeled as the Gilgit Agency.
At the apogee of the so-called `Great Game' mapping was used as a tool to create spaces,
secure strategic imperatives of trade and communication, and partake in imperial rivalries.
However, an exercise in mapping alone was not enough to assert political authority over the
Gilgit Agency. "Managing the Colonial Frontier" then observes how a new administrative
structure and military operations were employed to secure control over this area. While
examining the nature of colonial governance and statecraft in the Gilgit Agency, it becomes
clear that the local leaders of these states still exercised a substantial amount of power
over their subjects. Throughout the course of its existence the exact territorial extent
and political status of the British Indian Gilgit Agency was never clearly defined. This
ambiguity, combined with a clear sidelining of Dogra authority, would then contribute to
the liminal status occupied by the Gilgit Agency. The final chapter, "Postcolonial
Liminality" traces the political trajectory of the Gilgit Agency/Northern
Areas/Gilgit-Baltistan since 1947. Following the Gilgit Rebellion (1947) the people of this
region called for integration within the Pakistani state. However the Kashmir dispute was
always used as an excuse to delay constitutional recognition and the provision of political
and electoral rights. I will argue that current concerns over power generation and Chinese
influence in Gilgit-Baltistan contributed to the recently enacted Empowerment and
Self-Government Order, 2009 which promises to provide full internal autonomy and
province-like status to Gilgit-Baltistan, without actually conferring the status of a
constitutional province on it. The imperial project of teritorialization - which was an
attempt to assert political authority by demarcating boundaries - was never fully completed
in the Gilgit Agency. Much like the oddly defined and administered Gilgit Agency of
colonial India, the Gilgit-Baltistan of today waits for autonomy, representation, and
rights. In some ways the process of decolonization started in 1947, is still ongoing in
Gilgit-Baltistan.
Thesis (M.A.)--Tufts University, 2013.
Submitted to the Dept. of History.
Advisors: Ayesha Jalal, and Kris Manjapra.
Keywords: History, and South Asian studies.read less - ID:
- 1r66jc34v
- Component ID:
- tufts:21983
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
