Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands
This special issue critically rethinks the conceptualization of borders in the Eastern Himalayas as clearly delimited by fixed lines, arguing that they are instead dynamic zones of negotiation, resistance, and reimagining. With a regional focus on the Eastern Himalayas, comprising of Nepal, Sikkim,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud
2025-07-01
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| Series: | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/10043 |
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| author | Mélanie Vandenhelsken Aditya Kiran Kakati Bernardo A. Michael |
| author_facet | Mélanie Vandenhelsken Aditya Kiran Kakati Bernardo A. Michael |
| author_sort | Mélanie Vandenhelsken |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This special issue critically rethinks the conceptualization of borders in the Eastern Himalayas as clearly delimited by fixed lines, arguing that they are instead dynamic zones of negotiation, resistance, and reimagining. With a regional focus on the Eastern Himalayas, comprising of Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal, Northeast India, and the Indo-Myanmar frontier, the articles in this special issue reveal how colonial categories, intellectual constructions, legal instruments, and mapping practices produced marginalization, but also how these processes remain incomplete, continually reworked by borderland communities. The concept of borderwork is used to grasp the contribution of these communities in the production of borderlands, disrupting colonial and post-colonial territorial fixation; it highlights how borders are processes, made and remade through lived practices, contestation, memory, and alternative spatialimaginaries as much as by dominant socio-political forces. Examining conceptual frameworks such as Zomia and Highland Asia in the Eastern Himalayas, we highlight their limits as much as their significance in revealing native and pre-colonial geographies, as well as the permanent un-fixity of borderlands in this region. Together, the issue offers a decentered, historically grounded perspective on borderlands as contested spaces shaped by both territorial ambitions and local spatial imaginaries. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-30f9f6b530994f30a3395f2637fbf5a0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1960-6060 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-30f9f6b530994f30a3395f2637fbf5a02025-08-20T03:44:33ZengCentre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du SudSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal1960-60602025-07-013310.4000/14cm3Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan BorderlandsMélanie VandenhelskenAditya Kiran KakatiBernardo A. MichaelThis special issue critically rethinks the conceptualization of borders in the Eastern Himalayas as clearly delimited by fixed lines, arguing that they are instead dynamic zones of negotiation, resistance, and reimagining. With a regional focus on the Eastern Himalayas, comprising of Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal, Northeast India, and the Indo-Myanmar frontier, the articles in this special issue reveal how colonial categories, intellectual constructions, legal instruments, and mapping practices produced marginalization, but also how these processes remain incomplete, continually reworked by borderland communities. The concept of borderwork is used to grasp the contribution of these communities in the production of borderlands, disrupting colonial and post-colonial territorial fixation; it highlights how borders are processes, made and remade through lived practices, contestation, memory, and alternative spatialimaginaries as much as by dominant socio-political forces. Examining conceptual frameworks such as Zomia and Highland Asia in the Eastern Himalayas, we highlight their limits as much as their significance in revealing native and pre-colonial geographies, as well as the permanent un-fixity of borderlands in this region. Together, the issue offers a decentered, historically grounded perspective on borderlands as contested spaces shaped by both territorial ambitions and local spatial imaginaries.https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/10043borderworkbordersEastern Himalayashighland AsiaZomiaterritorialization |
| spellingShingle | Mélanie Vandenhelsken Aditya Kiran Kakati Bernardo A. Michael Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal borderwork borders Eastern Himalayas highland Asia Zomia territorialization |
| title | Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands |
| title_full | Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands |
| title_fullStr | Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands |
| title_full_unstemmed | Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands |
| title_short | Introduction. Re-orienting Himalayan Borderlands |
| title_sort | introduction re orienting himalayan borderlands |
| topic | borderwork borders Eastern Himalayas highland Asia Zomia territorialization |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/10043 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT melanievandenhelsken introductionreorientinghimalayanborderlands AT adityakirankakati introductionreorientinghimalayanborderlands AT bernardoamichael introductionreorientinghimalayanborderlands |