Contested Borderlands in a Changing Scenario: Sovereignty, Citizenship and Sense of Belonging in Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan
Dr. AntÃa Mato Bouzas
The Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 and the subsequent development of the Kashmir conflict cut off the Indian-administered Kashmir ties from the Central Asian heartland. It also created an almost landlocked status for the Northern Areas of Pakistan (now Gilgit-Baltistan) disrupting traditional ties of the former Princely State with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Xinjiang and the western Himalayan belt. The project investigates, from the discipline of political science and with a focus on the conflictive character of this area, the perceptions and sense of belonging of communities living in contested borderlands under the impact of current major socio-economic transformations. On the one hand, the study explores the particular 'border regimes' (in the form of distinct political-administrative arrangements) of the communities living in these peripheries, despite of their being part of large sovereign states such as India and Pakistan. On the other, it addresses the changing scenario in the region presented by new initiatives of formal cross-border mobility of people and goods as well as the impact of the construction of major regional infrastructures (notably dams, upgrading national airports, and the reconstruction of roads such as the Karakorum highway). By examining incipient signs of cross-border mobility and the creation of major infrastructures, the study also touches upon issues of regional transformation in the limits of the Crossroads programme.
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