Back in Play at the Frontiers of Hegemony: Gilgit-Baltistan in Comparative Historical Perspective

Daniel Pasciuti, Georgia State University
Shah Zaman, Georgia State University

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), a semi-autonomous region attached to the Kashmir issue, has been a highly contested space within the context of global power dynamics and hegemonic projects for centuries. Our analysis reconstructs the historical trajectories of the region as one marked by three distinct time periods. During the 19th century, GB was situated between British interests in South Asia and the potential challenges of primarily Russian but also Chinese influence. Ultimately, this frontier was explicitly closed to protect British hegemony and lasted until 1947. Following the demise of British Empire, the region returned to being a contested space between regional powers but whose outcome was delegated to US oversight through nascent institutions such as the UN. Using a framework outlined by Arrighi (1994) and Arrighi and Silver (2001), we argue these trajectories were shaped by different modes of accumulation which move back and forth in world historic context in a “pendulum-like movement” between extensive and intensive systems in the geographic expansion or consolidation of systemic cycles of accumulation. Thus, the 19th century saw GB at the frontier of the British regime which achieved the geographical expansion of the world-economy. In contrast, the latter part of the 20th century marked a successful demonstration of US neoliberalism where, the question of Kashmir and GB, was left ambiguous and largely sidelined to the US internalized consolidation of the world-economy. Today, we argue that the current interregnum and the emergence of a ‘post-neoliberal’ order has returned GB to the frontiers of hegemony, precisely because the crisis of US hegemony has shifted the pendulum back to an extensive regime of accumulation. In this context, GB has returned as one of the key frontiers of contested hegemonic space and a potential bell-weather between US interests and the ascendant possibilities of China and India.

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 Presented in Session 200. Consolidating and Subverting Authorities in Asian and Eurasian Empires