Shadow States

Bérénice Guyot-Réchard teaches International and South Asian History at King's College London. She was previously Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Her research explores the effects of social, political, and environmental processes on South Asia's contemporary international relations. She has recently published in Contemporary South Asia and Modern Asian Studies.

• Introduction; Part I. 1910–50: 1. False starts: the first rush towards the eastern Himalayas; 2. The return of the fair-weather state: World War Two and the Himalayas; Part II. 1950–59: 3. Exploration, expansion, consolidation? State power and its limitations; 4. The art of persuasion: development in a border space; Part III. 1959–62: 5. A void screaming to be filled: militarisation and state-society relations; 6. Salt tastes the same in India and China: a different kind of security dilemma; 7. Open war: state-making's dress rehearsal; Conclusion.

'In the eastern Himalayas the imperial ambitions of the world's two most populous states, China and India, have clashed, and mirrored each other, since the nineteenth century. This brilliant, pioneering study goes beyond geopolitics and security concerns to detail how state making actually unfolded in this vast trans-border region (Tibet to the north and the area known to Indians as 'Arunachal Pradesh' and to Chinese as 'South Tibet' to the south). Shadow States is a landmark. Based on meticulous research, it skilfully highlights the agency of Himalayan populations in shaping Sino-Indian relations - and the crucial role that borderlanders play in the formation of states, nations and international relations around the world.' Willem van Schendel, Universiteit van Amsterdam