Context: Looking at Himalaya only through the prism of geopolitics and security concerns ignores its other crucial frameworks. 

• In this article we will discuss tendency of territorialising the Himalayas on a par with the imperatives of nationalism while talking or thinking about political borders and cultural borders of Himalaya.

Statist approach to the Himalayas

• There has been an attempt to create a national Himalaya by each of the five Himalayan nations (Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, and Tibet/China).
• Even with respect to the study of the Himalayas, there has been the tendency of territorialising the Himalayas on a par with the imperatives of nationalism. Example – The National Mission on Himalayan Studies of India limits itself to creating policies only for the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR).
• The Himalayas have been traditionally looked at only through the prism of geopolitics and security concerns posed by our neighbours Pakistan and China. There has been the aspect of fear, suspicion, rivalry, invasion and encroachment associated with the Himalayan borders. Thus territorialisation and securitisation have been the two dominant modes through which the Himalayas is imagined.

Limitations of such an approach

• The article warns that such a singular statist approach is not desirable and could lead to some unwanted effects.
• This approach overlooks the fact that political borders and cultural borders are not the same things. Political borders do not necessarily coincide with cultural borders. Cultural borders as against political borders are more permeable, penetrable, connective and heterogeneous.
• Human security cannot be effectively appreciated through the paradigm of sovereign territoriality given that non-traditional security threats such as ecological devastation, climate change and resource crunch pose an equal if not a bigger threat than the traditional security threats like territorial integrity and political sovereignty.
• This statist approach to the Himalayas is bound to give rise to tensions in the backdrop of increasing infrastructure development projects in the border areas. This could give rise to ultra-sensitivity towards territorial claims and border management between the Himalayan nations.
• Such an approach ignores other crucial aspects associated with the Himalayas.
• The Himalayas is one of the largest biodiversity hotspots in the world and hence the Himalayan Ecosystem is important for the ecological security of all the Himalayan nations.
• The Himalayas is the largest water source for Asian nations.
• Climate change and global warming have made the Himalayas susceptible to climate change and ecological vulnerabilities.
• The region is culturally and linguistically diverse yet it shares a common pool of resources, communities, cultures, civilisations and history.

Need for an alternate paradigm

• Keeping the above arguments in mind, the article calls for a change from the statist approach to the Himalayas to a more anthropological, historical, cultural, and ecological approach to the Himalayas. The article argues that there is a need for an alternative conceptualisation of the Himalayas through the aspects of community, ecology or market.
• The Himalayas needs to be taken in as a whole instead of in parts defined by national boundaries.
• Himalayan studies should incorporate the concerns of people, culture, market or ecology rather than that of the states.

Significance of such an approach

• Such an approach will help address the concerns of trade, commerce, community, ecology and environment in the realm of non-traditional security challenges.
• Such an approach through appropriate collaborations between the neighbouring Himalayan nations will help reduce the tension along the national borders and could play a big role in ensuring peace and security in the region.

Road Ahead

• The alternative imaginations of the Himalayas should be given the required space in the way of policymaking, state-building strategies and diplomatic relations between the Himalayan nations.

Additional Information
About the Himalayas

• The Himalayas are a mountain range in South and East Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau.
• The range has many of Earth’s highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest, at the border between Nepal and China.
• Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayan Mountain range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 km.
• It consists of parallel mountain ranges: the Sivalik Hills on the south; the Lower Himalayan Range; the Great Himalayas, which is the highest and central range; and the Tibetan Himalayas on the north.
• The Karakoram are generally considered separate from the Himalayas.