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Paper short abstract

This paper focuses on the Monpas, a borderland people of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, to show how remoteness is a construct of colonial and national border-making practices. What makes a place remote is not given, but is dependent on particular spatial practices of the state.

Paper long abstract

Is remote that which is geographically distant from the centre of administrative, political and economic power? Or is remote a construct of connectivity issues? In the case of the Monpas, a borderland people of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, remote denotes multiple aspects: lack of material infrastructure and transport, improper communication and geographical isolation. Living far away from New Delhi, the national capital, in a mountainous region on the Himalayan slopes, which remains cut off from other areas by snow or rain for a large part of the year, Monpas consider themselves to be backward, disempowered. Yet, Monyul, the traditional homeland of the Monpa communities, is of high strategic importance in the protracted India-China border conflict. Its present remoteness is woven in with politics of borders and frontiers. Through a focus on Monyul, I intend to show how colonial and postcolonial policies transformed the region into a remote periphery. While colonial boundary practices began the transformation of the region - from a cross-border trade route to an enclave zone, the policies of the postcolonial Indian state have led to the continuation of such spatial features. In this paper, I interrogate the notion of remoteness through the particular history and politics of Monyul.