CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF LAW & POLITICS
Civilizational Colonialism and the Ongoing
New Great Game in the Sensitive Areas of
High Asia: Exploring Pan-High Asianism as the
potential way forward for the Western Pahari, Greater
Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan and Sogdiana
Belts possibly leading to High Asian Approaches to
International Law (HAAIL)
Author: Vishal Sharma
Supervisor: Professor Peter Sutch FLSW FRHistS
Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations
and
Deputy Head of the School of Law and Politics
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree
of LL.M. in Legal and Political Aspects of International Affairs
Cardiff, 18th September 2020
(LLM 2020)
DECLARATION
1963230
Mr
SHARMA
VISHAL
DECLARATION
This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently
submitted in candidature for any degree.
Signed ……… ………………. (Vishal Sharma) 18th September 2020.
STATEMENT 1
This dissertation is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
LL.M (Legal and Political Aspects of International Affairs)
Signed ……… ……………… (Vishal Sharma) 18th September 2020.
STATEMENT 2
This dissertation is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where
otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references.
Signed ……… ……………… (Vishal Sharma) 18th September 2020.
STATEMENT 3
I hereby give consent for my dissertation, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for
inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations.
Signed ……… …………… (Vishal Sharma) 18th September 2020.
STATEMENT 4
I hereby give consent for my dissertation, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for
inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access approved by the Graduate Development
Committee.
Signed ….…… ……………. (Vishal Sharma) 18th September 2020.
ii
SUMMARY
The main aim of this work is to explore and identify the factors associated with
the flaunts in Huntingtonian Universalism which also invariably justifies
Civilizational Colonialism and the New Great Game narrative concerning the
Faultline sensitive areas of High Asia which includes Kashmir, Hazara, Nuristan,
Laghman, Azad Kashmir, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan,
Chitral, Western Tibet, Western Xinjiang, Badakhshan, Gorno - Badakhshan,
Fergana, Osh, Turkistan region and many neighbouring areas surrounded by the
five major mountainous systems of Tien Shan, Pamirs, Karakoram, Hindu Kush
and Western Himalayas and the three main river systems of Amu Darya, Syr
Draya and Indus. The theoretical foundations of the work lies in an alternative
approach to the culture writ large universalism of Huntington based on the use of
the constructivist model of Walzer’s reiterative universalism which relates to the
study of the richer history of the area in contention. Previous research has not
been done before in this context and keeping this in mind the study attempts at
answering the question of upon as to whether a possible alternative to study the
region could be through Pan-High Asianism based on Western Pahari, Greater
Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan and Sogdiana Belts which could possibly
lead to HAAIL (High Asian Approaches to International Law).
Key words: Civilizational Colonialism, New Great Game, Huntingtonian
Universalism, Reiterative Universalism, Western Pahari, Greater Dardic, Trans-
Himalayan, Badakhshan, Sogdiana, Pan-High Asianism, High Asian Approaches
to International Law (HAAIL).
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“This work is dedicated to all the kind hearted people I know especially the ones
who have helped me over the years to understand the Western Pahari, Greater
Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan and Sogdiana belts stacked up between
China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan.”
This dissertation is the product of almost a year worth of researching and hard
work and would have never been possible without the love and support of my
parents, family, and well-wishers. Then, I would like to thank my supervisor
Prof. Peter Sutch for agreeing to supervise me on the topic, the sole reason why I
came to the United Kingdom in the first place, also working closely with a
globally renowned Legal and Political Theory Professor like him whose work
influenced me over the years was a dream come true and I shall forever be
thankful to him. I also got a lot of moral support and motivation from my Personal
Tutor Prof. Jiri Pribhan during the time I was working on the topic, never
imagined the person who applied the ideas of Luhmann's system theory on the
philosophy of law would one day be my guide. I also thank Dr Bernadette Rainey,
Prof. Anna Grear, and Prof. John Harrington for all the encouragement and
support they gave me during my span at Cardiff University.
Additionally, there was a major life-changing experience during the time I started
working on the topic properly: the coming of COVID-19, which made things
difficult for me due to being restricted in my accommodation in Cardiff for
months, but that has also made the completion of this piece of work more
important and I thank everyone who helped me during that tough period
especially Duart Rankin, one of my best friends who supported and helped me
enormously during that time. Maratib, Jules, Bronwen, Cihan, Sam, Nazir, Faisal,
Rakib, H Malik, Faryar Shah, Anna, Megan, Navid, Albert and Chris also I thank
you all for supporting, helping, and tolerating me during this past year.
Lastly, would like to acknowledge some important people in my life without
whose help and support I could not have reached here and pursued my goal and
dreams, a big thanks to Dr S Kandasamy, Beena Sarwar, Dr Devender Sharma,
Kaaenat, Shashwat, Aagam, Hamzah, Sachin, Ajinkya, Ibrahim, Umair, Shreya,
Akshanch, Ragini, Bhawani Pratap, Shourya, Arsh, Mr Sandeep Kumar, Gautam,
Harish, Mohit, Sarabdeep, Ajay, Vidur, Gaurav, Archit, Abhinandan, and Pawan.
iv
MAPS
v
CONTENTS
DECLARATION ii
SUMMARY iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
MAPS v
INTRODUCTION 1-2
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK 3-10
CHAPTER 1 – DOMINATION OF CIVILIZATIONS 11-35
IN THE SENSITIVE AREAS OF HIGH ASIA
CHAPTER 2 – ONGOING NEW GREAT GAME IN 36-57
THE SENSITIVE AREAS OF HIGH ASIA
CHAPTER 3 – IS PAN-HIGH ASIANISM 58-69
THROUGH HAAIL THE WAY FORWARD FOR
THE SENSITIVE AREAS OF HIGH ASIA
CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS 70-71
REFERENCES vii-xi
vi
INTRODUCTION
The work is based on the argument that through Huntingtonian Universalism
sensitive areas of High Asia cannot be approached in an appropriate manner, as
that sort of universalism justifies the religious hegemonic and great power politics
operational in the region for centuries. The focus is specifically put on how the
minor cultures of the sensitive areas have been ignored in the framework which
aims at dividing the world into culture writ large civilizations and in this context
the work tries to put forth Walzer’s reiterative universalism as another possible
way to study the areas in focus by going through the region’s richer history
invariably showcasing upon as to how Civilizational Colonialism and the New
Great Game is taking place in the Western Pahari, Trans-Himalayan, Greater
Dardic, Badakhshan and Sogdiana belts which is surrounded by Tien Shan,
Karakoram, Pamir, Hindu Kush and Western Himalayan mountain systems as
well as Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Indus river systems. In the process of reaching
here the works of Samuel P Huntington1, Peter Hopkirk2 and Michael Walzer3
have been utilized putting reflections on the Clash of Civilizations, Thin and
Thick Morality, and the New Great Game. The framing is done on historical and
cultural lines using an analytic constructivist approach in relativity to mostly the
past events in the region.
1
Samuel P. Huntington, The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order (Simon & Schuster
hardcover ed. edn, New York : Simon & Schuster 2011)
2
Peter Hopkirk, The great game : on secret service in high Asia (London : John Murray 2006)
3
Michael Walzer, Thick and thin : moral argument at home and abroad (Notre Dame : University of Notre
Dame Press 1994)
1
Then having laid out the framework the next section which is Chapter 1 focuses
on as to how Civilizational Colonialism is being advanced and why studying the
region through the approach of Huntingtonian Universalism justifies major
civilizational dominance and in a way gives a positive outlook to cultural
imperialism, linguistic imposition, demographic change and curtailment of
human rights. I also throw light on the state of the various minor cultural belts of
such areas divided between nation states and provinces which have been going
through this domination. Then, the next section which is Chapter 2 aims at
showcasing how Huntingtonian Universalism justifies the New Great Game
narrative which has come up in the recent years again not in the best interest of
the sensitive areas. The focus is put upon as to how the legal framework of the
mostly autonomous areas is being changed and as to why development through
imperialist notions is leading to and will lead to larger resource-based exploitation
of the natural resources in the region.
Lastly, Chapter 3 focuses on showcasing the applicability of the Thick and Thin
morality based reiterative universalism approach of Michael Walzer as another
possible way to study the sensitive areas of High Asia through furtherance of the
idea of Pan-High Asianism as an alternative to the religious hegemonic and power
politics operational in the region. The idea is based around how the different belts
can come together to form thick morality forwarding setups on thin universalism
possibly leading to High Asian Approaches to International Law (HAAIL).
2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theoretical framework of the work is based on an analytic constructivist
approach 4 through Walzer’s Reiterative Universalism. The key theoretical
principles revolve around historical cultural perspectives with the aim to offer an
alternative to Huntingtonian Universalism which promotes religious hegemonial
and great power politics in the mentioned areas of High Asia. Likewise, the main
aim is to apply Walzer’s form of universalism as a possible new way of looking
at the history of the region and although Huntington and Walzer’s universalisms
are both different from covering law universalism as they further moral claims
and are not based on a set of codified principles but the reiterative universalism
concept offers more by acceptance of the fact that different places can have their
own forms and interpretations of universalism. The concept also offers an
alternative by being more sensitive to diversity of cultures and experiences. Also,
the significance of the work lies on how the idea of this type of universalism could
possibly lead to peace, harmony, and stability in the region by categorizing
morality on thin and thick basis satisfying both universalist aspirations and
particularistic criticisms.
Moreover, a test of this could be the following: Does reiterative universalism help
in providing a region friendly alternative to the approach of Huntingtonian
universalism which in a way justifies civilizational colonialism? Secondly, does
4
Klotz Audie and M. Lynch Cecelia, Strategies for Research in Constructivist International Relations (Taylor
and Francis 2007)
3
reiterative universalism help in highlighting the issues faced by the region
concerning the New Great Game narrative? Furthermore, the concept is also used
as one way to possibly lay out the roadmap for Pan-High Asianism which can be
summed up as a thin and universalistic morality based minimalist setup which
includes thick cultural belts furthering particularistic morality, meaning that
historical orientation based on syncretic cultures are categorized on a maximalist
level after coagulating them through similar sub-cultures having a shared
understanding. The aim being that Walzer’s account of universalism is better as
it puts forth dualistic morality different from that of Huntingtonian universalism
and can be used as something through which an alternative can be provided to
colonial and post-colonial agendas prevalent in the territories of High Asia for
years mostly based on linguistic and demographic changes, further leading to a
sort of politics prevailing which has caused religious segregation duly justifying
violence and resource exploitation.
At the same time, Walzer’s form of universalism creates space for politics that
could transcend these hegemonic conflicts, as it showcases upon as to why
particularistic implications need to be considered in any categorization of
universalism which Huntington through a civilizational approach fails to provide
for the areas mentioned as it indirectly labels areas of Kashmir, Tibet and Central
Asia as being security sensitive. Although, in essence it can be agreed that there
can be no neutral moral language but with Walzer’s concept the culturally similar
belts of the Faultline region could be potentially divided into five cultural belts
4
namely Western Pahari, Greater Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan and
Sogdiana through which the complexities could be understood and then Pan-High
Asianism can be furthered through infusing a moral minimum which could be
used to combine all the issues that are of concern to the population, then this
notion could be furthered to attain global and local justice for the side-lined
region.
Afterwards, all this could be possibly done through High Asian Approaches to
International Law (HAAIL) which can serve an alternative to Third World
Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) perspectives whose works focus less
on the colonial and post-colonial situation of minor cultural areas of the region
and are majorly centred around major culture writ large power politics based
notions which neglects the perspectives of the mountainous and valley based
areas in their quest to re-constitute international law.
Lastly, the study uses the following important terms which shall be taken into due
consideration: -
Huntingtonian Universalism – A maximalist form of Universalism with
less room for plurality aimed at dividing world powers between major
culture writ large civilizations.
Reiterative Universalism – A minimalist form of Universalism with more
room for plurality aimed at providing a moral code based on thin and thick
morality.
5
Civilizational colonialism – A term used to point towards the usage of
cultural and ideological imperialism by civilizational notions to establish
control over minor cultures through direct and indirect means.
New Great Game - A term initially referred by Peter Hopkirk during the
end of the Cold War concerning the future continuation of "The Great
Game” in the sensitive areas of High Asia with new players.
High Asia – A term used metaphorically to relate to the Mountainous and
Valley based region stacked up between the adjoining sensitive areas of
Central, South and East Asia mostly surrounded by Tian Shan, Pamirs,
Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Western Himalayan (Mountain systems); as
well as Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Indus (River systems) currently part of
present day China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Pan-High Asianism - A term used metaphorically to bring under one
platform the common issues related to the sensitive belts of High Asia
(Western Pahari, Greater Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan, and
Sogdiana).
Western Pahari Belt – The term is used as a combined reference to the
similar cultural linguistic region which is made up of Galyat Hill Tracts
(Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan); Mirpur and Poonch
Administrative Division as well as parts of Muzaffarabad Administrative
Division (Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Administered by Pakistan); Jammu
6
Administrative Division except for Chenab Valley (Jammu and Kashmir,
Administered by India), areas of Kangra, Mandi and Shimla Administrative
Division (Himachal Pradesh, India) and Jaunsar-Barwar Area
(Uttarakhand, India). The belt emerges from combining the areas speaking
the language which can be categorised as Western Pahari5 6 7 8 9 10 11
and
includes sub languages and dialects like Pahari-Pothwari, Mirpuri, Kotli,
Poonchi, Rajouri, Chambeali, Dogri-Kangri, Mandeali, Kulluvi, Bilaspuri,
Sirmauri, Mahasu Pahari, and many others.
Greater Dardic Belt - The term is used as a combined reference to the
similar cultural linguistic region which includes Nuristan and Laghman
(N2KL Provinces, Afghanistan); Malakand and Hazara divisions (Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan); Diamer and Gilgit divisions, (Gilgit Baltistan,
Administered by Pakistan); some parts of Muzaffarabad Administrative
Division (Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Administered by Pakistan); Kashmir
Valley and Chenab Valley Areas (Jammu and Kashmir, Administered by
India); and Pangi area of Chamba District (Himachal Pradesh, India). The
5
Raymond G. Gordon and others, Ethnologue : languages of the world (15th ed. edn, Dallas, Tex. : SIL
International 2005)
6
G. A. Grierson, 'Linguistic Survey of India' (1930) 5 Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
961
7
Michael Lothers and Laura Lothers, ‘Pahari and Pothwari: A sociolinguistic survey’, SIL Electronic Survey
Reports [Online] (Pakistan, 2010) < https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9130 > accessed 11 June
2020.g
8
Brightbill, Jeremy D. and Scott D. Turner, ‘Pahari and Pothwari: A sociolinguistic survey’, SIL Electronic
Survey Reports [Online] (India, 2010) < https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/9015 > accessed 10 June 2020.
9
Farah B Nazir, ‘Light Verb Constructions in Potwari’, (PhD Thesis, University of Manchester 2015) 32
10
GN Devy, ‘The Languages of Himachal Pradesh: People's Linguistic Survey of India Volume Eleven, Part
Two’ (Hyderabad, Orient Blackswan, 2017)
11
W. B. Lockwood and W. D. Lockwood, A Panorama of Indo-European Languages (Hutchinson university
library ; Modern languages, Hutchinson 1972) 232
7
Belt emerges from mostly combining the traditional Dardic language12 13
14 15 16 17
speaking areas which includes languages sub grouped into
Western (Kafiri and other related languages), Central (Khowari and other
related languages), and Eastern (Kashmiri, Shina and other related
languages). The key mountains present in the belt are the Western
Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush.
Trans-Himalayan Belt – The term is used as a combined reference to the
ancient high mountainous regions of Tibet, Ladakh, Bolor, Turkic and
Persian heritage which includes Tarim Basin Xinjiang (Uighur
Autonomous Province, China); Western Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region,
China); Manali, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti areas (Himachal Pradesh,
India); Leh and Kargil divisions (Ladakh, Administered by India);
Baltistan division, (Gilgit Baltistan, Administered by Pakistan). The belt
emerges from combining the Trans-Himalayan languages 18 19 20 21 22 23
12
Article, ‘Dardic langauges’, Britannica Encyclopedia [Online] < https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dardic-
languages > retrieved 9 August 2020
13
Matteo De Chiara, 'Swāt Hydronymy at the Border between Iranian and Indo-Aryan Languages' (2019) 23
Iran and the Caucasus 64
14
S. Munshi, Dardic (2006)
15
Richard F. Strand, 'Notes on the Nūristāni and Dardic Languages' (1973) 93 Journal of the American Oriental
Society 297
16
Claus Peter Zoller, A grammar and dictionary of Indus Kohistani (Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter
2005)
17
Rahman Tariq, Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan (Linguistic Society of America 1994)
18
Thomas Owen-Smith, Trans-Himalayan Linguistics: Historical and Descriptive Linguistics of the Himalayan
Area (Berlin, Boston: DE GRUYTER 2013)
19
William G. Boltz and Michael C. Shapiro, Studies in the historical phonology of Asian languages
(Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co. 1991)
20
Éva Ágnes Csató and Lars Johanson, The Turkic languages (London : Routledge 1998)
21
Edward J. Vajda, 'Compendium of the World's Languages, Volume 1: Abaza to Kurdish; Volume 2: Ladakhi
to Zuni (review)' (2002) 78 Language (Baltimore) 339
22
Rj Lapolla, 'LINGUISTICS The origin and spread of Sino-Tibetan languages' (2019) 569 Nature 45
23
Owen-Smith Thomas and W. Hill Nathan, Trans-Himalayan Linguistics (De Gruyter Mouton 2014)
8
speaking areas surrounded by the mountains of Western Himalayas,
Karakoram, and Tien Shan. Major language systems like Western Tibetan,
Ladakhi-Balti, Lahauli-Spiti and Uyghur prevail in the belt.
Badakhshan Belt – The term is used to refer to the historical mostly
mountainous region currently divided between Badakhshan Province
(Afghanistan); Gorno - Badakhshan Province (Tajikistan); Taxkorgan
Tajik Autonomous County of Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang (China); some
parts of Hunza District and Ghizer District (Gilgit Baltistan, Administered
by Pakistan); and some parts of Chitral District (Kyber Paktunkawa,
Pakistan). It is surrounded mostly by the Pamir mountains and the areas
are related with the Pamiri language 24 25 26
(Eastern-Iranian language)
speaking mountainous people whose sub languages are Wakhi, Sarikoli
and Shugni.
Sogdiana Belt – The term is used for the historical region of Sogdiana27
centred around Fergana Valley and nearby mountainous areas which
includes areas of present-day Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and
Kazakhstan. In the historic Sogdiana belt currently a combination of
Uzbek, Kirgiz (Turkic languages) 28 and Tajiki 29 (Southwestern Iranian)
speaking people reside. Iranian and Turkic multicultural notions mostly
24
E. Bashir, Wakhi (2013)
25
, Iranian Languages (2016)
26
Michiel de Vaan, 'Windfuhr, Gernot (Ed.), The Iranian Languages' (2012) 55 Indo-Iranian Journal 390
27
, Sogdiana (Princeton University Press 2013)
28
Csató and Johanson, The Turkic languages
29
, Tajiki (Oxford University Press 2014)
9
prevail in the region surrounded by Pamir, Tien Shan, and Karakoram
mountain ranges.
10
CHAPTER 1: CIVILIZATIONAL COLONIALISM IN THE SENSITIVE
AREAS OF HIGH ASIA
The chapter showcases upon as to how Huntington’s universalism when related
to the sensitive areas of High Asia does not take into consideration civilizational
colonialism which is being put forth by numerous players involved in the region
through cultural imperialism, linguistic imposition, demographic change and
curtailment of human rights. This argument also lays the foundation for the
analysis on the New Great Game in Chapter two.
Cultural imperialism in a way was always imposed in the referred areas of High
Asia by one or the other player which took control of the clan and tribe-based
region. Though majorly for centuries most of the areas in concern came under the
influence of Greater Turko-Persian cultural spheres 30 which existed between
Istanbul till Delhi via Tehran over time represented by the Ottoman Empire31,
Safavid (then later Persian Empires)32 and Mughal Empire33. Also, the Tibetan,
Sikh and Durrani Empires had significant influence in some pockets. But all of
them had an expansionist policy and were at logger heads with each other due to
different notions they promoted but their alliances with smaller kingdoms in a
way allowed the different areas to practice their own culture. Although the large
scale struggles between the Safavid version of Shia Islam and the Ottoman
30
Robert L. Canfield and Research School of American, Turko-Persia in historical perspective (Cambridge
University Press 2002)
31
Umut Özsu, Ottoman Empire (Oxford University Press 2012)
32
Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran : rebirth of a Persian empire (London : I.B. Tauris 2006)
33
John Everett-Heath, Mughal Empire (Oxford University Press 2019)
11
Turkish version of Sunni Islam had continued to remain an important dimension
but the Persian–Ottoman peace negotiations in the 18th century helped in
controlling the animosity between the people of the areas. Also, during the
Mughal Empire and especially during Akbar’s reign ideas like Din-e-Ilahi 34
prevailed where common places of worship were designed irrespective of any
barrier which also paved the way for inter-religious harmony between Hindus and
Muslims.
Likewise, despite the differences between the Sikh Empire and its Hindu
protectorates with the Mughals existed for long but Bhakti and Sufi Movements
paved the way for harmony between the civilians at least. All in all the S5
Alliance (Shi’ism, Sufism, Shaktivism, Shaivism and Sikhism) paved the way for
peace which had an effect on the majority parts of the sensitive areas of High Asia
due to presence of Badakhshan and Greater Dardic form of Shia Ismaili35 to the
Sunni-Sufi centric Islam 36 in other parts of the Greater Dardic, Sogdiana and
Trans-Himalayan belt, to say the fused traditions of Himalayan Shaivism and
Buddhism in the Trans-Himalayan Belt as well as the amalgamation of Western
Pahari Shaktism and Shaivism with Sufi-Shia approaches and later Sikhism 37
majorly helped in bringing harmony among the subjects. Like say the centuries
34
Maqbool Ahmed Siraj, 'India: A Laboratory of Inter-religious Experiment' (2008) 12 Religion and the Arts
319
35
Stephen M. Cherry and Helen Rose Ebaugh, Aga Khan Development Network: Shia Ismaili Islam (Routledge
2014)
36
Kent F. Schull and Christine Isom-Verhaaren, Living in the Ottoman Realm Empire and Identity, 13th to 20th
Centuries (Bloomington : Indiana University Press 2016)
37
S. G. Kibicho, The origin of Sikhism (2010)
12
old co-existence in Ladakh between Buddhists and Muslims38, or in the case of
Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur and Ngari which were important places for the silk route
based trade linking China, India, Central Asia, and Europe simultaneously also
leading to people of diverse origins living in the high mountain terrain which
invariably played a role for the region attaining its cultural co-existence revolving
around syncretic lines.
Additionally, Fergana valley too had a rich history of inter-community peace with
people from all across Central Asia settling in the areas due to it being a key spot
in the Silk route, the idea of Kashmiriyat in the Kashmir Valley where mutual
Hindu-Muslim ceremonies like Tajomouj (Foster Mother Culture where when a
child was born in a Hindu family the first breast feed was from a Muslim mother
and vice versa)39 were practised which helped in strengthening bonds between
communities. The Western Pahari Belt was also not far behind as in the linguistic
region apart from going to their prescribed place of worship the Hindus, Muslims
and later Sikhs were attracted towards the Shrine based culture related to Sufi,
Shia, Shakti and Shaivi Nath (Baba Balak Nath lineage)40 traditions which had
no restriction on caste and religious barriers helping establish harmony. Thus,
most of the region was moving forth through local cultures based on a syncretic41
approach.
38
Imtiyaz Yusuf, Islam and Buddhism (2013)
39
Vishal Sharma, ‘Limbic Ideological Dimension’ (Chennai: Notion Press 2019), 6
40
Mahesh Sharma, Western Himalayan temple records : state, pilgrimage, ritual, and legality in Chamba
(Leiden ; Boston : Brill 2009)
41
André Droogers, Syncretism (2015)
13
Nevertheless, slowly and steadily hardliners started coming up and these
syncretic lines got challenged, which was later exploited by European powers
who started to establish influence in various parts of the region leading to the
Great Game between the two European Empires of Russia and Britain adopting
policies to segregate the minor cultures in order to allow the exploitation of
resources and they very smartly divided the culturally similar regions of Fergana,
Badakhshan and Western Himalayas which was further divided by the nation-
states which later came into existence. Though Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Idea for
Turkey42, Jawahar Lal Nehru’s Idea for India43, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s Idea
for Iran44, Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Idea for Pakistan45, and Mohammed Daoud
46
Khan’s Idea for Afghanistan in some way worked at bringing back
progressiveness and maintaining multiculturalism in the nations they founded or
had significant influence over, also mooting for cultural particularism in the
numerous sensitive areas of High Asia they governed but later things changed
drastically with the clergy backed Fundamentalist Islamic Revolution in Iran in
1979, early demise of Jinnah and military coups in Pakistan, USSR backed Saur
Revolution in Afghanistan in 1978 leading to the assassination of Khan and later
the US influence plus the coming up of the Taliban, to the Islamic and Hindu
42
Erik Jan Zürcher, Turkey : a modern history (3rd ed. edn, London : I. B. Tauris 2004)
43
Sunil Khilnani, The idea of India (London : Penguin 1998).
44
Cyrus Schayegh, '“SEEING LIKE A STATE”: AN ESSAY ON THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF MODERN
IRAN' (2010) 42 International Journal of Middle East Studies 37.
45
Stephen P. Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press 2004).
46
Amin Saikal and William Maley, State, Societies, and Political Legitimacy (1 edn, Routledge 1991)
14
orthodox notions rising in the 1990s in Turkey and India leading to the current
regimes advancing the notions of New India47 and New Turkey48.
Similarly, China after the cultural revolution has one of the most authoritative
regimes in the world, and post 1990 the functioning of new nation states of
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan were influenced heavily by
numerous civilizational power centres. In a way, all this uncertainty which
prevailed and is prevailing is not in the best interest of such areas with huge
potential and thus language imposition could also be seen in this regard especially
when dealing with the fact upon as to how civilizational notions have been
adamant on taking out the language and cultures falling in the areas mentioned to
satisfy their interest, and the most properly implemented strategy comes in the
form of how the policy makers of India and Pakistan caused the depletion of
Western Pahari culture and languages which emerges from one of South Asia’s
oldest script Sharda, the language system during its final format was written in
Takri script49 and was intentionally neglected by the governments of New Delhi
and Islamabad to cement the dominance of Urdu and Hindi in the regions
invariably conceiving from the coming generations about the linkages between
the culturally similar areas which exists on both sides of the border. The division
that existed between the smaller princely states in the region before the partition
47
A. Teltumbde, 'The new normal in modi's 'new India'' (2018) 53 Economic and Political Weekly 10
48
Simon Waldman, The new Turkey and its discontents (New York, NY : Oxford University Press 2017)
49
Sarita Barara, ‘Breathing new life into forgotten scripts’ The Hindu [Online] (New Delhi, 26 July 2019) <
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-interior/himachal-pradeshs-lipis-breathing-new-life-into-
forgotten-scripts/article28725663.ece > accessed 15 June 2020
15
of the subcontinent50 and the Hindu-Muslim divide that was fuelled by the British
during that time paved the way for such a policy to creep up smoothly post-
independence leading to creation of Hindu majority India and Muslim majority
Pakistan perpetually leading to the breeding ground for a civilizational path
currently being taken by both countries in the name of Hinduism and Islamism
going against the original setups of India promoting a secular identity and
Pakistan advancing a progressive Islam favouring multicultural identity.
At the same time, Western Pahari speaking population is in fact also present in
the United Kingdom after people speaking mostly the Mirpuri Pahari dialect
migrated to the country following displacement in the 1960s due to creation of
the Mangla Dam in Azad Jammu and Kashmir 51 , and they unusually faced
problems in the UK also concerning the use of their language. Though driving
tests in the language were allowed by the British government during the initial
years of their arrival as they were almost 110,000 in number at that time.52 In fact
British Pahari53 is the second-most common mother-tongue in the UK (behind
50
Mahesh Sharma, 'The frayed margins of empire: Early nineteenth century Panjab and the hill states' (2017) 54
The Indian Economic and Social History Review 505
51
Tanveer Ahmed, ‘Reclaiming Azad Jammu Kashmir For Her People’, Portmir Foundation [Online]
(Birmingham, 26 July 2018) <https://www.portmir.org.uk/azad-jammu-kashmir/democracy-for-ajk/reclaiming-
azad-jammu-kashmir-people/> assessed 6 August 2020
52
Bogumil Terminski, Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Theoretical Frameworks and
Current Challenges (University of Geneva 2013)
53
Shams Rehman, “The Development of Pahari Language in Britain: The Background, Alphabet, Literature and
People.” Paper presented at the Pahari Conference, Leeds City Council and Aalmi Pahari Adabi Sangat, (Leeds,
2005)
<https://www.academia.edu/4646310/Diaspora_and_Diversity_The_Development_of_Pahari_Language_in_Bri
tain?email_work_card=title> accessed 12 August 2020
16
English, but ahead of Welsh and other regional languages)54 as it is spoken by
close to more than 600,000 speakers 55 and if people speaking other Western
Pahari languages who migrated from Jammu and Himachal Pradesh to the UK
are added the number will be far more, but still after all this the language system
as well as its dialects have not been recognized and people speaking that language
and its dialects are still not part of the minority mainstream in the UK as rightly
stated by Hussian56.
Moving further, Western Pahari culture and language dilution, as a matter of fact
was also part of the British Empire’s divide and rule policy and could be termed
as British Imperialism’s first masterstroke in causing divisiveness in the sub-
continent and all of this started through the Amritsar Treaty of 184657 where the
state of Jammu and Kashmir was carved out of the Sikh Empire and its Jagirs.
That majorly led to a kind of connectivity division of the linguistically similar
Western Pahari Belt which now forms part of areas of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu
& Kashmir UT (India) and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (Pakistan) including some
parts of Pakistan’s Galyat region whose language is seen as a dialect of Punjabi
Hindko currently but the vocabulary is closer to Western Pahari languages58. This
54
Lothers, Michael and Laura Lothers, ‘Mirpuri Immigrants in England: A sociolinguistic survey, SIL
Electronic Survey Reports [Online] (UK, 2012) < https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/48007 >
accessed 10 June 2020.
55
Ali Dalaat, ‘Why I think Pahari is important’, BBC [Online], (Leeds, 28 October 2014) <
http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/altogether/through_my_eyes/dalaat_pahari.shtml > accessed 20 July 2020.
56
Serena Hussain, 'Missing from the 'minority mainstream': Pahari-speaking diaspora in Britain' (2015) 36
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 483
57
Treaty of Amritsar, 16 March 1846 < http://www.jklaw.nic.in/treaty_of_amritsar.pdf > accessed 1 June 2020
58
Lothers, Michael and Laura Lothers, ‘Pahari and Pothwari: a sociolinguistic survey’, SIL Electronic Survey
Reports [Online] (Pakistan, 2010) < https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/48007 > accessed 15 June
2020.
17
unrecognized segregation of sorts of the Western Pahari Belt is what could be
considered as one of the genesis of the modern Jammu and Kashmir dispute
which escalated after the 1947 signing of the Instrument of Accession in favour
of India59 by Emperor Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir who was also a key
member of Churchill’s Imperial War Cabinet 60 . Since then things have been
problematic between India and Pakistan and in the current times this has been a
catalyst in leading to the imposition of the politically influenced Fundamentalist
Hindutva in the Indian parts and the politically influenced Fundamentalist
Islamification coming up in the Pakistani parts of the Western Pahari areas.
At the same time all this is not in alignment with the establishment of harmony
and peace in the entire region as with the systematic installation of the
civilizational order the Western Pahari belt is forming two pillars of the politically
motivated agendas of Hindutva and Islamism leading to added chaos between the
areas which belong to the same linguistic system and Pahari (Mountainous) way
of living. Likewise, is the case of Kashmir Valley where to impose dominance of
New Delhi and Islamabad setups, the peaceful Kashmiri culture of brotherhood
was not spared as divisions on sectarian lines were created between Hindus and
Muslims during the 1987 elections, the results of which were later forged by New
Delhi61 followed by Islamabad sending armed guerrillas to wage war in Kashmir.
59
Mridu Rai, 'THE INDIAN CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY AND THE MAKING OF HINDUS AND
MUSLIMS IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR' (2018) 49 Asian Affairs: Special Issue: Ghosts from the Past?
Assessing Recent Developments in Religious Freedom in South Asia 205
60
V. Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War (Bloomsbury Academic 2003) 22
61
Navnita Chadha Behera, Demystifying Kashmir (Washington, District of Columbia : Brookings Institution
Press 2006)
18
But all of that got affected by the civilizational notions which got boosted by the
bureaucratic and political setups of both India and Pakistan during that time. The
Indian government through a Far-Right Governor in-charge named Jagmohan
played the Hindu card during the crucial phase of the insurgency which led to the
exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, he claimed that it was necessary as the agencies of
Islamabad were furthering the Islamic fundamentalist approach in some parts of
the valley since the early 1980s leading to extensive hatred against the minority
Hindu population62.
Equally, Pakistan’s segregation of Malakand and Hazara division in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa whose main linguistic systems are Dardic (Khowar and Kohistani)
is also very much related to the civilizational notions of them favouring Pashto
over other languages in the divisions. In retaliation to which a Hazara province
movement 63 also was carried out in the recent years but nothing significant
happened to undo the continued imposition. In fact the entire Dardic languages
which includes Kashmiri/Koshur, Chitral, Kohistani, Pashayi and Kunar sub
systems have suffered from dilution and Indian, Pakistani as well as Afghani
regimes all have a part to play in it as due to all of them favouring a majoritarian
notion of promoting Hindi, Urdu, Pashto and Dari Persian64 in the Greater Dardic
Belt. The same was and is the policy of China in Tibet and Xinjiang which aims
62
Jagmohan, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir, (New Delhi, Delhi: Allied Publishers1992) 180
63
, Pakistan:ANP minister tables resolution for Hazara province (2010)
64
Harold F. Schiffman, Language policy and language conflict in Afghanistan and its neighbors : the changing
politics of language choice (Leiden ; Boston : Brill. 2012) 31-32
19
at Sinicization 65 of the two autonomous provinces leading to hampering the
culture and traditions of especially Western Tibetan and Tarim Basin Xinjiang
where over the years Uighur and Tibetan scripts were replaced with Chinese
Mandarin scripts.66 67 Especially, during the cultural revolution the majority of
the changes took place and aimed at the prolongation of class struggle over the
traditional culture. Similarly, Uighur mosques were widely shut down, ethnic
dress prohibited, and traditional holidays of the people cancelled.68 In Tibet also
Tibetan monasteries were closed during the cultural revolution69, then linkages
between the historic Ngari area70 one of the four historical regions of Tibet which
included Upper Kinnaur, Lahaul Spiti (Himachal Pradesh, India) and Ngari
Prefecture (Tibet Autonomous Region, China) were also cut in this civilizational
tussle.
The identical was the fate of Nuristani people in Nuristan and Laghman provinces
of Afghanistan and Kalashas in Chitral area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan of
the Greater Dardic Belt, as the language and script of the Nuristanis and Kalashas
was systematically eroded. Taliban’s influence in these areas increased
considerably and was followed by forceful conversions of the mostly tribal
65
Peter J. Katzenstein, Sinicization and the rise of China : civilizational processes beyond East and West
(London ; New York : Routledge 2012)
66
Elena Caprioni, 'Daily Encounters Between Hans and Uyghurs in Xinjiang: Sinicization, Integration or
Segregation?' (2011) 84 Pacific Affairs 267
67
Joseph Lo Bianco, 'Bilingual Education in China: Practices, Policies and Concepts' (2008) 18 Journal of Asian
Pacific Communication 121
68
S. Frederick Starr, Education and Social Mobility among Minority Populations in Xinjiang (Routledge 2004)
69
A. Tom Grunfeld, Education in Tibet. Policy and Practice Since 1950 (1999)
70
Akhilesh Pillalamarri, ‘History of Tibet-Ladakh Relations and Their Modern Implications’, The Diplomat
[Online], (Washington, 17 July 2020) < https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/history-of-tibet-ladakh-relations-and-
their-modern-implications/ > retrieved 31 July 2020
20
people71. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government in Pakistan although
admitted before the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2014 that Kalashas were being
forcibly converted, and that almost 3,500 inhabitants of Kalash Valley have faced
death threat from militant organisations but no considerable step has been taken
by them in this connection. 72 Consequently, the imposition of the politically
motivated Islamist thoughts in the recent times and earlier imposition of the
Communist thought in Central Asian regions which belonged to the Sogdiana belt
also fits the puzzle. Stalin divided the region for resource exploitation during the
1920s and 1930s and completely ignored ethnic realities, which led to widespread
ethnic tensions and rivalries that are the basis of the current violence in the region.
The situation aggravated post the disintegration of the Soviet Union and creation
of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which have not been able to find a
footing and have been marred by militancy. The role of USA and Russia also
increased in the region leading to them interfering with the political and financial
systems with the help of local friendly regimes 73 , and in the whole game of
exploiting the riches of the area they ensured the divisions which existed before
stayed leading to suppression of local cultures and division of numerous ethnic
groups.
71
Report, “A call to preserve Kalash rights and culture”, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Report of an
HRCP consultation [Online] (Lahore, 2017) < http://hrcp-web.org/publication/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/A-
call-to-preserve-Kalash-rights-and-culture-1.pdf > accessed 27 June 2020
72
Report, ‘PAKISTAN: Indigenous Kalash tribe under threat from Muslim religious groups’, Asian Human
Rights Commission [Online], (Hong Kong, September 01 2016) < http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-
news/AHRC-ART-049-2016/ > accessed 20 August 2020
73
Alexander A. Cooley and John Heathershaw, Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia
(New Haven: Yale University Press 2017)
21
Then, the Badakhshan region is no way different in this regard as in the 1980s a
Pamiri language movement arose in the area which got supressed then after the
independence of Tajikistan, another movement came up which aimed at
contesting cultural particularism, language rights and expansion of the
autonomous nature of the Gorno-Badakhshan province which in 1929 was
attached with current Tajikistan. The aim of the movement was to highlight the
cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the country and majorly related to
showcasing the suppression of the population by earlier Soviet authorities and
later the government in power.74 But this was not taken into consideration in a
progressive manner and led to the Tajik Civil War in which Badakhshani people
were racially discriminated and attacked due to they being subject to Eastern
Iranian heritage by some major groups who followed the majoritarian
Southwestern Iranian heritage.
Then moving on, demographic change also comes as an important point through
which civilizational colonialism was established in the region like the Chinese
government using demographic change as a tool in Tibet and Xinjiang which
includes areas of the Trans-Himalayan Belt to further the Sinic civilizational
thought dependent on the expansion of Han Chinese dominance in Tibet and
Xinjiang the only provinces in the country where Han Chinese have not formed
the largest ethnic group. Tibetans have been the largest ethnic group in Tibet and
74
Doug Foster, 'Cleansing violence in the Tajik Civil War: framing from the dark side of democracy' (2015) 17
National Identities 353
22
Uighurs the largest in Xinjiang,75 and for this reason discriminatory policies are
implemented in the areas like in the case of Tibet where Tibet’s autonomy
between 1951 and 1959 as per the Seventeen-Point Agreement signed between
the Tibetan government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was respected but
with the Lhasa uprising leading to Dalai Lama’s escape in 1959 the end of the
Tibetan religious and political system was ensured. The Dalai Lama fled to India
with alleged CIA’s help76 and due to involvement of the governments of India
and USA especially in connection to their support regarding the formation of the
Tibetan government in exile, the CCP was unable to resolve tensions peacefully
leading to a crackdown in Tibet which for years has still not stopped. 77 But
majorly after the 2008 unrest, the presence grew more and more and China’s
attempt to destabilize all external influences in the region went very vast which
led to the bureaucratic cadres from outside Tibet being sent to consolidate control
over administrative organizations in the areas and infuse Han Chinese
domination.
In addition to that, in 2008, the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government in exile
claimed that Beijing was planning the mass settlement of Han Chinese in Tibet
to dilute the Tibetan culture and identity, 78 in 1987 also a similar five-point
75
Shale Horowitz and Peng Yu, 'Holding China’s West: Explaining CCP Strategies of Rule in Tibet and
Xinjiang' (2015) 20 Journal of Chinese Political Science 451
76
Robert P. Hager, A Review of: "Mikel Dunham. Buddha's Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan
Freedom Fighters, the Chinese Invasion, and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet": New York: Jeremy P.
Tarcher/Penguin, 2004. 434 pp; maps, forward by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, bibliog., and index. $29.95
(hdbk). ISBN: 1-58542-348-3 (2006)
77
Enze Han and Christopher Paik, 'Dynamics of Political Resistance in Tibet: Religious Repression and
Controversies of Demographic Change' (2014) 217 69
78
ibid
23
proposal was put through in which he demanded that China should abandon its
population transfer policy in the region79 but no step was taken by the CCP in that
direction. On the other hand, the Tibetan Government in Exile’s policy is based
on spreading a politically motivated Buddhist thought 80 rather than contesting
particularism in the region and have over the years been influenced by USA’s
policy makers81. Huntington in his work mentioning about how Buddhism is the
only religion out of Weber’s classification of the five major religions which did
not try to establish a civilization may be seen in this connection relating to how
US policy makers as well as the CIA has always aimed at igniting Tibetans to
further more religious hegemonic politics in the region rather than solving the
situation82. On the other hand, in Tibet an ethnically Tibetan person is in-charge
of Tibet Autonomous Region but in reality an ethnic Han Chinese Branch
Secretary is the real incharge which is appointed by the CCP.
Likewise, a similar change also started in Xinjiang since PLA’s 1949 takeover of
the former East Turkmenistan, Uighurs lacked local leadership and the
influencers living in West and South Asia had little attention of the masses which
made Beijing’s role easy. The recent social re-engineering strategies in Xinjiang
by China adds another layer to the argument with recent reports of Muslim
79
Huang Yasheng, 'China's Cadre Transfer Policy toward Tibet in the 1980s' (1995) 21 Modern China 184
80
Åshild Kolås, 'Tibetan Nationalism: The Politics of Religion' (1996) 33 Journal of Peace Research 51
81
Hager, A Review of: "Mikel Dunham. Buddha's Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan Freedom
Fighters, the Chinese Invasion, and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet": New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2004.
434 pp; maps, forward by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, bibliog., and index. $29.95 (hdbk). ISBN: 1-58542-348-
3
82
F. McConnell, Rehearsing the state: The political practices of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (2016)
24
women being forcefully sterlized to stop the muslim population from growing in
the autonomous region 83 and by such draconian measures it aims at slashing birth
rates among Uighurs and other minorities, while encouraging some of the
country's Han majority to have more children the CCP is clearly furthering
civilizational notions aimed at the annihilation of minor cultures. Similarly,
people from India’s other provinces have been placed in the newly formed Union
Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as well as the state of Himachal
Pradesh over the years which has not went well with the local population.
Numerous issues have been reported where people from especially Hindi
heartland provinces have been provided jobs in the areas which were supposed to
be given to the local population, with the latest issue being reported at the peak
of the Coronavirus crisis where about 25,000 people were given domicile
certificates in Jammu and Kashmir84 who belonged to other provinces signalling
at how an Israel styled demographic engineering85 and settler colonialism is being
aimed at in the area.
Earlier, before taking this move the government notified the Jammu and Kashmir
Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, on May 18, 2020 86 allowing
83
Adrian Zenz, “STERILIZATIONS, IUDS, AND MANDATORY BIRTH CONTROL: THE CCP’S
CAMPAIGN TO SUPPRESS UYGHUR BIRTHRATES IN XINJIANG “, The Jamestown Foundation,
(Washington DC, June 2020) < https://jamestown.org/press-releases/sterilizations-iuds-and-mandatory-birth-
control-the-ccps-campaign-to-suppress-uyghur-birthrates-in-xinjiang/ > accessed 1 July 2020
84
Samaan Lateef, ‘IAS officer among 25,000 people granted domicile certificates in J-K’, The Tribune [Online]
, (New Delhi, June 26 2020), < https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/j-k/ias-officer-among-25k-people-granted-
domicile-certificates-in-j-k-104783 > accessed 28 June 2020
85
Paul Morland, Demographic engineering : population strategies in ethnic conflict (Surrey, England ;
Burlington, Vermont : Ashgate 2014)
86
Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020
25
different categories of non-locals, including non-local government employees, to
register for domicile certificates. Though, prior to abrogation of Article 370 on
August 5, 2019, only provincial subjects could buy land and apply for
government jobs.
Identical issues also arose in the peaceful province of Himachal Pradesh where
the local government have over the years advanced proposals for the dilution of
Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Land and Tenancy Act, 1972 87 to
systematically tackle the unity amongst the population as the act guaranteed
special ownership rights to the bona fide population in the province which is
made up of the majorly ethnic Western Pahari’s and Trans-Himalayans88 but also
includes other non-ethnic Sood, Khatri 89 , Mahajan, Chaudhary and other
communities which settled in the areas starting from the early 19 th century and
majorly after the partition of India. Also, post partition a minor population
belonging to other states especially the Hindi Heartland and Eastern Pahari
province of Uttrakhand started settling in the province. Though the combined
multicultural and harmonious “Himachali identity” of the province is still in tact
due to better social development policies of the numeorus governments involved
but post 2014 numerous initiations have been aimed at realting to the dilution of
special rights for the bondfide ethnic and non-ethnic population aswell as the
87
Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, 1972, < http://www.bareactslive.com/HP/HP007.HTM >
accessed 15 June 2020.
88
Owen-Smith, Trans-Himalayan Linguistics: Historical and Descriptive Linguistics of the Himalayan Area
89
Sharma, 'The frayed margins of empire: Early nineteenth century Panjab and the hill states'
26
tribal population in the border districts, due to which voices of dissent are rising
as many fear a change in demographics, which have been aimed at by the
provincial government but fearing major public backlash they have reverted back
from the decisions.90
Furthermore, in Pakistan also the same has been done where people from other
provinces majorly Punjab were placed in areas of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and
Baltistan to strengthen control91. The similar strategy was adopted in Pakistan’s
Chitral area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where forest rights of indigenous Kalash
people have been taken away from systematic assistance of the Taliban and
people were being slowly and steadily dragged out from their native lands. 92
Thus, in totality this demographic change is vital in determining how
civilizational colonialism is being promoted by major players in the region.
Lastly, human rights violations based on ideological and religious grounds has
invariably led to the dominance and imposition of major civilizational notions in
some of the sensitive areas due to almost all nation states using militarization as
a tool to tackle contestations and establish dominance. On the flip side extremist
factions have misused and tried to gain leverage over those situations by fusing
in fundamental and separatist agendas which have in a way misuse people’s faith
in religion and ideology and rather than solving the issues it makes matters worse
90
Report, ‘Decision on outsiders buying property in HP put on hold’, Times of India [Online], (New Delhi, 4
September 2018), < https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/shimla/decision-on-outsiders-buying-property-in-
hp-put-on-hold/articleshow/65663331.cms > accessed 13 September 2020
91
Y. Samad and G. Singh, 'Pakistan or Punjabistan: Crisis of National Identity' (1996) 61
92
Tariq Rahman, 'Pakistan's policies and practices towards the religious minorities' (2012) 3 South Asian
History and Culture: Minority Nationalisms in South Asia 302
27
benefiting just a few fringe elements. In the Sogdiana Belt centred around
Fergana Valley the situation is probably the worst, as the region is situated in the
tri-border area of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and members of all the
three major ethnic groups live in close proximity and this has caused trouble
numerous times, especially in relation to disputes over property and ownership
repeatedly which usually gets an ethnic colour and due to this widespread
violence occurs in the areas,93 largely benefitting the Western, Orthodox, Islamic
and Sinic civilizational notions for exploiting the resources and taking numerous
advantages of the divide between the population.94 Various incidents need to be
looked upon in this connection like the 2005 incident in Andijan where ruthless
firing was conducted by Uzbek troops against innocent protestors, or the
revolution in Kyrgyzstan that led to the ousting of the country’s President in 2010,
to say the 2010 ethno-linguistic clashes in Osh and Jalalabad, or the Zhanaozen
events in 2011 the list goes on and on and all of this has resulted in deaths of
innocent lives.
Indeed, Tajikistan’s Badakhshan has also suffered from the same where during
the Tajik Civil War Pamirs backed United Tajik Opposition were targeted in the
capital Dushanbe,95 and since then major incidents of violence have been reported
in the Pamir mountains. The other issue at hand in all these Central Asian
93
Isabella Damiani, Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Uzbekistan: Ferghana Valley (2015)
94
Cooley and Heathershaw, Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia
95
Anchita Borthakur, 'AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONFLICT IN THE FERGHANA VALLEY' (2017) 48 Asian
Affairs 334
28
countries is that all have ties with different influential powers and due to this they
ought to make compromises on numerous counts which also makes them
susceptible to wide scale foreign interference. Then, Jammu and Kashmir also
needs to be included in the list as the governments of both India and Pakistan
have played their roles in the past with the intelligence agencies of both countries
RAW and ISI being involved in numerous incidents in the Kashmir valley during
the early 1990s like the Gawkadal Massacre which killed hundreds of innocent
Kashmiri Muslims who were peacefully protesting against the New Delhi
government and also the acts involving the cleansing of thousands of innocent
Kashmiri Hindu Pandits96. Both these incidents led to the start of the carnage of
humanity in Jammu and Kashmir and the initiation of the Hindu-Muslim divide
leading to thousands of people losing their lives on all sides either it be the
civilians, armed forces or militants. The United Nations for the first time
published two reports in that context in June, 201997 and July, 201998 in which
human rights violations in the entire erstwhile province of Jammu & Kashmir
was showcased shortly before Article 370 got abrogated and an unprecedented
internet lockdown was initiated by the currently ruling Far-right government in
96
T. C. Schaffer, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace (2018)
97
Report, ‘Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir
from June 2016 to April 2018 and General Human Rights Concerns in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-
Baltistan’, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [Online], (Geneva, 14 June
2018), <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf>
accessed 1 July 2020.
98
Report, ‘Situation of Human Rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir
from May 2018 to April 2019’, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [Online],
(Geneva, 8 July 2019),<https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/KashmirUpdateReport_8July2019.pdf
> accessed 1 July 2020.
29
India to advance the Hindutva civilizational notion. Additionally, the mainstream
leadership of Valley Kashmir was also unlawfully detained and put under
detention and house arrest by use of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act,
1978 99 after all of them signed the Gupkar Declaration 100 relating to their
commitment to protect the autonomy of the state. Coming back to the UN reports
it stated that close to 1,081 civilians were killed by security forces in extrajudicial
killings between 2008 and 2018 in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir and
also highlighted the data of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and
the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons which claimed that over 8,000
people had disappeared since 1989.
Additionally, the report criticised the use of the Armed Forces (Jammu and
Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA) 101 which according to them
remained another key obstacle in the maintenance of peace due to the draconian
provisions like its Section 7102 which prohibits the prosecution of security forces
personnel unless the Government of India grants a prior permission or “sanction”
to prosecute them, which leads to injustice as numerous incidents of mass rapes
have been reported against such personnel in the region, the most famous one
being the Kunan Poshpora incident where the 32nd battalion of the Rajputana
99
Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 8 April 1978
<https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/10406/1/public_safety_act%2C_1978.pdf> accessed 12
June 2020.
100
Gupkar Declaration, August 4 2019 <https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29604393.ece#>
accessed 25 June 2020.
101
Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 10 September 1990
102
Ibid., Section 7
30
Rifles raped the women of an entire village who till now have not been provided
with justice.103 On the other hand, various militant groups like the Lashkar-e-
Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen have also been spreading terror in the area,
including kidnappings and killings of civilians with incidents like the recent
Amarnath Yatra attack in 2017 where innocent Hindu pilgrims were shot dead by
them.104
The UN reports also highlighted the way in which Pakistan’s authorities in Gilgit-
Baltistan dealt with people and as to how acts like the Pakistan Anti-Terrorism
Act, 1997105 were used to target political activists, human rights defenders, and
student protesters. Additionally, it also hinted indirectly at how the China-
Pakistan alliance is working together in the areas of Gilgit-Baltistan to supress
any kind of anti-CPEC dissent and how the Pakistani authorities detain and harass
people if any sort of criticism is put forth against the China Pakistan Economic
Corridor and people involved in such protests are labelled as “anti-national and
anti-people”. Then, the arrests of journalists, political leaders in Azad Kashmir
was also specified, though the region is called “Azad” meaning “Free” but the
reality is very different as very less is known about it to the world with the best
example being that the cultural identity of the region is shown as Kashmiri but in
103
Report, ‘No justice yet for Kunan Poshpora rapes’, Amnesty International [Online], (New Delhi, 23 February
2020), < https://amnesty.org.in/news-update/no-justice-yet-kunan-poshpora-rapes/ > accessed 23 June 2020.
104
Report, ‘Attack by militants kills at least seven Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir’, The Guardian [Online],
(London, 10 July, 2017) < https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/10/attack-by-militants-kills-hindu-
pilgrims-kashmir-india > accessed 20 June 2020
105
Pakistan Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 < http://molaw.gov.pk/molaw/userfiles1/file/Anti-Terrorism%20Act.pdf
> accessed 1 July 2020
31
reality the cultural identity is Pahari106 related closely with the Western Pahari
linguistic areas107 of Jammu108 and Himachal Pradesh109 .
At the same time in the recently created Ladakh UT of India the tussle of the
Tibetan110 and Iran centric Islamist111 political ideologies have been dominating
the ground and over the years incidents of violence have happened between both
communities especially on the issue of inter-religious marriages. On the other
hand, the current New Delhi government with the support of the Tibetan
government in exile also wanted to cash in on the Buddhist sentiment to tackle
China, while Beijing focusing on the Sinic expansionist policy and the recent
military standoff between India and China leading to skirmishes like the one’s in
Galwan Valley112 and other areas could be seen in this concern which invariably
led to the death of innocent Indian and Chinese soldiers who followed the orders
of their masters involved in a civilizational dominance battle.
Moving onto Xinjiang, China launched its “Strike Hard Campaign against
Violent Terrorism” in the autonomous region in May, 2014 113 but apart from
dealing with the militancy it used the campaign to broaden their mandate to
106
Reiss Haider, ‘The Pahari language of ‘Azad’ Jammu & Kashmir’, Portmir Foundation [Online],
(Birmingham, 14 August 2017) < https://www.portmir.org.uk/identity-conundrum/language-pahari-cultural-
sphere-2/> assessed 6 July 2020.
107
Jahangir Satti, ‘Far-Western Himalayan Pahari Language: It's Origin and Evaluation’ (Nanopathy, 2014) 2
108
K. J. Schmidt, An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History (M.E. Sharpe), 9
109
Y. S. Parmar, Himachal Pradesh: Area and Language (Directorate of Public Relations 1970)
110
Matthew J. Moore, Buddhism and political theory (New York, NY : Oxford University Press 2016)
111
Nikki R. Keddie and Rudolph P. Matthee, Iran and the surrounding world interactions in culture and
cultural politics (Seattle : University of Washington Press 2002)
112
Manu Pubby, China brings in hundreds of soldiers, heavy construction equipment to Galwan Valley
[Defence] (2020).
113
Salih Hudayar, 'WHEN HUMAN RIGHTS, NATIONAL IDENTITY, ETHNICITY, AND RELIGIOUS
PERSECUTION COLLIDE' (2019) 16 Sur International Journal on Human Rights 179
32
establish dominance over Turkic Muslims who were involved with the Turkey
sympathizers in Xinjiang and were put inside political education camps being
forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and sing praises of the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP). On the other hand, those living in their homes were spied upon with
mass surveillance systems, and were not allowed to contact their loved ones in
foreign countries114, which describes the magnitude upon as to how important the
civilizational notion is to the regime. The Human Rights reports from the World
Uyghur Congress submitted to the United Nations in July 2018 also suggests that
at least 120,000 members of Kashgar's Muslim Uyghur minority were held in the
re-education camps115, with the aim of changing the ideological and religious
viewpoints of detainees. The biometric collection scheme or “The Xinjiang
Autonomous Region Working Guidelines on the Accurate Registration and
Verification of Population”116 is another way through which surveillance is being
initiated against the Uighur population , and not only that the collection of DNA
samples, fingerprints, iris scans, and blood types of all residents are being taken
which extensively violates human rights.
114
Report, ‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims’,
Human Rights Watch [Online], (New York, 9 September 2018)
<https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/09/09/eradicating-ideological-viruses/chinas-campaign-repression-against-
xinjiangs> accessed 15 June 2020.
115
Chris Bukley, ‘China’s Prisons Swell After Deluge of Arrests Engulfs Muslims’, New York Times [Online],
(New York, 31 August, 2019) <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/31/world/asia/xinjiang-china-uighurs-
prisons.html> accessed 31 August 2020.
116
Editorial, ‘China: Authorities In Xinjiang Collecting DNA From Millions’ Eurasia Review [Online],
(Oregon, 13 December 2017) <https://www.eurasiareview.com/13122017-china-authorities-in-xinjiang-
collecting-dna-from-millions/> accessed 11 July 2020
33
Likewise, in Western Tibet similar methods were used especially since the 2008
unrest, where Sinic political education has been reported in monasteries and
schools. Chinese authorities in Tibet have also encouraged people to denounce
members of their communities if anyone shows sympathy towards the exiled
Dalai Lama or in any way or form opposes the government. Several cases of land
grabs by local officials for construction projects were reported in 2018 in the
Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas 117. On the other hand, the
Tibetan government in Exile also stirs up numerous tensions between India and
China many a times for ensuring its influence does not go down in the Faultline
region.118 The Badakhshan belt too has suffered from the same especially Gorno-
Badakhshan where internal conflicts related to clans and the power tussle between
them is the key issue, which has claimed almost 60,000 lives and produced
600,000 refugees. 119 Most of the refugees have escaped to Afghanistan and
nothing has been done to get them repatriated due to the whole idea of Tajik
dominance being fostered.120
Hence, with all that being said Huntingtonian Universalism in a way justifies
major civilizations occupying minor civilizations and thus does not fit well with
the richer history of the region as it aims at broadening civilizational colonialism
117
Report, ‘China Events of 2018’ Human Rights Watch [Online], (New York, 2019)
<https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/china-and-tibet> accessed 24 June 2019
118
Editorial, ‘China has betrayed India, says Tibet's government-in-exile head Lobsang Sangay’ The Asian Age
[Online], (New Delhi, 30 June 2020) <https://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/300620/china-has-betrayed-
india-says-tibets-government-in-exile-head-lobsang-sangay.html> accessed 7 July 2020
119
Barbara Anne Brower and Barbara Rose Johnston, Disappearing peoples? indigenous groups and ethnic
minorities in South and Central Asia (Walnut Creek, CA : Left Coast Press 2007)
120
C. S. R. Murthy, 'Taliban and the Afghanistan Problem, 1996-2001: Role of the UN' (2002) 6 Himalayan and
Central Asian Studies 4
34
without taking into consideration the multi-cultural local notions, and this
invariably assists in giving space for the New Great Game to function which will
be discussed in the next chapter.
35
CHAPTER 2: ONGOING NEW GREAT GAME IN THE SENSITIVE
AREAS OF HIGH ASIA
This Chapter focuses on how the great game power politics gets space in
Huntingtonian universalism when related with the sensitive areas of High Asia.
The viewpoint presented elaborates Peter Hopkirk’s suggestion upon as to how a
New Great Game has been unfolding post the Cold War and focus is especially
put at the currently prevailing stage of the game. This argument is drawn from
the points made in chapter one related to how civilizational colonialism is
prevalent in the mountainous and valley-based regions of High Asia. The points
made in the chapter also in a way lays down the foundation for the analysis in
Chapter three.
Turning now to the argument, Central Asia was regarded as “a prize” by Kipling
while referring to the old Great Game121, which was a political and diplomatic
confrontation that existed in the 19th century between the Tsarist Russian Empire
and the Victorian British Empire over various parts of Central Asia. That game
ended with the signing of the Pamir Boundary Commission protocols122 by which
the border between Afghanistan and the Russian empire was defined but fast
forward almost 100 years after the end of the Great Game, Hopkirk hinted at a
New Great Game123 and indirectly referred to the fact that some areas of High
Asia will be the “next prize” in this constantly moving game. He was in fact one
121
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (New York : Open Road Integrated Media 2015)
122
Martin Ewans, Confrontation in the Pamirs (Routledge 2010)
123
Hopkirk, The great game : on secret service in high Asia
36
of the very first to signal at such a massive tussle which was to be witnessed by
the world post the end of the Cold War which in a way has led to a political and
diplomatic confrontation in the 21st century between key civilizations, and is
currently at its most crucial stage after the coming of the COVID-19124 pandemic
and the Great Lockdown125. In fact the sensitive areas of High Asia seem to be
the most critical areas in this Game as the recent examples, from China, India and
Pakistan having a tussle over Ladakh and Kashmir, to the tensions arising in Tibet
and Xinjiang, to say the increasing unpredictability in Fergana Valley and
Badakhshan regions all seem to signal that the game is moving quickly.
To repeat, this New Great Game is aligned with civilizational colonialism
prevalent in the region and is very different from the old “Great Game”, as in this
game the modes and the ways seem to have changed because of the civilizational
twist being witnessed. China and India’s civilizational notions revolving around
Sinic and Hindu notions furthered in the political sense by the currently governing
regimes seems to be the most dominant so far and the West and Orthodox thought
processes led by USA and Russia also have a significant place as always. The
religious hegemonic political Pan-Islamist notions led majorly by Iran, Turkey
and Saudi Arabia separately seem to be playing a noteworthy role as well. In fact,
all of them combine to pressurise local regimes placed in the Western Pahari,
Greater Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan, and Sogdiana Belts. On the flip
124
Sergio Sismondo, 'COVID-19' (2020) 50 Social Studies of Science 173
125
, 'The Great Lockdown' (2020)
37
side important International financial institutions have also played a huge role
over the years promoting their own agendas in these regions. Thus, all seems to
be involved in this geo-political international game over the sensitive areas and
the abundance of natural and water resources is what drags them in this direction.
Furthermore, these currently prevailing agendas came up after most European
powers systematically decolonised the region and the newly independent nation-
states started their own form of colonisation (currently on civilizational basis)
leading to all of them trying very hard to cause changes to the local legal setup in
which the international legal system was not able to do much, more so when
civilizational notions started getting more rigorous. This has especially happened
in the recent years in both India and Pakistan administered parts of Jammu and
Kashmir which come under Western Pahari, Dardic and Trans-Himalayan
cultural belts. In 2019 the New Delhi led government in the parts administered
by them also abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution126 which provided
special autonomy to the province. The same was a result of years of slow and
steady weakening of the autonomy of the administered province through
numerous amendments to the Presidential Order of 1954127. But by the passage
of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019128 the status
was abrogated unlawfully by not taking the consent of the Constituent Assembly
126
Constitution of India, 1951, art.370 (Now repealed)
127
Yash P. Ghai and Sophia Woodman, Practising self-government : a comparative study of autonomous
regions (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 2013)
128
Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019
38
of the province129 as was stated under Article 370 (3) which refers to the fact that
the President of the country may only declare ceasing the Article after a
recommendation has been granted by the constituent assembly.
In contrast, that was not done, and advantage was taken of the province being
under Governor’s rule as the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was not
in function following no clear majority of one party and fresh elections were to
take place. In that case the power for such recommendation resided with the
parliament and thus this move was taken violating the instrument of accession130,
which the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir had signed with the
Indian Union while merging and the whole treaty was aimed at the protection of
the distinct cultural and regional identity of that area. At the same time the matter
of snatching the autonomy was taken to the Supreme Court of India after
numerous litigations were filed which are still pending but any positive outcome
seems unlikely due to increasing Hindutva hyper-nationalism 131 and growing
distrust against India’s judicial system especially on policy matters after the
recently retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India was nominated as an
MP in the Rajya Sabha (India’s Upper House of Parliament), signalling upon as
to how the nexus is deepening between individuals related with the judiciary and
the political leadership.
129
Constitution of India, 1951, art.370 (3) (Now repealed)
130
A. G. Noorani, Accession to India (Oxford University Press 2011), Ch 1
131
Christophe Jaffrelot, Hindu nationalism : a reader (Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press 2007)
39
After all, in essence the provision ensured the autonomy of the province in terms
of the fact that the Government of India could not enforce any law connected with
the province without the approval of the provincial government and only matters
of defence, external affairs and communications fell in the central government’s
list but with the abrogation of the article nothing of that sort happened. In fact,
the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories (Jammu & Kashmir and
Ladakh)132 and now comes directly under the Central government’s rule further
strengthening the civilizational dominance aimed by New Delhi in the recent
years. Then, in comparison the same has happened in Pakistan where recently in
June 2020 the 14th Draft Amendment proposal to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Interim Constitution Act, 1974 133 , was taken forward by Islamabad aiming at
changing the status of that part of Jammu & Kashmir administered by them. In
the proposed amendment to Article 4 of the Interim Constitution of 1974, freedom
of speech and expression is restricted as the provision clearly states that "No
person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to
propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to the
ideology of the State accession to Pakistan". On 4th August 2020 the current
government also changed their official map claiming the entire state of Jammu
132
Editorial, ‘Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh become separate Union Territories’ Hindustan Times [Online]
(New Delhi, 31 October 2019) < https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/jammu-kashmir-and-ladakh-
become-separate-union-territories-from-thursday-10-points/story-fsYC3R1HFXFZxzlwomycrJ.html > accessed
10 June 2020.
133
Editorial, ‘Amendment in 'Azad' J-K's Interim Constitution Act 1974 reeks of subjugation, occupation :
EFSAS’ ANI [Online] (Amsterdam, Netherlands 27 June 2020) <https://www.msn.com/en-
in/news/india/amendment-in-azad-j-ks-interim-constitution-act-1974-reeks-of-subjugation-occupation-efsas/ar-
BB162uFN > accessed 2 July 2020.
40
and Kashmir as part of Pakistan. 134 Similarly, the Pakistan government has
systematically over the years extended some controversial laws in the disputed
territory like the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution itself which
defines who is a real “Muslim” and who is not135. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir
parliament which consists of mostly mainstream politicians in fact unanimously
passed the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution (Twelfth Amendment)
Bill, 2018 136 declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslims leading to them being
systematically segregated for practicing a different form of Islam.
In fact, rigorous blasphemy provisions are still in force in Azad Jammu and
Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan areas of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir province
in order to completely bring them under the lines upon which Pakistan’s current
policy making is centred around over the years very opposite of the idea of the
welfare state advanced by the nation’s founding fathers like Mohammad Ali
Jinnah.137 As a result both the governments of India and Pakistan through the
orders passed over the recent years not only aimed at imposition of their major
civilizational notions but equally violated United Nations Security Council
resolutions on Kashmir which refer to the fact that until a referendum is held in
134
Editorial, ‘New political map of Pakistan approved by PM Imran includes Indian-occupied Kashmir’, Geo
News [Online] (Islamabad, 4 August 2020) < https://www.geo.tv/latest/301208-pm-imran-approves-pakistans-
new-political-map > accessed 4 August 2020.
135
Editorial, ‘Pakistan-administered Kashmir (Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan)’, Austrian Red Cross/
Accord [Online] (Vienna, 7 May 2012) < https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4fba0d042.pdf > accessed 15 June
2020.
136
Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution (Twelfth Amendment) Bill, 2018 < https://nation.com.pk/07-
Feb-2018/ajk-parliament-declares-ahmadis-as-non-muslims > accessed 10 June 2020
137
Akbar S. Ahmed, Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic identity : the search for Saladin (London ; New York :
Routledge 1997)
41
the entire erstwhile state under the supervision of the UN, decisions like these
cannot be taken as passed by the Security Council Resolution 47 on April 21,
1948138 clearly stating that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir
should be decided through a plebiscite. But the United Nation’s silence and the
international legal system not doing enough in this concern states how the
cherished international system is collapsing in the current wave of the
civilizational orders dominated by major cultures which do not want to give any
space for minor cultures.
Equally, Beijing’s attitude towards the Tibet Autonomous Province also fits the
argument, the real domination started with it violating the “Seventeen-point
agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet” 139 in 1959 at the peak of the
Cultural revolution which included violations concerning the rights given to the
Tibetan people related to the exercise of regional autonomy under the unified
leadership of the Central people’s government140. The government also altered
that political system141 by further diluting the established status, functions, and
powers of the Dalai Lama142. In Xinjiang similarly such an approach was taken
after it was made into an autonomous region in 1955143. Again, nothing could be
done by the international system due to the ideological difference between the
138
Security Council Resolution 47, 21 April 1948, A and B < https://undocs.org/S/RES/47(1948) > accessed 3
June 2020
139
Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap and William R. Siebenschuh, The Seventeen-Point Agreement
(University of California Press 2004)
140
Seventeen-point agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, 23 May 1951, Article 3
141
Seventeen-point agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, 23 May 1951, Article 4
142
Crowe, 2013, The “Tibet question”: Tibetan`, Chinese and Western perspectives
143
John Everett-Heath, Xinjiang Uygur (China) (Oxford University Press 2018)
42
then emerging civilizational Communist China and the International Legal
System. The simple reason also being that a common consensus on human rights
was not met as in the Chinese model the state was to control all such rights. On
the other hand, ever since the coming of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights the International system focused on furtherance of individual notions of
human rights144.
Moving on, as the years have progressed all this seems to be happening for the
attainment of power and resources which has led to more disillusionment in the
local population and major culture writ large civilizations have seeped in more
like in the case of the above mentioned areas of the Western Pahari, Greater
Dardic and Trans-Himalayan belts invariably leading to India, Pakistan and China
being at logger heads and one major reason for the constant battle is that most
parts of these belts have a lot of resource and trade potential. For this reason,
China and Pakistan seem to have aligned against India by coming up with their
China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which starts from Kashgar, Xinjiang
and passes through the Pakistan administered territories of the erstwhile Jammu
and Kashmir province. On the other hand, India is currently aligned with USA
and the Tibetan government in Exile and is trying hard to tackle China
internationally on the Tibetan question. Leaving that aside and moving back to
resources, Hydro-power electricity is one of the major reasons why Himachal
144
Samuel Moyn, 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 in the History of Cosmopolitanism'
(2014) 40 Critical Inquiry 365
43
Pradesh, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir (India); Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir
(Pakistan); Western Xinjiang and Western Tibet (China) is of much importance
to all the civilizations.
Beginning from the Hydro-power electricity generation in the Indian parts,
National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Limited, an Indian
government hydropower generation company that controls most of the dams is
among the top ten companies in the country in terms of investment. The company
has twenty-four hydro-power electricity projects in the country which are
currently working and fifteen of which are in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Jammu
and Kashmir. Nine of those functioning Hydro-electric power stations and seven
dams are in Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. While, Himachal Pradesh has nine
functioning Hydro-electric power stations and eleven dams. All that combined
the plants of the areas are responsible for close to 60 percent of the total produce
of the company whose yearly revenue is $1428.84 USD million (2019)145. But
simultaneously, what all this is doing is causing huge ecological damage and
affecting the local population but neither the international nor national systems
seem to do anything for the environmental injustices faced by the people. A
prominent example in this case is that of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh
where the lands belonging to the tribal people are being taken away in the name
of imperialistic development aimed at just exploiting the natural resources of the
145
Report, ‘Revenue Realisation /Performance Highlights 2018-19’, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation
[Online], < http://www.nhpcindia.com/Default.aspx?id=358&lg=eng& > accessed 10 June 2020.
44
region which also invariably dismantles the ecological relationship of the people
with the mountainous ecosystems. Such is the situation there that after more than
10 years of the passage of the Forest Rights Act, 2005146 in India nothing has
happened in the interest of Forest Dwellers of states like Himachal Pradesh where
two-thirds of the total land is recorded as forest land and the worst situation is in
Kinnaur which has the highest number of claims but no individual or community
has been given the forest rights title till date.147
On the other hand, relationship between countries is also a worrying factor which
contributes to the fact upon as to how the civilizational path taken by countries
may be dangerous for mankind like China’s policy towards Indus and Sutlej
rivers originating from its Western Tibet areas, the water of which is drunk by
close to 1 billion people throughout Asia and for years they are planning to divert
the Tibetan waters to the North and West of China148. Though earlier Western
pressure stopped China from taking such moves and moving forward in this
direction, but this COVID-19 crisis and the Trade War between the United States
of America and China may lead to this changing very soon. The tensions
escalating between India and China in the region in the recent months and the
latest incident in the Galwan Valley is proof of that, showcasing upon as to how
146
Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (India)
147
Vajpeyi Aditi and Rathore Vaishnavi, 'Forest Rights Act in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh: A Bureaucratic
Unmaking' (2020) Economic & Political Weekly
148
Report, Raiding Tibet's resources’, Free Tibet [Online] < https://www.freetibet.org/resources > accessed 22
July 2020
45
everything is at the brink and why the New Great Game is at its most crucial
point.
Moreover, Pakistan’s control of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan likewise
needs to be viewed upon in this concern as both the territories are crucial for its
ambitious China Pakistan Economic Corridor which aims at ending Pakistan’s
energy shortfalls by generating 25,000 MW electricity by 2030149 and for this
reason the policy makers are planning to change the status quo of the areas by
making Gilgit Baltistan the fifth official province of the country and
strengthening administrative control over Azad Jammu and Kashmir like India
did in case of Jammu and Kashmir. Hydropower electricity generation seems to
be the key here also like in the neighbouring Western Pahari region of Himachal
Pradesh and Jammu. The areas contribute immensely to the income of Pakistan’s
Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) with major dams like
Mangla, Neelam, Jhelum and Kohala operating in Azad Kashmir. Also, Gilgit
Baltistan’s Satpara, Bunji and the currently under construction Diamer Basha
Dam holds a lot of potential. But, such is the rush for building up new projects
like these by Pakistan that the ecological challenges faced by the people is given
no value like say in the case of Daimer Basha dam in Chilas where despite
growing concerns of the devastating impact on climate and wildlife the project is
149
Mehmood Hussain and Ahmed Jamali, 'Geo-Political Dynamics of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor:
A New Great Game in South Asia' (2019) 4 Chinese Political Science Review 303
46
not being stalled even after various environmental groups have advocated against
it on the claim that it would displace close to 50,000 residents.150
Similarly, Islamabad’s dominance over Hazara and Malakand region of the
Greater Dardic belt is also something which continues just for exploitation. The
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government aimed to complete numerous
hydropower projects in the divisions by the end of 2020. According to
Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization, these projects are being
constructed in Manshera, Shangla, Swat, Lower Dir and Chitral districts which
are all part of the minority non-Pashtun speaking areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa151
further explaining the mindset behind major civilizational notions operating in
the region.
Notably, apart from Hydro-power electricity and other resources, gas and
petroleum reserves have also come up as an important factor in the Greater Dardic
and Western Pahari belt which may take this game forward as a recent prominent
study titled “Petroleum systems and hydrocarbon potential of the Northwest
Himalayas of India and Pakistan” published in a monthly journal Earth-Science
Reviews has found out that there is a possibility of gas and petroleum reserves in
the places which they referred to as North-Western Himalayas. The study states
that the origin and evolution of Himalayas formed and shaped the sedimentary
150
Report, ‘Pakistan breaks ground for dream dam project at Diamer’, ThirdPole.net (Understanding Asia’s
Water Crisis) [Online] (8 July 2020) < https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/07/08/pakistan-breaks-ground-for-
dream-dam-project-at-diamer/ > accessed 26 July 2020
151
Editorial, ‘Seven KP hydel power projects on card’, Pakistan Observer [Online] (Islamabad, 15 July 2020) <
https://pakobserver.net/seven-kp-hydel-power-projects-on-card/ > accessed 25 July 2020
47
basins (depressions acting as receptacles) where the rocks with oil and gas forms
were deposited. These rocks, ranging in age from a billion to a million years, are
present in the Western Himalayas152. As a result, proving the fact upon why the
region is important in terms of resources.
In essence, all this can also be related to the recently concluded 2019 Rising
Himachal Investor Summit153 in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh in which the
partnering country was United Arab Emirates that rare state upon which USA’s
Central Investigation Agency does not conduct human intelligence154, the country
also has a thriving private sector for oil and gas, including many partnerships with
US companies.155 Recently, a $82 million loan from the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has also been given to the Himachal
Pradesh government to improve its road infrastructure for attracting more
national and international investment, the loan has a final maturity of fifteen years
including a grace period of five years156, but all this seems to raise concerns upon
as to how will the payment be done by the province whose debt burden is almost
152
J. Craig and others, 'Petroleum systems and hydrocarbon potential of the North-West Himalaya of India and
Pakistan' (2018) 187 Earth-Science Reviews 109
153
Rising Himachal Global Investors Meet < https://risinghimachal.in/ > accessed 14 June 2020
154
Aram Roston, ‘Why the CIA doesn't spy on the UAE ‘, Reuters [Online] (London, 26 August 2019)
< https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-emirates-spying-insight/why-the-cia-doesnt-spy-on-the-uae-
idUSKCN1VG0V3 > accessed 13 July 2020
155
Report, ‘The UAE and Global Oil Supply’, Embassy of The United Arab Emirates (Washington DC)
[Online], <https://www.uae-embassy.org/about-uae/energy/uae-and-global-oil-supply> accessed 3 July 2020.
156
Report, ‘Project Signing: New World Bank Project to Provide Safe, Resilient, and Well-Performing Roads in
Himachal Pradesh’, World Bank (Washington, 7 September 2020) [Online],
<https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/09/07/project-signing-new-world-bank-project-to-
provide-safe-resilient-and-well-performing-roads-in-himachal-pradesh?cid=sar_fb_india_en_ext > accessed 12
September 2020
48
$8 billion as of March, 2020 157. Secondly, this growth mediated development
model would further lead to ecological damage to the mountainous and hilly
terrains simultaneously also taking a toll on the lifestyle of the local population
belonging to the region.
On the other hand, in the newly formed Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir
a similar investors meet called the Jammu & Kashmir Investors Summit 158 has
been planned in which Reliance one of the biggest companies of India is entrusted
with the responsibility to form a task force concerned with bringing investment
into the territory. 159 Taking into note that during the same week of the
announcement, Saudi Oil and Gas firm Saudi Aramco signed a letter of intent to
take a 20% stake in Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals business which would be one of
the largest ever foreign investments in India 160 . In fact, when Jammu and
Kashmir’s autonomy was scrapped out of the entire Islamic world only UAE and
Saudi Arabia did not condemn the move161. Also, the fact that Saudi Arabia and
UAE are at logger heads with Iran and Turkey especially since the two countries
157
Report, ‘Himachal Pradesh facing debt burden of over Rs 55,700 cr: CM Jai Ram Thakur’, Business
Standard [Online] (Shimla, 12 September 2020) < https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-
stories/himachal-debt-rises-to-55-700-cr-10-budget-amount-to-be-used-for-interest-payment-
120030601304_1.html > accessed 12 September 2020
158
Jammu and Kashmir Global Investors Summit < https://www.jkinvestorsummit.com/ > accessed 21 June
2020.
159
Editorial, ‘Task Force, Lots Of Announcements on Ladakh, J&K’, NDTV [Online] (New Delhi, 13 August
2019) < https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/special-task-force-lots-of-announcements-on-ladakh-jammu-and-
kashmir-says-mukesh-ambani-2084149 > accessed 1 June 2020
160
Rania El Gamal, Saeed Azhar, Promit Mukherjee, ‘Saudi Aramco aims to buy Reliance stake, reports lower
earnings‘, Reuters [Online] (London, 12 August 2019) < https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-
results-idUSKCN1V20FA > accessed 25 May 2020
161
Bilal Kuchay, ‘Why have Saudi Arabia, UAE failed to condemn India over Kashmir?’, Al Jazeera English
[Online], (Doha, 12 September 2019) < https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/saudi-arabia-uae-failed-
condemn-india-kashmir-190911112648176.html > accessed 15 July 2020
49
support Qatar162 on the international front needs some observation as this could
also escalate tensions between numerous players in the region due to the reason
that Ladakh and Kashmir have a sizeable population which supports Iran and
Turkish perspectives for religious and ideological reasons. As Ladakh has a
sizeable Shia population and Kashmir has a sizeable Turkey sympathising Sufi
population though influence of Saudi is immense especially since the 1980s. In
other words, all this needs to be seen in relation to the fact that how tensions have
existed between India, Pakistan, and China in the region for the control of
resources and as to how other players also are on the move to increase their
influence through various means and methods.
Equally, in Xinjiang (especially Tarim Basin Xinjiang) identical issues have
arisen as the oil and petrochemical sector contributes up to 60 percent of
Xinjiang's economy. The oil and gas extraction industry in Aksu and Karamay is
of huge importance to China as the West–East Gas Pipeline starts from there
which is then linked to Shanghai. Containing over a fifth of China's coal, natural
gas and oil resources the entire region of Xinjiang has the highest concentration
of fossil fuel reserves of any region in the country and for this reason the former
East Turkmenistan Republic is important for China. Especially Western Xinjiang
as Kashgar holds a key place in the One Road One Belt Initiative and the China
162
Darius Shahtahmasebi ‘New Turkey-Iran-Qatar axis is rising in Middle East, and it has Saudi Arabia
furious’, RT [Online] (Moscow, 22 March 2019) < https://www.rt.com/op-ed/454512-alliance-iran-qatar-turkey-
saudi/ > accessed 26 August 2020
50
Pakistan Economic Corridor.163 But equally the coming up of the Turkic Council
which includes Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan is
also an important development in that area of the region. The European Union,
USA and even Israel are trying to have a greater say in those areas with China
also trying very hard to maintain control but again nothing is in the interest of the
local population as these states backed by their civilizational notions don’t care
much about the minor cultures prevailing.
At the same time, eye of numerous players over entire Badakhshan also makes
the list as the region is rich in gemstones and rare precious metals, plus it is a
major hub for mining, oil, gas, and tourism164. Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan
Autonomous Region (GBAO) has abundance of Aluminium resources and
Tajikistan Aluminium Company (Talco) has huge presence in the region, for this
reason the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe also co-supported the 2019
Pamir Invest Forum in Khorog and Ishkashim. The forum brought together
investors and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the region and have been backed
by numerous international organisations supported by the West. 165 The World
Bank is also trying to play a key strategic role in the region which serves as a
163
Wen Dong and Yu Yang, 'Exploitation of mineral resource and its influence on regional development and
urban evolution in Xinjiang, China' (2014) 24 Journal of Geographical Sciences 1131
164
Bruce Pannier, ‘Tajikistan's Unconquerable Gorno-Badakhshan Region’, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
[Online], (Prague, 9 October 2018) < https://www.rferl.org/amp/tajikistan-unconquerable-gorno-badakhshan-
region/29534057.html > accessed 20 July 2020.
165
Editorial, ‘OSCE supports Pamir Invest Forum in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region’,
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [Online], (Dushanbe, 13 August 2019) <
https://www.osce.org/programme-office-in-dushanbe/427730 > accessed 21 July 2020.
51
transit corridor to Uzbekistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Afghanistan and China166.
The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors in this relation also approved the
grant-financed Fourth Phase of the Central Asia Regional Links Program (CARs-
4) in August, 2020, which aims at primarily enhancing GBAO’s connectivity, all
this also could be seen in this concern. On the other hand, China has wanted to
establish influence in the region which has cultural linkages with its Taxkorgan
prefecture and had earlier secured close to 1000 square km in Pamir Mountains
from Tajikistan for strategic purposes in 2010 which accounted to almost one
percent of the entire territory of Tajikistan167, not only that a latest report from
Chinese state media titled “Tajikistan Initiated the Transfer to China of Its Land
and the Lost Mountains of the Pamir Were Returned to Their True Master,” states
that Pamir mountains which accounts to about forty five percent of Tajikistan’s
territory (majorly in Gorno – Badakhshan) should be under China’s control
referring to the point that under pressure from Russia and the United Kingdom,
China lost these territories in the 19th century. Indeed, Russia too considers that
region as its strategic backyard 168 and due to all these issues problems may
escalate which may not be in the best interest of the people as no talk of the actual
166
Document, ‘Fourth Phase of the Central Asia Regional Links Program’, The World Bank [Online],
(Washington, 31 July 2020) < https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P166820 >
accessed 2 August 2020.
167
Stephen Blank, 'Whither the new great game in Central Asia?' (2012) 3 Journal of Eurasian Studies 147.
168
Paul Goble, ‘Beijing Implies Tajikistan’s Pamir Region Should Be Returned to China’, Eurasia Daily
Monitor Volume: 17 Issue: 112 [Online], (Washington DC, 30 July 2020)
<https://jamestown.org/program/beijing-implies-tajikistans-pamir-region-should-be-returned-to-china/>
accessed 8 August 2020
52
interests of the Pamiri speaking population has been taken into consideration over
the years.
On the flip side, Taliban’s (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) policy in the
currently controlled regions of Afghanistan’s Badakhshan169 is something which
is affecting the region and its predominantly minority Shia and Nizari Ismaili
population which are being treated indifferently. The Taliban as a matter of fact
failed to capture the region during their peak in the 2000s,170 but now as they
govern most of the territory massive curtailment of the freedom of speech and
expression is being initiated171, which could worsen more with time due to a
possible compromise between them and the United States of America as reported
some months back. 172 In fact, Afghanistan’s Badakhshan is one of the most
resource-rich regions in the country having the largest deposits of lapis lazuli (A
precious gem) in the entire Hindu Kush zone.
Lastly, coming onto the Sogdiana belt centred around Fergana Valley and
neighbouring areas there too the repercussions of the divisions created by the
Soviet Union through poor legal setups seem to be the reasons behind the current
problems which have doubled with the growing influence of a host of dominating
civilizations invariably taking advantage of the weak regimes in the territories.
169
Peter Marsden, The Taliban : war and religion in Afghanistan (London : Zed Books 2002)
170
Apratim Mukarji, 'Advent of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan: US Policy Examined' (2002) 6
Himalayan and Central Asian Studies 35
171
Abubakar Siddique and Mustafa Sarwar, ‘Taliban Revive Harsh Rule In A Remote Afghan Province’, Radio
Free Europe [Online] (Prague, 1 March 2019) < https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/Afghanistan-taliban-revive-harsh-
rule-in-a-remote-province/29797733.html > accessed 1 July 2020.
172
Lindsay Maizland, ‘U.S.-Taliban Peace Deal: What to Know’, Council on Foreign Relations [Online] (New
York, 2 March 2020) < https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-taliban-peace-deal-agreement-afghanistan-war >
accessed 23 June 2020.
53
Natural resources account for roughly 65 to 75 percent of the exports in
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan 173 where autocratic governments are
heavily involved in money laundering, bribery, foreign lobbying and have used
the regions for exploitation purposes. For this very reason they have turned the
track of policy making in such a way that it benefits international players so either
it be the World Bank supporting the setting up of Micro, Small and Medium
enterprises (MSMEs) across Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley174, or say Indonesian
RT Trans Asia Resources handling Fergana Oil Refinery,175 foreign stakeholders
are slowly establishing dominance. China’s National Petroleum Corporation
(CNPC) subsidiary Petro China too as a matter of fact formed a state-owned
company Uzbekneftegaz to develop Mingbulak oil field in Namangan province
on the northern edge of the Fergana Valley. Then, Tajikistan’s Northern Sugd
region that borders Uzbekistan has granted licenses to Somon Oil, a 90% owned
subsidiary of Manas Petroleum Corporation Baar, Switzerland.
Additionally, the story of Kazakhstan’s Turkistan administrative region
(previously South Kazakhstan region) also fits the category as its administrative
centre was taken out of the region from Shymkent in 2018 and subordinated
173
Lilia Burunciuc and Ivailo Izvorski, ‘Encouraging Transformations in High Asia’, Brookings Institution
[Online], (New York, 13 December 2019) <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-
development/2019/12/13/encouraging-transformations-in-central-asia/ > accessed 2 August 2020.
174
Press Release, ‘Businesses in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley to Increase Profitability and Create 20,000 New
Jobs’, The World Bank [Online], (Washington, 21 March 2019) <https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-
release/2019/03/21/businesses-in-uzbekistans-fergana-valley-to-increase-profitability-and-create-20000-new-
jobs> accessed 24 July 2020
175
Report,Indonesian PT Trans Asia Resources to make initial payment of $16 million for Fergana Oil
Refinery’, KUN.UZ [Online] (Tashkent, 13 April 2019) < https://kun.uz/en/news/2019/04/13/indonesian-pt-
trans-asia-resources-to-make-initial-payment-of-16-million-for-fergana-oil-refinery > accessed 26 July 2020
54
directly to the central government. CNPC has also acquired various oil fields in
South Kazakhstan and the exploitation is being done on an enormous scale,176
then Uranium mining is also very prominent in that border region of Kazakhstan
as majority of the mines of Kazakhstan are in that area like the South Inkai,
Akdala, Akbastau, Karatan, Kharasan and Zarechneye. Many also believe that
due to the region’s people being Turkic the Kazakhstan government is not that
much concerned about the population due to the majoritarian mindset which has
been prevailing in the country since long. Numerous International institutions
have also played a huge role in creating Central Asian republics as tax havens177
and thus for this reason the problems on the ground of the people in the regions
never got highlighted due to this nexus of regional and international players.
Moreover, many separatist and extremist organizations as well as International
terror outfits functioning in the entire region are involved in the game due to they
having the power to create chaos as usually they get support of one state which is
not in good terms with the other state and are influenced to work against a mindset
owing to large amounts of monetary benefits and often use the moral sentiment
associated with the culture and language for vested interests. At the same time,
the local leaders of the region too have a huge role to play in relation to creating
tensions though they literary have no power, and due to this reason the great
powers and other players involved have learned to play by local rules, as rightly
176
Yelena Nikolayevna Zabortseva, 'From the “forgotten region” to the “great game” region: On the
development of geopolitics in Central Asia' (2012) 3 Journal of Eurasian Studies 168
177
Cooley and Heathershaw, Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia
55
stated by Cooley178 in the context of Central Asia but the same applies in almost
all of the sensitive areas of High Asia. Thus, the key concern after the COVID 19
crisis finishes should be upon as to how tensions could be detuned. Power politics
and dominance of major players, local self-interested regimes, international
security, trade, and financial regimes all play a major part in the persistence of
these notions. In fact, in the entire Greater High Asia region the New Great Game
is moving swiftly further possibly to the Eastern Himalayas which includes
Uttarakhand, Nepal, Eastern Tibet and many other parts of India and Bangladesh.
The hints of which have been given after the recent tensions between India and
Nepal on the Uttarakhand border179.
Lastly, studies concerning the Third World and Global South have
correspondingly not highlighted the problems faced by the region as the key
concern of those approaches have always been the mainland’s and their power
game with the Global North. But unless a region centric approach is adopted for
the entire region keeping in mind the numerous local features nothing considerate
can be done and major players need to understand that an unstable Sogdiana,
weak Badakhshan, violent Greater Dardic Belt, misguided Western Pahari region
and exploited Trans-Himalayan belt is bad and not in the best interest for the
entire continent and the world. Resources are important but taking the local
178
Alexander Cooley, Great games, local rules : the new power contest in Central Asia (Great games, local
rules, New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press 2012)
179
Report, Rishi Gupta, ‘Rising tensions on the Nepal–India border’ East Asia Forum [Online], (Canberra, 25
June 2020)< https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/06/25/rising-tensions-on-the-nepal-india-border/ > accessed
24 August 2020
56
people on board should be the top priority and a new thought is surely needed in
the study of the region which could possibly help make the shift from the New
Great Game narrative. Thus, this is what leads us to the idea of Pan-High
Asianism which is covered in the next chapter.
57
CHAPTER 3: IS PAN-HIGH ASIANISM THROUGH HAAIL THE WAY
FORWARD FOR THE SENSITIVE AREAS OF HIGH ASIA
This chapter continuing from the last two chapters puts forth the point of view
upon as to how an alternative to religious hegemonic and great power politics can
come through Reiterative Universalism in concern to the sensitive areas of High
Asia and this potential new way of understanding the complexity of the region
with the players involved could be on the basis of a thick area based
particularistic line and a thin universal line which helps in bypassing the effect of
polarizing ideologies and anti-pluralistic politics functional in the region for
years. Then, focus is put on how Pan-High Asianism can emerge as that potential
way forward for the region possibly through HAAIL to highlight and challenge
the problems related with the approaches taken to study the region on hyper-
nationalist civilizational lines which have enormously affected the cultural and
linguistic belts of these sensitive areas like the imposition of Hindutva and
Fundamental Islamic thought processes in the Western Pahari and the Greater
Dardic belts, to the growing Sinicization of the Trans-Himalayan Belt which
consists of Buddhist and Islamic hotspots. As well as the tussle between the
Western, Orthodox, Sinic and Islamic notions in the Sogdiana Belt.
In essence, the rise of the dominance of mainland civilizational notions has
troubled the peaceful coexistence in the areas where they arise from and
numerous incidents highlight this from Taliban destroying the Bamiyan Buddhist
58
sites in 2001180, to the recent examples of the government of India siding with a
section of the Vaishnavism Hindu community 181 in the 30 year old Ayodhya
Temple-Mosque dispute182 with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi even
laying the foundation stone of the Temple 183 (Earlier some members of the
currently ruling party in power were also responsible for the demolition of the
Babri Mosque upon which the temple was to be built), then the Turkish
government siding with the Orthodox Sunni Muslim community by converting
Hague Sophia (A symbol of Turkish secularism) into a Mosque and President
Erdogan leading the first prayers in that mosque184 too needs to be looked upon.
All this extends civilizational notions on hard religion based political lines
showcasing the fact that how multi-cultural harmonious lines of these countries
are being replaced by civilizational notions in both study and practice. Especially
in Turkey and India, where according to many if the current governments in the
countries come back to power things would be more difficult, as after the Treaty
of Lausanne is over in 2023185 Turkish borders will become obsolete and an
expansion may be aimed at not only westwards but also eastwards towards the
180
G. J. Ashworth and Bart J. M. van der Aa, 'Bamyan: Whose Heritage Was It and What Should We Do About
It?' (2002) 5 Current Issues in Tourism 447
181
Dhume Sadanand, 'Sectarianism Tightens Its Grip in India; Nehru said dams would be the 'temples' of the
future. Modi has ensured that actual temples are instead' (2020) The Wall Street journal Eastern edition
182
Editorial, ‘India’s ruling party replaces a mosque with a Hindu temple’ The Economist [Online], London,4
August 2020) < https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/08/04/indias-ruling-party-replaces-a-mosque-with-a-
hindu-temple > accessed 30 August 2020
183
Report, ‘India PM Modi lays foundation for Ayodhya Ram temple amid Covid surge’, BBC [Online],
(London, 5 August 2020) < https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-53577942 > accessed 8 August 2020
184
Report, ‘Erdoğan leads first prayers at Hagia Sophia museum reverted to mosque’, The Guardian [Online],
(London, 24 July 2020) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/24/erdogan-prayers-hagia-sophia-
museum-turned-mosque> accessed 8 August 2020
185
Article, ‘Treaty of Lausanne’, Britannica Encyclopedia [Online] < https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-
of-Lausanne-1923 > accessed 14 August 2020
59
sensitive areas of High Asia. Also, on the completion of 100 years of the RSS
(The parent organisation of the ruling party in India) in 2025 many of its
ideological opponents believe that they would initiate a movement to formally
change the secular constitution of India.186
In addition to that, these civilizational notions have literary replaced the law
covering universalism in the mainland’s at an unimaginable pace and as the New
Great Game is at its most crucial stage it has led to a lot of new alliances and
confrontations between various players which is destined to affect the sensitive
areas of High Asia, like China’s $400 billion deal with Iran which is in fact a 25-
year pact leading to China receiving a substantial discount on Iranian Oil.187 Iran
also simultaneously dropped out of India’s Chabahar Project hinting that they
prefer stronger Iran-Sino ties, which leads to the speculation that they may
become part of OBOR or the extended CPEC further leading to the speculation
of them playing a part in favour of China in the Trans-Himalayan and Badakhshan
belts. Turkey’s Turkic Council and Islamic notions as discussed earlier has also
been developing and may find a support base in places like Kashmir Valley as
well as Kashgar and Fergana Valley which have a Turkey sympathising
population due to historical ties. Recently, an Indian intelligence report also found
out that the Turkish Embassy in Delhi is forging alliances with Indian NGOs
186
Report, ‘BJP, RSS want to change Constitution, impose Hindutva: Mayawati’, Indian Express [Online],
(Lucknow, 6 December 2016) < https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bjprss-want-to-change-
constitutionimpose-hindutvamayawati-4413902/ > accessed 13 August 2020.
187
Ariel Cohen, ‘China and Iran Approach Massive $400 Billion Deal’, Forbes [Online], (New Jersey, 17 July
2020) < https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2020/07/17/china-and-iran-approach-massive-400-billion-
deal/#6354ac632a16 > accessed 22 July 2020.
60
especially operating in Kashmir188 which signals how things are moving ahead
in this civilizational battle for supremacy. Then Saudi Arabia stopping export of
oil to Pakistan after its Foreign Minister criticized the oil giant recently for not
speaking up on India’s treatment of Kashmir189 can also be seen in this concern.
Thus, major civilizational notions are trying hard to establish their dominance in
the post – neoliberal global order and the sensitive areas of High Asia is a place
where many of such notions would be at logger heads as greater control over the
areas would be a win-win situation when related with economics and geo-politics.
In fact, the resources of the region hold so much importance that USA’s National
Aeronautics and Space Administration has heavily funded a project called NASA
High Mountain Asia Team (HIMAT) 190 which aims at assessing and keeping
track of the natural and water resources concerning major parts of the entire High
Asia region. Thus, this future destined clash brings us to Samuel P Huntington
and his work “Clash of Civilizations”, as it could be said that he saw this coming
when he labelled such a clash between civilizations as the greatest threat to world
peace but his support for the establishment of civilizational order to deal with the
emerging situations as well as his claim that such an order could be the best
188
Shishir Gupta, ‘Turkey’s tentacles in India go deeper than thought, says new intel warning’, Hindustan Times
[Online], (New Delhi, 7 August, 2020) <https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/erdogan-s-turkey-
working-on-imran-khan-s-script-funds-fronts-to-hurt-india-intel/story-2n8taLmj0IO2pG3M5K2ALJ.html>
accessed 8 August 2020.
189
Report, ‘Saudi Arabia ends a loan and associated oil supply to Pakistan following threats to split OIC’,
Economic Times [Online], (New Delhi, 14 August, 2020)
<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/saudi-arabia-ends-a-loan-and-
associated-oil-supply-to-pakistan-following-threats-to-split-oic/articleshow/77499372.cms> accessed 20 August
2020.
190
NASA High Mountain Asia Project, < https://www.himat.org/ > accessed 10 July 2020
61
safeguard against a future clash which could lead to a World War is something
that cannot be agreed as these civilizational aspirations will never stop and an
ultimate clash is destined if the religious hegemonic notions continues to go
forward.
This, is what leads us to Reiterative Universalism a morality based approach
which in a way is better for the study of the region as it paves the direction for
particularistic agendas to come up due to the space it provides for dualistic
universalism unlike Huntingtonian Universalism and through it Pan-High
Asianism a potential new direction in the study of the region can be taken for all
the sensitive areas of High Asia by allowing the merging of common interests
and problems of the population belonging to the region mostly revolving around
environmental damage, resource exploitation, language suppression and
demographic change. The approach needs to be furthered on cultural lines by
utilizing the richer history of the belts like as has been shown above and the areas
within those belts plus a unified message can be forwarded where similar sub-
cultures may be possibly categorised on historic thick cultural belts by combining
all the sub-cultures of the sensitive regions into a thin universalism based High
Asian identity which may be formed by combining the regions belonging to all
countries and their provinces. The motto of “collective self-reliance” as taken in
the approaches of Pan-Africanism191 could in a way also be adopted to lay stake
191
Cemil Aydin, Pan-Nationalism of Pan-Islamic, Pan-Asian, and Pan-African Thought (Oxford University
Press 2013)
62
to the claim against the "colonial mentality" which has prevailed for centuries
leading to the population belonging to the sensitive areas of High Asia being
shown inferior and also being forced directly or indirectly to adopt main land
cultures over their own culture as seen with the examples mentioned in the above
chapters.
In fact, this treatment can thus be dealt with collectively on cultural particularism
and could possibly be contested in a combined way keeping in mind ‘High Asian
values’ based on the mountainous and valley based lifestyle and through
numerous linguistic notions prevalent in the belts. All this would help especially
the ethnic, clan and tribal societies enormously which are being forced to adhere
to major civilizational notions side lining the balance between ideal and practical
considerations. This way to approach the region could also lead to de-escalation
of tensions in the already existing provincial setup where sub divisional politics
is played well and simultaneously this could lead to bringing peace, harmony, and
prosperity in the region which is constantly under the threat of war.
Also, in addition to all this the approach need not question the multi-ethnic, multi-
linguistic and multi-cultural nations and provinces of which most of the belts are
part of currently as the solution does not lie in that, but reviving linkages is what
is the most important part for which the approach shall be furthered and that can
only be possible with the support of all major players and stakeholders in the
region who would need a change in outlook towards the different areas and upon
the current religious hegemonic centric way the study of the areas is perceived.
63
At the same time, some suggestions in this context include the revival or
modification of language systems, and lessons are to be learnt from the Welsh
language revival in Wales192 as the language is listed as extinct by UNESCO but
culture centric language revival initiatives aggressively taken by the local
government has changed that and a recent study of Canterbury University
suggests that the language would survive if the same progress is done leading to
almost 74% of the population being proficient Welsh speakers by 2300, which is
great as in 1866 Times newspaper had declared it as a dead language193. But with
that being said an Esperanto type setup shall be avoided which aimed at being an
auxiliary international language but it did not work out due to being culturally
neutral as by combining the languages of all the belts will also not help at all. The
whole point being that in provinces and nations different language systems shall
be given space, through inter-provincial and inter-national approaches like in the
Western Pahari parts of Galyat Hill tracts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(Pakistan), Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal
Pradesh contestations can be possibly made on common linguistic teaching setups
in the areas and ideas could be brought up concerning the establishment of a
common cultural zone handled by all the provinces involved with the inclusion
of all stakeholders which would largely lead to peace dividends.
192
Document, ‘Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers’, Welsh Government, (Cardiff, 2017)
<https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-12/cymraeg-2050-welsh-language-strategy.pdf>
accessed 20 August 2020
193
Report, ‘Almost everyone in Wales will speak Welsh in 300 years, according to New Zealand
scientists’,Nation Cymru [Online], (Cardiff, 8 January, 2020) <https://nation.cymru/news/almost-everyone-in-
wales-will-speak-welsh-in-300-years-according-to-new-zealand-scientists/> accessed 20 August 2020
64
Simultaneously, Trans-Himalayan parts of Western Tibet, Himachal Pradesh,
Ladakh and Baltistan can work together on having a common Western Himalayan
language-based setup in their areas again with the involvement of all
stakeholders. On the flip side, the Dardic belt regions possibly could have a
common setup with Nuristan, Laghman, Malakand, Hazara, Diamer, Gilgit,
Muzaffarabad, Kashmir Valley, Chenab Valley and Pangi promoting a revived
Dardic language system by combining Kafiri, Khowari, Kashmiri, Shina and
other related sub systems. A Pamiri linguistic setup can be initiated in the entirety
of the Badakhshan belt and the stakeholders of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and China
can come together. Also, the Sogdiana belt governing countries can go on the
same path with the promotion of a combination of Turkic and Iranian linguistic
setups learning from how Switzerland’s linguistic setup got created by combining
German, French, Italian and Romansh. Searching prospects for Trans-National
Corridors which are not only economy centred but also culture centred could
further be part of the study similar to what happened when both India and Pakistan
came together to establish the Kartarpur Corridor194 which in a way revived links
between the two Punjabi speaking areas of India and Pakistan. Such initiatives
could be taken for linking the two Western Pahari speaking areas of India and
Pakistan which includes the Jammu and Kashmir territories administered by them
194
Report, ‘Kartarpur corridor: India pilgrims in historic visit to Pakistan temple’, BBC [Online], (London, 9
November 2019) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50342319> accessed 24 August 2020
65
stretching from Shimla to Murree195 and especially areas like Poonch could be
the focal point as hundreds of families got separated during partition when the
area got divided between India and Pakistan after the October 1947 rebellion196.
A Skardu-Kargil corridor197 also comes to mind for which demands have been
made numerous times by the culturally similar Trans-Himalayan people of those
regions as before partition Kargil, Leh and Skardu were part of the Ladakh
Wazart, but the ceasefire lines permanently divided the region into Ladakh and
Baltistan in 1949 which resulted in the permanent separation of thousands of
families along this mountainous border between India and Pakistan.
Then, revival of Kinnaur-Ngari linkages 198 is another initiative which can be
brought up for bringing together the similar areas of India and China who share
a common heritage on linguistic and cultural lines. Places like Xinjiang and their
cultural connections with the Turkic Council states could also be part of this
process. The lesser known and talked about linkages between similar Dardic
speaking areas can too be studied taking the entire region from Kashmir Valley
via Hazara to Nuristan into consideration. Especially the Srinagar and
Muzaffarabad linkages could be included as these are the two hotspots where the
195
Vishal Sharma, ‘Dreaming of Peace Dividends: Revival of Shimla-Murree Linkages’, The Wire [Online],
(New Delhi, 7 June 2019) < https://thewire.in/culture/india-pakistan-peace-shimla-murree-corridor > accessed
15 June 2020
196
Kunal Mukherjee, 'Indo-Pak Relations and the Kashmir Problem: From 1947 to the Present Day' (2016) 31
Journal of Borderlands Studies 497
197
Zainab Akhter, ‘Could the Kartarpur corridor herald a Ladakh corridor for the Baltis?’, The Asian Dialogue
(Nottingham, 25 March 2020) < https://theasiadialogue.com/2020/03/25/could-the-kartarpur-corridor-herald-a-
ladakh-corridor-for-the-baltis/ > accessed 15 August 2020
198
Vishal Sharma, ‘Kinnaur-Ngari Corridor: An Argument for The Revival of The Western Himalayan Silk
Route’, Himachal Watcher [Online], (Shimla, 21 November 2020) <
https://himachalwatcher.com/2019/11/21/western-himalayan-silk-route/ > accessed 10 July 2020
66
Ethnic Kashmir Valley people currently reside199. All, this leads to the fact that
the bordering areas of all countries in High Asia need to have an alternative study
framework for its border regions which starts with the border provinces of each
country being combined together like India’s Far Northern States and UT’s like
Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and even to an extend Punjab
being seen as one unit and same goes for West China, North Pakistan, East
Afghanistan, South Tajikistan and the provinces of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan near the Greater Fergana Valley region and then the relativity
approach can be applied when interconnecting.
Eventually, such ideas need to be contested on the International Legal landscape
as this type of Pan-High Asianism approach should not have encounters with
International Law as it is only under such a setup that justice can be secured due
to the fact these areas came in contact with International Law prior to the
formation of the local setups they are currently part of but such contestations shall
be on the basis of morality keeping in mind Benhabib’s suggestion that legal and
political universalism cannot be sustained on merely pragmatic grounds and
needs moral grounds 200 . Thus, High Asian Approaches to International Law
(HAAIL) can be furthered in this concern, which could be aimed at safeguarding
the specific interests of the Mountainous and Valley based regions which for
years have been side lined and have faced a kind of colonial dominance for
199
, India–Pakistan trade: a roadmap for enhancing economic relations (Routledge 2012), 202
200
Seyla Benhabib, 'Reason-Giving and Rights-Bearing: Constructing the Subject of Rights: Reason-Giving and
Rights-Bearing: Seyla Benhabib' (2013) 20 Constellations 38
67
centuries. In fact, International law and Institutions have not played that big a role
in highlighting the issues in the legal and political aspects surrounding the affairs
of the specified region and have favoured perspectives of the major cultures and
players involved in this concern. On the other hand, regional perspectives like the
Global South and TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) 201
have only furthered aspects concerning the benefit of main land cultures, which
in a way have not taking the perspectives of the mountainous and valley based
regions into consideration in their agenda of co-constituting international law,
invariably also remaining silent on the issues concerning the imposition of main
land cultures post the colonization era.
Thus, Pan-High Asianism furthered through High Asian Approaches to
International Law is the key in this concern and by combining these suggestions
one can say that a European Union type framework comes to mind possibly a
Semi-Autonomous High Asian Confederacy, the furtherance for which could be
initiated aimed at by protecting the minor cultures of these regions by also taking
into consideration the concerns of all the nations and provinces involved. The aim
can be towards ensuring a balanced progression coming from within the region
by allowance of inter-connecting cultural zones. Thus, through the above
application of Walzer’s Thin and Thick approach in the areas, balancing
Universalism and Particularism can be possibly created which Huntington’s
201
Chimni, 'Third World Approaches to International Law: A Manifesto' (2006) 8 International Community
Law Review 3
68
concept does not showcase. The Coronavirus episode has although proved the
fact that when it comes to survival each district or smallest administrative division
knows what is best for its survival and that they need to have a policy framework
which suits them and if districts have the authority to impose a lockdown then
why cannot they have the power to control cultural notions. Progressive
development is the key for any region but the great game and its continuation
with civilizational colonialism has put the region and its resources at risk of being
wiped out due to fear of the eruption of a war like situation.
Lastly, what can be said in this context is that the best games are won without
fighting, which all players in the region have to realise and eventually aim at
humanizing the global order202 as ultimately humanity needs to win but that can
only come into existence through a common consensus agreed upon by major
players like Washington, Beijing, Moscow, London, New Delhi, Islamabad,
Kabul, Tashkent, Nur-Sultan, Bishkek, Ankara, Tehran and all other stakeholders
playing a key role in the High Asian Border Games.
202
Obijiofor Aginam and Obiora Okafor, Humanizing Our Global Order : Essays in Honour of Ivan Head
(Toronto : University of Toronto Press 2019)
69
CONCLUSION
Hence, Huntingtonian Universalism is one of the numerous ways through which
the sensitive areas of High Asia are approached but it in a way it gives space to
religious hegemonic and great power politics further justifying the increasing
influence of major culture writ large civilizational notions in the gaze of
modernity in the Faultline region. All this has led to the dilution of minor cultural
belts of the region by not only side-lining the commonality of the various areas
divided between numerous provinces and nations but also by invariably
encouraging agendas of civilizational colonialism majorly through imposition of
cultural imperialism, linguistic imposition and demographic change. Then, this
also invariably gives space for the new great game to function which is ultimately
aimed at the exploitation of the resources in the region.
Accordingly, new ways to approach the region need to be looked upon and
Walzer’s Reiterative Universalism can be that potential way through combining
the sensitive thick Western Pahari, Greater Dardic, Trans-Himalayan,
Badakhshan and Sogdiana belts under the idea of the thin Pan-High Asianism
based universalism by which the common issues of all the mountainous and
valley based regions are brought under one platform and coexistence between the
regions can exist to contest particularism, which may well be furthered through
the development of High Asian Approaches to International Law (HAAIL)
possibly aiming at providing cultural and environment based justice to its people.
70
Lastly, the work was an academic enquiry, and the study is limited to the sensitive
areas of High Asia in the context of a larger and broader canvas and the
functioning of the areas is not studied in detail. Also, the enquiry is based on
original ideas and secondary sources and no precise method has been used. Non-
availability of adequate literature and official records on the subject has been a
constraint in conducting the study and some things have been hypothetically
assumed. Also, no previous research has been conducted so far in the concerned
area of study and thus the topic may be helpful for further studies which can be
aimed at the establishment of a future High Asian critical school of legal and
political theory.
Word Count without footnotes and references 14,908
Word Count with footnotes and references 18,787
71
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