Description
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Shadow States by Berenice Guyot-Rechard
Since the midtwentieth century China and India have entertained a difficult relationship erupting into open war in 1962. Shadow States is the first book to unpack SinoIndian tensions from the angle of competitive statebuilding through a study of their simultaneous attempts to win the approval and support of the Himalayan people. When China and India tried to expand into the Himalayas in the twentieth century their lack of strong ties to the region and the absence of an easily enforceable border made their proximity threatening observing China and Indias statemaking efforts local inhabitants were in a position to compare and potentially choose between them. Using rich and original archival research Berenice GuyotRechard shows how India and China became each others shadow states. Understanding these recent competing processes of state formation in the Himalayas is fundamental to understanding the roots of tensions in SinoIndian relations.