Law, Governance, and Culture in Gilgit-Baltistan: Introduction

Livia Holden (1, 2)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
2 ISJPS - Institut des sciences juridique et philosophique de la Sorbonne - UMR 8103

This paper offers an introduction to law, governance and culture in Gilgit-Baltistan. The first section provides a historical survey of the most significant events that make of Gilgit-Baltistan a disputed territory with uncertain constitutional status in Pakistan. The second section delves into the case law that has sanctioned the constitutional status and the rights of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in connection with the concepts of liminality and marginality. The third section mentions two current mega-projects, the Bhasha Dam and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), in order to highlight the economic and political stakes that Gilgit-Baltistan represents at the national and international level. The fourth section surveys religious diversity and sectarianism as components that consistently come up in recent socio-political analysis of Gilgit-Baltistan as factors underlying latent unrest and sudden conflicts. The paper concludes with a proposal to de-colonise the anthropology of Gilgit-Baltistan through a process of cultural expertise that includes perspectives and knowledge generated by scholars that are native of or have spent long time in Gilgit-Baltistan without necessarily belonging to the elitist networks of first class universities around the globe.

Mots clés: Gilgit-Baltistan; cultural expertise; law and governance; higher education; decolonisation

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Livia Holden. Law, Governance, and Culture in Gilgit-Baltistan: Introduction. South Asian History and Culture, 2019, 10 (1), pp.1-13. ⟨10.1080/19472498.2019.1576300⟩. ⟨hal-03601086⟩