“Kashmir and Tibet: Comparing Conflicts, States, and Solutions.” McGranahan, C., India Review (2003), Vol. 2, Issue 3.
The Article
The conflict over the area of Kashmir is a significant case for those interested in understanding issues related to protracted conflicts and transnational relations. McGranahan (2003) offers a poignant analysis of the case with an interdisciplinary approach to answering questions over collective rights and sovereign national identities through a “merger of political scholarship on conflict, human rights, and state sovereignty with that on the anthropology of the state” (p. 145). The anthropological approach to expanding knowledge of the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir involves analysis of the way in which diplomatic relations are complicated through regional relationships, with specific focus on the regional history of conflict and relations between Tibet and China. The author begins with the “history of the present” state of affairs regarding the conflict, including the complications that surfaced with the U.S. War on Terror and recent globalizing trends. Following, the article orients the conflict analysis with perspective on the anthropology of the state. The author states purpose for conceptualizing an anthropological analysis in order to “bring together the local and the national, the ethnographic and the political, and the vernacular with the formal in terms of understanding and analyzing the Kashmir and Tibet conflicts as internal and international challenges to the state” (McGranahan 2003, p. 153).
After defining the framework of analysis, McGranahan (2003) then provides a historical anthropology of the region’s development into sovereign state structures. The author maintains that in Kashmir, “issues of sovereignty exist at a plurality of levels – local claims, historical and religiously based claims, and the state-level claims of India and Pakistan” (McGranahan 2003, p. 155). With the claim that the border conflict in Kashmir cannot be understood in isolation from the conflict over Tibet a major premise of the article, the analysis provides a detailed history of the tensions and conflicts between China and Tibet. The histories together “provide an empirical and analytical base for comparing the situations in Tibet and Kashmir and for thinking about aspects of the modern state system that cut across ideological difference” (McGranahan 2003, p. 160). The article gives perspective on the subjectivity of the concept of state sovereignty in regional relations and the need to understand the conflicts in terms of cultural rights and national identity. With additional history to support and substantiate the argument for collective cultural sovereign rights, at difference to the legitimizing forces through “discursive power” of conventional political disciplines and theories of relations, the author discusses right to referendum and self-determination with analysis of equivalent border conflicts.
Understanding the challenges with these conflicts at a time of increased global activity where political climates face challenges with terrorism, McGranahan (2003) emphasizes building upon the ethnographic, historic, and political details outlined for non-violent conflict resolution. In providing directions to achieve these ends, the author examines possible solutions including (1) maintaining the status quo; (2) providing more state autonomy in the case of both Kashmir and Tibet; (3)accession to a different state in the case of Kashmir; and (4) independence the same for Tibet (McGranahan 2003, p. 169-171). The article then details necessary directions for nonviolent conflict resolution, concluding on the need for developed historical and anthropological, interdisciplinary approaches to develop understandings and expand knowledge of the concept of sovereignty in the cases of both Kashmir and Tibet as correlated. Conclusions then detail the potential and need for such insights in contemporary politics to achieve a peaceful conflict resolution informed by history.
Reflection
The article is another that I believe presents encouraging critical perspectives for theory development in international relations. The presentation of the case study is well written and organized with clearly stated and easy to follow, well-developed and articulate theoretical arguments. The article first caught my attention while researching methods of conflict resolution used in both the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the conflict in Northern Ireland. Later, the article inspired me to write a paper on the history of Tibet (which honestly is not at all worth comparing, particularly as Tibetan history is the author’s primary area of study). The case study provides relevant insights into the emergent area of conflict resolution, which itself would be of benefit to the regional relations as discussed with the cases of Kashmir and Tibet. While this is a promising aspect of the work, the article offers convincing case for interdisciplinary and anthropological approaches for the analysis of relations between sovereign states where developed cultural awareness is rudimental.
McGranahan (2003) develops a strong critique of traditional concepts of sovereignty in political science as well as hegemonic, bureaucratic power relations, "the hegemonic sanctity of state borders and comunal belonging so prevalent in the modern state" (p. 146). At the same time, the article conveys a recognition of the importance of state sovereignty and the realities of international relations in a way that, for example the previously discussed article by Olssen (2004) might be said to undermine. As an anthropologist, the author proves to have respectable knowledge and awareness of international and regional relations while providing the theory development that seems to me exceptionally relevant, promising and necessary for relations in today’s world. The correlation between Kashmir and Tibet is probably a little weak, but defended quite well. As McGranahan is a scholar of Tibetan history, it also seems to me that the author is aware of biases in the writing of the article. In the end, the article does make a developed enough argument to support the claim that relations between states cannot be understood in isolation, that the conflicts are often interdependent and regional knots need be untied to solve problems.
Much like Olssen, McGranahan's perspective also closely mirrors my own research and beliefs. They do provide insight into one another (particularly for the context of globalization, economics and conflict). McGranahan’s (2003) anthropological study of regional relations is a valuable interdisciplinary bridge for research as undertaken by Olssen and work done by practitioners in peace studies and conflict resolution. For example, the work of Herbert Kelman in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; of which, vice versa, offers directions for the conflicts discussed in the article. Such a bridge between the researches could lead to valuable theory and practice for development in an era of neoliberal economics. McGranahan has been producing some work lately, it is hard to keep up. The author’s research is always nicely organized with clearly stated facts to support well-defined arguments.