The Gilgit Game – Book Review

Book Review
The Gilgit Game
By John Keay,
Publisher:Oxford University Press,Karachi, Pakistan
Price:Rs 275
Pp:277
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Gilgit and the Great Game in the Himalayas

By Mahesh Kaul

State of Jammu and Kashmir has been the focal point of all activities that range from cultural
to political. But it can be called the misfortune of the comprehensively rich geographical
and historical entity that it has been used as the flash point of all intrigues that have
brought miseries to the populace of the state in all times. The seed of the destabilization of
the state was sown when the British imperialists happened to be the illegitimate overlords of
this rich entity. The colonial rulers sponsored many expeditions and missions to gather
information about the remote and extreme fringes of this state and its frontiers. As they knew
if they have to rule India then they will have to strengthen their stranglehold over the
Himalayas. And it is in this context that they were s interested in having their foot fall in Gilgit- a
small town in the centre of the Western Himalayas.
While researching about the Northern Frontiers of the India I came across a book titled “The
Gilgit Game” by John Keay published by Oxford University Press in 1979. It is a well
established fact and well documented in history how Gilgit region of the Himalayan frontier
became battle ground when India was witnessing the transfer of power and partition of the
country at the same time. It was used as region where many intrigues were shaped to
destabilize the state of Jammu and Kashmir and alter its boundaries besides fomenting trouble
by communalizing the situation by the British agents who were active in the area as early
as1830’s and by 1870 they tightened their stranglehold on it  to suit their imperialist goals of
violating the boundaries of the state and use it as a focal point to rule the subcontinent
keeping in view the developing geo-political interests of other emerging powers in the
Himalayan frontier.
This book is an interesting and informative material not only on the various tribes that
inhabit this frontier region and their way  of life but explains the strategic importance of the
region as far as the state of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned . It explains to a greater extent the British mindset regarding their imperialist designs and co opting various forces that later were instrumental in posing challenge to the idea of united India.
In the introduction to the book John Keay writes, “The point of Gilgit, now as always is
strategic. High above the snowline, somewhere midst the peaks and glaciers that wall in the
Gilgit valley, the long and jealously guarded frontiers of India, China, Russia, Afghanistan
and Pakistan meet. It is the hub, the crow’s nest, the fulcrum of Asia.”
These words should explain how astute the British were while governing India and knew well
that this region in the Himalayas was the focal point of the balance of power. And it goes to
their credit that  they understood the importance of this area in guarding the frontiers and
boundaries of India. But when they were on the verge of leaving India after partitioning it, they
left no stone unturned in dismantling this fulcrum of the Indian frontier by fomenting trouble
there so that this area and the state of Jammu and Kashmir of which it is territorially
integral part is dismantled and the unity of India as a nation is always kept under strain. To
weaken the Indian unity they left no stone unturned to rupture the defense of the Indian nation  in the frontier itself. And the outcome is the present conflict and continuous destabilization.
Writing further to explain the importance and significance of this frontier he writes,” A
little over a century ago none of these frontiers came anywhere near one another, Gilgit
itself was far flung, disaster prone and run down outpost of the Maharaja of Kashmir. Beyond
it and on all sides save for a vulnerable supply line back to Kashmir, there stretched virgin
territory. South to the Punjab of British India, West to Badakshan in Afghanistan, north to
Tashkent in Russia and east to Sinkiang in China, this rectangular sea of mountains stretched
for hundreds of all but impenetrable miles. The Gilgit Game is simply the story of how and by
whom such a wilderness was explored and approached.”
It is interesting to note here that the British were not only consolidating their rule in
their Indian colony but exercising the strategic and political influence of their country by
using the land of this nation as the theatre of war and once they left, they trampled it to
such an extent that it is still bearing the blows of that intrigue. Narinder Singh Sarila, ADC
to the last Governor General ,Lord Mountbatten has clearly explained in this book titled ‘The
Untold Story of India’s Partition” that how the Great Game was played to partition India by
socially, communally, economically, geographically and culturally balkanize India so that no
room is left for the national resurgence of India among the comity of nations. Though the book
The Gilgit Game was written years before Narinder Singh Sarila could reveal the reality of the
British game plan to vivisect India, it succinctly explains the development of the strategy
called the “Great Game and the Gilgit being the starting point of this intrigue to later
balkanize the Indian nation.
Explaining the rationale behind the Great Game, he writes,”It was called a game in recognition
of the process being a crucial episode in the Great Game, the century-long rivalry between
Russia and British India for control of Central Asia. The latter phrase had been coined
back in 1830’s but came into common usage about 1870.With the popular discovery of cricket,
football and tennis, suddenly everything became a game: the word was bandied about as
loosely as, more recently,’scene’.But it was also in the 1870’s that the Great game ,after
a mid –century lull, returned as a political feature to obsess the minds and dictate the
policies of those who ruled Asia.Inspite of some impossible terrain, in spite too of some
of the improbable characters involved ,here was one of the most desperate and portentous
confrontations that the late nineteenth century had to evolve.”

One should acknowledge the analysis of the author in comparing Great Game with Cold War. But it is also a reality that Great game is still functional when we witness the turbulence and
ethno-religious conflict in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Cold war may be called its
corollary but in the present scenario it is a bit mild as far as the existence of uni polar
world at present is concerned.
He writes ,” The Great Game has often been compared with the Cold War of 1950’s and
1960’s.In both cases war as an instrument of policy was used sparingly and the global
explosion that threatened never materialized .A safer outlet for imperial aggression was
found in trying to secure a favorable alignment of minor powers and thus outmaneuver
the opposition .In the Great Game ,China (although itself an empire ),Afghanistan and Persia
all provided ideal ground for such jockeying .So too, in the early days, did the Khanates
of Central Asia and subsequently ,the mountain states of the Western Himalayas. In
retrospect the imperial rivalry looks fairly genteel and, indeed, there were those who
at the time defended even Russian encroachments on the ground of Europe’s civilizing
mission.Nevertheless,it is no exaggeration to say that ,for most, the Tsarist threat in the
late nineteenth century was as real and alarming as the Communist menace in the mid-
twentieth.”
Explaining military strategy of the powers that were indulged in the Great Game, John Keay
writes,” Again like the Cold War, the Great Game was played, or fought, over a vast area and
at many different levels. Any clash of British and Russian interests east of the Balkans
had a bearing on the Game .The action had a way of shifting unpredictably from a
concourse of statesman in Europe to a sudden shunting of troops in the Hindu Kush; or from
the activities of a lone Kiplingesque secret agent to some frantic excitement among the
small-scale maps at military headquarters.”

Gilgit turned out to be the focal point of all geo-political and strategic affairs that define
the imperialist policy in guarding the Northern Frontier. It is a pity that the people who
were the subjugators of the Indian nation understood the strategic and political importance of
the Northern Frontier in the Himalayas and kept an eagle’s eye to guard it but the Indian
state has failed to safeguard the national integrity and the sovereignty of the nation in this
frontline area and squandered the advantage and  failed to understand the British ploy on the
eve of partition  to alter the boundaries of princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to suit their
long term game of the balkanization of India  that are now clearly visible in the state.
John Keay sheds light on the broader agenda of the Great Game and writes,” What was true of
the Great Game went for its Gilgit sector; the process of geographical and political penetration only makes sense when seen in the broadest possible context. Yet Gilgit was surely the wildest arena in which the Game was played. Diplomatic activity had to wait on the deliberations of ilitary strategists and these in turn waited on the process of exploration. Because of the political vacuum in the area, the movements of explorers and agents could themselves constitute a valid claim to territory and their chance friendships and difficulties could have the most far –reaching repercussions ;it would be in the mountains around Gilgit that the two imperial frontiers came closest to collision. All of which, though occasionally leading to absurdities ,makes the Gilgit Game vastly more exciting and romantic than most of the Great Game .From Rudyard Kipling to John Masters fiction writers have found their best material in the Gilgit story.”

What should make the book important as far as the state of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned
is that it should act as  a reference material for the policy makers who have undermined the Northern Frontier in the Himalayas. The following   passage from the Gilgit Game written by John Keay should be an eye openerHe writes:
“The other factor which deterred explorers was the attitude of the Kashmir authorities .Then
as now, Kashmir was a political anomaly. Properly speaking it was just the beautiful valley of
that name around Srinagar, the capital; but with the disintegration of the Sikh Empire in the
1840’s all the mountain lands administered by the Sikhs were detached and designated as the
new state of Kashmir under de facto ruler, Gulab Singh. By the treaty of Amritsar in 1846 he
was recognized by the British as Maharaja in return for his settling the war indemnity levied
on the defeated Sikhs. But the treaty left to further negotiation the actual boundaries of the
state as well as the exact nature of the relationship with the British India. This was the
situation that could be exploited by both parties; and while the Government of India at first
concentrated on trying to reduce the Maharaja to the impotent status of other princely rulers
within British India, the Maharaja and his successors did their utmost, particularly in the
Gilgit region, to extend their territory. Freelance explorers who might publicize or censure
boundary, were therefore forbidden access.”
About the strategic sensitivity of the Indian government he writes, “On the other hand, as the
new state of Kashmir was more firmly incorporated into British India, it became clear that the
frontiers of the state could not be simply left to the energies of the Maharaja. In the north
and north-west they were, after all, the frontiers of India itself, and in the event of an
attack the Indian government would be expected to defend them. As the Russian threats
developed in the 1870’s the question of finding a defensible Kashmir frontier and a reliable
system of guarding it became crucial. And, just as for thirty years the jealousy of the
Maharaja had kept out freelance explorers, so for the next twenty years the strategic
sensitivity of the Indian government would have the same effect.”
This book should start a discourse among the policy makers and the intelligentsia as to what
policy should be formulated to defend the Northern Frontier in the frontline state of Jammu
and Kashmir when a part of the state is already in the illegal occupation of Pakistan and
worst of all, when Pakistan has ceded the substantial area of the occupied territory to China.
China has used it to develop a corridor to keep Tibet within its reachable ambit by using this
territory for developing the Gwadar Port in Pakistan to strangulate
Indian rise.

******(Writer is a PhD Scholar at SHTM{School for Hospitality and Tourism Management},Faculty of Business Studies, University of Jammu, Jammu)