Beyond the Mountains: Social and Political Imaginaries in Gilgit-Baltistan

Our first edited volume brings together voices from sixteen researchers writing on different aspects of land, life, and social thought in Gilgit-Baltistan. The effort is aimed at collectively building and articulating analysis, and offering narratives that are invisibilized in mainstream discourse. 

The book is edited by Dr. Nosheen Ali and Aziz Ali Dad.

Dr. Nosheen Ali is a sociologist and environmental researcher, and the co-founder of Raachi. Her book Delusional States: Feeling Rule and Development in Pakistan’s Northern Frontier (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is an award-winning ethnographic study of state-making, ecology and border lives in Gilgit-Baltistan. Ali is the founder of UmangPoetry, a digital humanities endeavor for understanding poetic knowledges in South Asia, and kartidharti, an ecological intervention for preserving biodiversity in Sindh.

Aziz Ali Dad is a writer and social philosopher, and the co-founder of Raachi. He studied Philosophy of Social Sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science, U.K. Aziz was a Crossroads Asia research fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany, and a research fellow of Asia Leadership Fellow Program in Tokyo, Japan. He has published in national and international journals and research forums, and is known for his work on the history of ideas, sociology of margins and cultural dynamics in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Beyond the Mountains: Social and Political Imaginaries in Gilgit-Baltistan is available at Book Gallery in Gilgit, and will soon be available in bookstores in Islamabad & Karachi (with delivery anywhere across Pakistan). For international orders, please write to us at raachipress@gmail.com.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Terra Nullius, Land Rights and Political Mobilization
in Gilgit-Baltistan
Dr. Nosheen Ali