Mountains, Modernity and Nature: Reconfiguring the aspects of Himalayan Mountaineering

Abstract

paper traces the genealogy of mountaineering from its origin in the Alpine mountains to its manifestation in the Himalaya through the mechanisms of colonialism in the late nineteenth century. Mountaineering and modernity coincided with each other and conquering the Himalayan mountains became a colonial project. The paper attempts to show how the entanglements between nature and humans were (re)organised as mountaineering unfolded in the high Himalaya. From records on the early Himalayan surveys and expeditions the paper tries to comprehend the reconfiguration brought about in the Himalaya through colonial survey and mountaineering in its early days of inception.