Borderline politics: Reading Nepal-India relations as ‘energohistory’

Abstract

This article takes recent work on energy into an historical analysis of Nepal-India border relations to reveal the consequences of unequal geopolitical positions between Nepal and India. This helps explain the recurrent tensions between the countries, despite their cultural and historical closeness. The article makes two independent but mutually supporting arguments. First, the concept ‘energopower’ would be productively expanded by more clearly encompassing labour as a form of energy supply. Second, bringing this perspective to bear in historical analyses of energy exchange and labour migration makes a timely contribution to historical anthropology. I suggest that this framing be called ‘energohistory’. This is put into practice through historical analyses of Indian trade ‘blockades’ on Nepal and through two case studies on the exchange of energy commodities and labour between the countries. ‘Energohistory’ reveals how energopower melds with biopower, from the past through to the present, flowing through high state politics to the level of everyday discourse.