Airy Infrastructures

The Second World War (WWII) introduced a new global doctrine of aerial logistics in the Eastern Himalayas. This article explores the paradoxical presence of minimal infrastructure in geopolitically contested borders, despite significantly longstanding “cartographic” and geopolitical anxieties. It unpacks the state strategy of maintaining remoteness through light infrastructure despite access to aerial technology, through the case of a strategic mountain outpost at Walong. Contrary to James Scott's prediction of post-WWII integration through "distance-demolishing technologies" (Scott 2009), selective state-making favored ad-hoc aerial provisioning over permanent infrastructure to reduce costs, maintaining remoteness as a strategic asset. This article uses archival sources alongside existing scholarship to reveal how geopolitical anxieties influence infrastructural decisions, illustrating statist notions of “volumetric” sovereignty in highland regions. It highlights the enduring colonial legacy of thin infrastructural presence despite wars in the Northeastern Frontier of India, now Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Tibet, Burma and China, which has only recently changed.