Not All Roads Lead to Kashmir: British Road Construction in the High Himalayas and the Railroad That Never Was

The British Empire intervened on the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir in 1885, imposing a Resident on the state's ruler for the first time. While one of their primary intentions was to build a railroad connection between the state and British India, the project failed. This episode has largely been set within the context of Britain's strategic rivalry with Russia over Central Asia, the so-called Great Game. However, focusing on the example of the failed railroad casts the episode in new light. The story of the failed railroad reveals that the intervention was less a product of strategic rivalry with Russia, wherein Jammu & Kashmir was considered at most a sideshow, and instead was driven by motivators such as the civilizing mission, imperial romanticism, and tourism.