‘From K2 to Kanyakumari, Bharat is One’: The visual and geopolitical place-making of road signs in Ladakh

One of the first things travelers to the Indian Himalaya remark upon are the curious, often rhyming and comedic, road signs of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) dotting the strategic roads of the region. In this article, I ask what role road signs play in physically narrating, constructing and altering the imagination of the contested high-altitude region of Ladakh. I provide a combined discursive and visual analysis of military-origin road signs in Ladakh, drawing on a series of fieldwork trips across 2019-2025. I make two core contributions. First, I add to the literature on the political geography of road signs, by demonstrating their expansive role in re-narrating an entire region. Second, I contribute to our understanding of Ladakh's geopolitics and its place in the Indian state. Specifically, I argue that road signs are an important means of marking contested territory for the Indian Army, and construct specific ideas of nationalism, sacrifice, masculinity, and safety. The crucial narrative of these road signs is India's military prowess and engineering skill, making the region safe for both the nation and for tourism. These ideas are blended with gender, particularly hypermasculinity, and the need to dominate nature for the state.