Hindustan–Tibet Road and colonial interventions in Shimla Hill States

This article argues that the construction of the Hindustan–Tibet Road (from the 1850s) functioned not only as infrastructure but also as a strategic tool of colonial governance. It transformed the western Himalayan frontier from a flexible trans-regional exchange zone into a controlled imperial corridor. Focusing on the Shimla Hill States, the article illustrates how colonial intervention reconfigured existing trade networks, increased labour extraction through the system of begar and facilitated the appropriation of forest resources to serve imperial economic and geopolitical goals. The article demonstrates that the road was an example of colonial infrastructural power that served simultaneously as a commercial route, a military corridor and an instrument of colonial administration, enabling the British colonial state to reorganise trade, mobilise labour and consolidate frontier governance in the western Himalayas. Rather than establishing new economic structures, colonial infrastructure reorganised and regulated existing networks, thereby integrating the region into the empire’s political economy.