Arunachal Pradesh, a state in Northeast India, is going through a
phase of rapid infrastructural expansion, a phenomenon intensified due
to the state’s geostrategic location. Despite the colonial enterprise
of frontier-making and the resulting securitisation of space, the
presence of the eastern Himalayan frontier has historically infused
the region with elements of both steadfastness and dynamism, as its
spatial fluidity persists in one form or the other. Meanwhile, despite
being situated in a Himalayan corridor, the region finds itself
entangled in the contentious politics in which states in South and
Southeast Asia are locked. Drawing on ethnographic experiences from
two geopolitically sensitive and spatially significant places,
Menchukha and Namsai, situated on the eastern Himalayan slopes at
Arunachal Pradesh, this article discusses the paradoxical conditions
of ‘selective permeability’ (Popescu 2015: 50) that often informs
contemporary border regimes, where factors favouring cross-border
mobility are weighed against the demands of maintaining territorial
integrity. In this context, this article looks at some prominent sites
of pilgrimage and religious tourism to understand the differential
attention they receive from the state, revealing a complex assemblage
of spatial dynamics, cultural logics and geostrategic rationales that
operate in geopolitically charged borderlands.