Infrastructure Nation: State Space, Hegemony, and Hydraulic Regionalism in Pakistan

Abstract

Large-scale infrastructures are often understood by state planners as fulfilling a national integrative function. This paper challenges the idea of infrastructures as national integrators by engaging theories of state/nation formation and infrastructure in a postcolonial context. Specifically, I put Lefebvre's characterization of the production of state space as a homogenization-differentiation dialectic in conversation with Gramsci's understanding of hegemony, bureaucracy, and nationalism to analyze the controversy surrounding the giant Tarbela Dam in Pakistan in the 1960s. I use the Tarbela controversy as a case study to elaborate a theory of postcolonial nation-formation through state-led infrastructural projects. I argue that in a postcolonial context the failure to articulate a hegemonic nationalist ideology to accompany the production of large-scale infrastructure results in a fragmentation of state space in some ways, even as state space is homogenized and integrated in other ways. The paper also offers a "hydraulic lens" on the politics of regionalism in Pakistan.

The politics of the China―Pakistan economic corridor

“…Although infrastructure in various forms have existed for millennia, the intersection of economic requirements, technical expertize and political incentives to create standardized structures for the purpose of consolidating state power and integrating nation is a modern phenomenon (Knox and Harvey, 2012, p. 523). In other words, infrastructure is increasingly understood as a means to gain legitimacy; to create an 'integrated' national space and ideology (Anwar, 2015;Goswami, 2004;Akhter, 2015;Harvey, 2012, 2015).…”

“…He argues that nationbuilding, economic reconstruction efforts and provision of large dams and other river infrastructures have been closely tied together in the case of Pakistan (Akhter, 2015). Indus Water Treaty, signed on 19 September 1960, divided the control over Indus River and its tributaries among India and Pakistan.…”

“…Such resistances intensified over time developing into regionalist ambitions. The case of secession of East Pakistan in 1971 revealed the strength of these forces (Akhter, 2015).…”

Building a Dam, Constructing a Nation: The ‘drowning’ of Capel Celyn

“…Within this reading, rivers cease to be simple flows of water but are socially‐produced objects that are made and remade through power‐laden socio‐political and technical interaction (Swyngedouw, ). Previous research has shown how the construction of infrastructure, such as dams, becomes articulated within storylines that assert the infrastructure's symbolism as representative of both nationalism and state‐building (Akhter, ; Menga, ; Mitchell, ; Mossallam, ). For example, Kaika (2006) has explored the construction of the Marathon Dam, built in the 1920s, arguing that the project's neoclassical ornamentation represented the construction of parallels between Athens’ modernisation and the successes of Ancient Greek civilisation.…”

Desiring the data state in the Indus Basin

“…Attention to scalar difference is a key methodological principle undergirding my analysis, as indeed it is for many water geographers (Akhter ; Harris and Alatout ; Mustafa ; Swyngedouw ). Geographers have examined the spatiality of water expertise, the shifting sites of authoritative knowledge production, and the role of regional political economy, in several contexts, including stream restoration (Lave ), the representation of watersheds and rivers (Cohen and Bakker ; Harris and Alatout ; Hwang ; Sneddon and Fox ; Swyngedouw ) and the global circulation of irrigation expertise (Akhter and Ormerod ).…”