Qualitative study uncovers visual place-making and territorial nationalism in Ladakh road signs, highlighting infrastructure's role in geopolitical statecraft.
Key Points
Examine how military-origin road signs narrate, construct, and alter the geopolitical imagination of the contested high-altitude region of Ladakh.
Conducted multi-year fieldwork across Ladakh from 2019 to 2025.
Performed a combined discursive and visual analysis of road signs erected by the Border Roads Organisation.
Identified road signs as key geopolitical instruments for marking contested territory and projecting Indian military authority.
Observed narratives intertwining state engineering prowess with hypermasculinity, sacrifice, and the domination of nature to frame borderlands as secure for national defense and tourism.