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Abhimanyu Pandey

Abhimanyu Pandey, an Indian national, has been a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the South Asia Institute since 2017. The title of his research project is ‘Materialities of Connectivity: an Anthropology of Roads, Development Narratives, and Everyday Lives in Himalayan Borderlands’. Prior to commencing his doctoral studies, he worked as a social scientist at the intergovernmental organization ICIMOD in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 2014 till 2017. He holds an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge University (2013), an MA in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University (2012), and a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Ramjas College, Delhi University (2010). 

Pandey has been the recipient of an EU grant for short term ethnographic research in Copenhagen (2011); a Commonwealth Cambridge Shared Scholarship (2012-2013); a Charles Wallace short-term research fellowship (2015), a Sigrid Rausing grant from the Department of Anthropology, Cambridge University (2016), a DAAD doctoral grant (2017-2021), a DAAD thesis completion grant, and a heiDOCS-beCULT thesis completion grant. He has conducted anthropological and qualitative research in Bhutan, China, Denmark, India, and Nepal.

Doctoral Research

Materialities of ‘Connectivity’: an Anthropology of Roads, Development Narratives, and Everyday Lives in the Himalayan borderlands

Pandey analyzes how discourses and practices around road connectivity - in the complexly intertwined realms of governance, communal life, flows (cultural, political and economic), travel and transportation – shape mobilities, everyday life, livelihoods, identities, and relations with the broader world in a Himalayan borderland. His primary field site is the Spiti valley of the Indian Trans-Himalayas, and the road network which crisscrosses it and connects it to India. 

Select Publications

Book 

  • Bubriski, Kevin and Abhimanyu Pandey. 2018. Kailash Yatra: a long walk to Mt. Kailash through Humla. New Delhi: Penguin.

Academic and scientific publications

  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. 2023. Review of Places in Knots: Remoteness and Connectivity in the Himalayas and Beyond by Martin Saxer. Himalaya, 43(1): 190-192.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. 2023. 'Fragile mountains, extreme winters, and bordering China: Interrogating the shaping of remoteness and connectivity through roads in a Himalayan borderland'. In Judith Müller, Juliane Dame, Sneha Sharma und Carsten Butsch (eds.) Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien - 12. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 21/22 Januar 2022, Bonn/online. Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, pp. 14-17. 
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. 2020. Review of Trans-Himalayan Borderlands: Livelihoods, Territorialities, Modernities by Dan Smyer-Yü and Jean Michaud (eds.). Amsterdam University Press, 2017. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, Issue 55 (Winter 2020), pages 127-133.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. 2019. 2.3.2: ‘Changing Socio-Cultural Situation’. In: Yanfen Wang, Wu Ning, Clemens Kunze, Ruijin Long, Manfred Perlik. ‘Drivers of Change to Mountain Sustainability in the Hindu Kush Himalaya’. In: Philipus Wester, Arabinda Mishra, Aditi Mukherji, Arun Bhakta Shrestha. (eds.) The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability, and People. Cham: Springer. 
  • Dorji, Tashi, Brij Mohan Singh Rathore, Abhimanyu Pandey, and Surendra R Joshi. 2019. ‘In quest of happiness: landscape journey to understand Gross National Happiness, Bhutan’. In Brij Mohan Singh Rathore, Bandana Shakya, Ranbeer Rawal, Rajeev Semwal, Rajan Kotru, and Tashi Dorji (eds.). Landscape journey: a process tool for practitioners. Kathmandu: ICIMOD. Pp. 35-38. 
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu, Nawraj Pradhan, Swapnil Chaudhari, and Rucha Ghate. 2016. “Withering of traditional institutions? An institutional analysis of the decline of migratory pastoralism in the rangelands of the Kailash Sacred Landscape, western Himalayas.” Environmental Sociology 3(1): 87-100.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu, Rajan Kotru, Nawraj Pradhan. 2017. ‘Kailash Sacred Landscape: bridging cultural heritage, conservation and development through a trans-boundary landscape approach’. In Bas Verschuuren and Naoya Furuta (eds.) Asian Sacred Natural Sites: Philosophy and practice in protected areas and conservation. Oxford: Earthscan from Routlege. Pp. 145-158. 
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu, Rajan Kotru, Nawraj Pradhan. 2016. A Framework for the Assessment of Cultural Ecosystem Services of Sacred Natural Sites in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Working paper – 2016/8. Kathmandu: ICIMOD. 
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. 2011. An anthropology of well-being in Christiania. In Proceedings of the Final Conference on the European Studies Programme of the University of Delhi (November, 2011). New Delhi: University of Delhi. 
  • Stevens, Payson R., Alan Robinson, Sanjeeva Pandey, K. Ramesh, Anthony J. Gaston, Ajay Srivastav, Gopal Singh Rawat, G.S. Goraya, Abhimanyu Pandey. 2011. The Republic of India's Nomination of the Great Himalayan National Park for Inscription on the World Heritage List. 

Other publications

  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. “Special gathering at Spiti: Trans-Himalayan Ethos mark annual Ladarcha fair at Kaza”, The Tribune, August 11, 2024.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. “Spiti’s forgotten bridge”, The Tribune, June 23, 2024.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. “Ancient bonds: Joining the Kailash-Manasarovar yatra”, Frontline, May 5, 2023, pp. 110-111.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. ‘To another valley: earthquake survivors from Langtang valley find shelter at a camp in Kathmandu’, Himal Southasian, May 11, 2015.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. ‘Tibet fest stirs hope among DU students’, Metro Now, December 2, 2008.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. ‘Stench that drains all on the North Campus’, Metro Now, July 7, 2008.
  • Pandey, Abhimanyu. ‘Khandedhar – Source of the Jiwa Nala’, Monal (54), July-September 2007

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