ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Dr. Philipp Zehmisch

Partitioned Borderlands: Ethics of Collaboration and Resistance in Postcolonial Pakistan 

This project extends my previous work on Political Anthropology, Migration Research and Postcolonial Studies into the fields of Partition Studies, Borderland Studies, and Anthropology of Ethics. Inquiring into the long-standing effects of the Partition of British India in 1947, the research explores the dialectical interplay of everyday ethics and postcolonial nation-building. Partition caused a religiously-charged genocide and mass migrations of Hindus and Sikhs to India, and Muslims to Pakistan, and had particular effects on borderland sites and the construction of majorities and minorities. This led, among others, to the destruction or neglect of heritage sites and various folk or “indigenous” forms of artistic expression.

The first aspect of research concerns ethical practices of collaboration with hegemonic forms of governing and practices of border-making, demonstrating the territorial and ideological effects of nation-building. Here, the project seeks to disentangle in which ways the nation state engenders moralizing discourses about Self and Other by paying attention to the public negotiation of cultural and religious norms, values, and practices. Second, the project elaborates on ethical dimensions of everyday resistance. It investigates how formations of resistance transgress and transcend various physical, semantic, metaphorical, and psychological borders and boundaries such as the manifold societal divisions imposed by the hegemonizing project of religious nationalism. The research also concentrates on documenting political, artistic, and spiritual collaborations, which may be preliminarily viewed as expressions and practices of an implicit “cross-border ethics”.

My ongoing fieldwork in the urban centers Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi is currently being complemented by two localized case studies of peripheral borderlands and their subaltern minorities: First, the cross-border region of Baltistan, which continues to be affected by the long-standing legacy of the Kashmir conflict. Being separated from previous homelands in what has become Ladakh, India, across the Line of Control (LOC), a community of Balti refugees has deployed various strategies to collaborate with and to meet their kin across the border. Second, my research focuses on Cholistan, South Punjab, in the Thar desert, where contemporary lifeworlds are structured by the loss of access to previously shared religious, mythical, cultural, economic, and social sites in Rajasthan, India. The fieldwork currently concentrates on the Meghwal, a Hindu Dalit community whose everyday lives are shaped not only by their minority status, but also by their spiritual and artistic mobility across semantic and physical borders. 

Rewinding Capital Territory: Conservation, Urban Development and Indigenous Rights in Margallah Hills National Park, Islamabad, Pakistan (2024-25)

Awarded by the Cluster of Excellence, International Office, Heidelberg University

The project examines the “rewilding” of the Margallah Hills National Park (MHNP) in the Capital Territory of Islamabad. Seeking to demonstrate in which ways the idea of ​​the Anthropocene comes into play in Pakistan, the research focuses on the various actors who claim ownership of the park. How is the relationship between people and the environment articulated on the edge of a capital that was built in the 1960s as a planned city on former indigenous lands?

The research project will focus on various stakeholders claiming the MHNP, including the Islamabad Municipality and the government. The aim of the project is to use the method of participant observation, expert interviews and focus group discussions to analyze the perspectives of the individual actors in order to identify their motivations and the backgrounds that lead to conflicts. The ultimate goal of the research will be to understand and explain the obstacles and contradictions in nature conservation. The aim is to contribute to environmental anthropology and political ecology while also highlighting the under-researched theme of conservation in Pakistani national parks, which has wider societal relevance beyond academia. 

International Research Seminar “Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial Pakistan (2023) 

Awarded by the Flagship Initiative Transforming Cultural Heritage, Heidelberg University 

Partner in Pakistan: Lahore University of Management Sciences

As part of the International Research Seminar, Mr. Zehmisch led seven Heidelberg University students to Pakistan from March 1st to 17th, 2023. There, they delved into Pakistan's cultural and natural heritage through expert lectures conducted at various sites and through interactions with local students, educators, and community members. This exchange profoundly benefited our multiple partners in Pakistan as well as the SAI students, providing them with vital skills for their academic pursuits and beyond.

Consolidating Pakistan Research at the South Asia Institute: Student exchange (2022-23)

Awarded by the Cluster of Excellence, International Office, Heidelberg University.

The project aimed to revitalize regional research on Pakistan at SAI. This was done by:

• Mobility of the applicant for empirical research and networking in Pakistan through several research and networking stays in Pakistan
• Mobility of the visiting scientist: Dr. Ahsan Kamal, lecturer and postdoc at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies (NIPS), Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad
• Preparation of a proposed MoU with LUMS University in Lahore
• The preparation of the successful application, logistics and implementation of the International Research Seminar “Heritage Conservation in Postcolonial Pakistan” 

Department of Anthropology
South Asian Institute, Universität Heidelberg
Voßstraße 2, Building 4130
Room: 130.02.23
D-69115 Heidelberg 

E-Mail: philipp.zehmisch@sai.uni-heidelberg.de 
Phone: +49 6221 54-15234
 

Office Hours
During the Semester: 
Tuesday - 15.00-17:00  
(prior registration via e-mail required)