Oropolitics comes from the Greek language oros meaning mountain and politikos meaning citizen. In modern usage it denotes the use of mountaineering for political purposes.
Origin of term
The term "oropolitics" was coined by
Joydeep Sircar in the early 1980s to describe the surreptitious efforts, first by
Pakistan from the 1950s, and then by
India from the late 1970s, to demonstrate control and ownership of the
Siachen Glacier by allowing or organising mountaineering
Exploration to the high peaks such as
Saltoro Kangri and
Teram Kangri flanking the glacier.
[ The Telegraph - Calcutta : Nation][ Joydeep Sircar, "Oropolitics: A dissertation on the political overtones of mountaineering in the East-Central Karakoram, 1975-82", Alpine Journal (1984), p. 74-79. Reprinted from Himalaya Sameeksha.] The
Siachen War of 1984 was the direct outcome of these 'oropolitical' activities. Another example is the
China publication
Raising the Five Star Flag on Mount Tomur, an account of the successful Chinese expedition of 1977 to the
Tien Shan peak better known by its Russian name as
Pik Pobedy (nowadays renamed yet again by Kyrgyzstan as
Jengish Chokusu).
[ SummitPost - Pik Pobeda/Tomur Feng - Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering] The Chinese volume seems to imply a first ascent and completely ignores multiple Russian ascents.
Other examples
The strangest oropolitical events must surely be the unpublicised ascents of
Nanda Devi and
Nanda Kot by joint Indo-US expeditions in the 1960s to plant devices to monitor Chinese
nuclear weapon activity.
[M.S. Kohli and K. Conboy, "Spies in the Himalayas", 2003.] The media disclosure in 1978 that an Indo-American covert expedition had planted a nuclear-fuelled monitoring device atop Nanda Kot in the 1960s, and that subsequently the device had disappeared, led to fears of radioactive contamination of the river
Ganges, and a political brouhaha.
Recent examples of oropolitics, again from India, were the claimed ascent of Nyegyi Kangsang (7047 m) and the attempt on the nearby peak Kangto (7090 metres) by Indian teams in the 1990s.[Articles in The Himalayan Journal, 1996, Mumbai.] Both are remote Arunachal Pradesh peaks that are difficult to access, located on or very close to the India-China border. These were as much sporting activities as visible demonstrations of de facto control of India over terrain claimed by China. It has been suggested that the actual summit of Nyegyi Kangsang was not even reached.[ Jawad Raza Khan, "The Myth of Siachien :An extreme case of Oro-politics", Pakpotpourri. On line.]
