In the months leading up to the transfer of power in India, the eastern Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan argued before the Cabinet Mission and other constitutional bodies that its position was not analogous to the princely states that were slowly merging with the Indian union. Bhutan emphasized that it was more akin to Tibet than to India in its race, religion, and social customs. This chapter traces the history of this articulation of difference in imperial geopolitical writing – especially Olaf Caroe’s “Mongolian Fringe” thesis – its subsequent afterlife in postcolonial India’s relations with Bhutan, and its implications for the place of the Himalaya in India’s self-definition as a nation