ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the changing realities in the India-Myanmar borderlands. The analysis here is grounded on field visits in two different border areas along the India-Myanmar borderlands: Longwa and Hmaungbuchhuah. Field visits indicate that the traditional notions about security, connectivity and ethnicity are undergoing a change that are specific to ethnic linkages, local perceptions on security and age-old connectivity across these border areas. The discussion in the chapter also reveals that the cross-border access to socioeconomic activities like primary education and informal economic exchanges are indispensable and have been historically followed out of necessity in the livelihoods of the borderlands. The chapter critically analyzes the literature on borders and borderland livelihoods to support the argument.
