ABSTRACT
Focussing on the geographies between the Mekong and the Indus, the Introduction underlines the role and significance of objects and their relation to frontiers in modern Asia. It attempts to show how a range of objects has historically comprised significant bearers and agents of frontier making. Relations of objects to aspects of state making, capital, forms of violence, border crossing, and resistances are of fundamental importance in this regard. In the process, the Introduction foregrounds the importance of interrogating and exploring the dynamism of frontier spaces from the vantage point of objects. It not only locates objects in the specificities of frontier spaces, but also how they circulate and connect frontiers to a wide range of people, institutions, networks, and geographies. Thus, it tries to show how objects encounter, traverse, and come to inhabit multiple historical, cultural, and geographical scales.
