ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a theoretical background to the study of borders and borderlands. It discusses the realist, liberal and constructivist perspectives of borders predominant in the field of geopolitics. The chapter argues that mobility and migration of goods, ideas and people have deconstructed the notion of borders as fixed entities. Borders have been reconceptualized as penetrable, socio-spatially constructed mindscapes. Nonetheless, despite the erosion of borders, in the recent decades, states have made efforts at the creation of ‘biometric borders’ by deploying technology, manpower and resources in the borderlands. Border security framework has been revisited to regulate the flow of smuggled goods and people in the borderlands. The chapter uses the metaphor of borders and borderlands to examine the convergence of debates on realism, post-structuralism, culture, identity and everyday politics in the India-Myanmar borderlands. It argues that enforcing barriers along the borders raises the question of political citizenship living within the territorial limits of modern nation-states in the subregion. Finally, we argue that the creation of borders and borderlands in the India-Myanmar subregion constantly point toward the transformations and connectedness that needs to be examined with the help of bottom-up locally grounded perspectives.
