ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some historical contextualisation for the manner in which the border has been enunciated over a period of time, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the present. Lack of closure on the issue of boundary demarcation during the period of the princely state in Kachchh led to heightened political debates on the border issue after the Partition in 1947. The question of defining a clear and unambiguous border between Kachchh and Sindh has occupied top administrative priority in the area since then. The material in this chapter also gives some historical depth to the political concerns that animate Gujarati asmita. In March 2003, a 60-year-old Harijan man was arrested by the Indian Border Security Force as he attempted to illegally cross into Kachchh from Sindh in Pakistan. TharParkar, from where the Meghwals moved to Kachchh in 1971, is a southern district of Sindh, just across the Rann from northern Kachchh.
