Deterritorialised Identity and Transborder Movement in South Asia

Description

This volume is about migration across South Asia and the complex negotiation of borders by people and the states in the process. A border is understood as a form of demarcation, but it also opens up the flow of people, goods, and ideas of legality and illegality. Borders are dynamic and dyadic in the interface of state and non-state actors involved in border operations. Consequently, transborder movement becomes a complex web involving concerns of security, trade, militancy, and questions of citizenship, along with discourses of ghettoisation, belonging and otherness. Since the mid-20th century, the South Asian region has witnessed growing social and political instability and breakdown of regional cooperation. In this context, the volume casts a wide, interdisciplinary lens across South Asia and discusses economic migration as well as forced migration due to persecution and natural disasters. It looks at how understandings of ‘territoriality’ and ‘border’ become blurred due to increasing transborder migration in the region: how states in South Asia address transborder movements at both policy level and on the ground; and how borderlands become spaces for illegal trade and informal economy in South Asia and for negotiations between states and refugees on identity and citizenship. This highly topical volume is for a wide group of scholars and students interested in South Asia, ranging from sociology, anthropology, political science, history, to interdisciplinary fields like migration studies, peace and conflict studies, and development studies. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi The State, Transborder Movements, and Deterritorialised Identity in South Asia (Nasir Uddin)....Pages 1-16 Front Matter ....Pages 17-17 Borders, Citizenship and the Subaltern in South Asia (Nergis Canefe)....Pages 19-36 Citizenship and Membership: Placing Refugees in India (Nasreen Chowdhory)....Pages 37-54 Culture of Migration: State-Society Relations and Transborder Mobility in Northern Sri Lanka (Eva Gerharz)....Pages 55-70 Front Matter ....Pages 71-71 The State, Vulnerability, and Transborder Movements: The Rohingya People in Myanmar and Bangladesh (Nasir Uddin)....Pages 73-90 Nation-State and Its Production of Statelessness: A Study of Chin Refugees (Meghna Kajla)....Pages 91-109 Front Matter ....Pages 111-111 “Ecologic” Border and Deterritorialisation (Biswajit Mohanty)....Pages 113-131 Nepal-India Open Border: A Rationale of Regulation (B. K. Upendra Bahadur)....Pages 133-151 Front Matter ....Pages 153-153 Involuntary Migration in the Border Belt of Indian Punjab (Jagrup Singh Sekhon, Sunayana Sharma)....Pages 155-176 Migration Matters: Estimation and Analysis of Migration from Bangladesh to India (Abhishek Nath, Vivek Vishal)....Pages 177-203 Life on the Edge: Forced Migration and Ethnic Encounter in the Bay of Bengal (Debojyoti Das)....Pages 205-220 Conclusion: Transborder Mobility and the Challenges of the South Asian States (Nasreen Chowdhory)....Pages 221-226 Back Matter ....Pages 227-228