Book Review: David N. Gellner,ed.,Borderland Lives in Northern South Asia

This book explores state–border–people dynamics of the borderlands of the northern part of India using deep ethnography of the states along ‘border areas’. The various chapters in the book draw from the literature on states such as the ‘idea of the state’ (Phillip Abrams) and people’s ‘everyday’ experiences of the state, which Gellner points out to be overlapping and contentious. Scholarly works by James Scott and Willem van Schendal, who contributes the Afterword of this volume, reverberate in various chapters of the book. Following van Schendal, Scott specifically focuses on the upland area of Southeast Asia, ‘zones of resistance’ to state domination, as ‘Zomia’. Scott asserts that in Zomia’s interstitial borderlands it is the governments from the lowland that have often struggled to exert full control; in other words he prioritizes the state-evading practices and state-repelling spaces of Zomia that are beyond the control of government.

The book examines states that have experienced colonialism in Asia, including, Southeast Asia as well as Northern South Asia. State formation in postcolonial politics had a different trajectory and for that reason the focus on borders is very timely. The idea of the state is reinforced via border-making, that is, borders that engage, interact with extreme coercive power and yet constitute an integral part of the territorialization process of the state.

The most contested instrument of state power in the post-colonial project is the border, an important marker of state-making. A border tends to become the natural site of state control, with people residing along this line having the experience of the everyday effect of state policies, through police and other officials of the administration. Borders can be maintained only through intense bureaucratic effort, the legal presence of policing that deliberately includes the resident and excludes those who do not ‘belong’. In his introduction to the volume, Gellner provides an interesting four-part model of state–people relations at the border, which connects types of ‘borders and that of responses to power in modern and pre-modern situations in Northern South Asia’ (p. 17). The four-part model is used as a heuristic device to understand the relation between populations, and border-making of states, and the manner in which the state has the capacity to penetrate these societies through its extractive power, by showcasing military strength across the borders. The empirical studies in the book explore this heuristic understanding of the state’s effect on population. Each case shows that state strength is oppressive when people encounter both the idea of the state and state actions. Perhaps the important distinction is the manner in which each case interrogates this phenomenon in the everyday lives of people.

‘Northern South Asia’ is an interesting area of study as most scholars tend to focus either on South or Southeast Asia. The focus on northern South Asia reminds us that there are interesting cultural commonalities across different regions (which we overlook as area study experts). Authors agree that borders are the product of historical state processes, important markers, not necessarily fixed, but rather fluid, that impact the lives of people.

One strength of the book lies in bringing together a region crisscrossed by international borders on the northern Himalayas. For instance border between Nepal–China and Bhutan–China shares a common border with India, where patrolling and protecting the entry and exit of people appears important; one is highly militarized and the other appears porous. Radhika Gupta’s chapter on Kargil, on the one hand, suggests that states patrol borders as highly militarized zones, yet on the other, states also allow a certain degree of ‘porousness’, for example, on the India–Nepal border. In Chapter 4, Sondra L. Hausner and Jeevan R. Sharma, explore the ritual of border crossing, where the hill people making the journey to India in search of employment must travel through various checkpoints. Jason Cons explores one of the Chhitmahals (enclaves), Dahagram, where 16,000 Bangladeshi Muslims face harassment from government officials from India when they try to retrieve their livestock across a stretch that is patrolled by the Indian Border Security Forces. Cons argues that the India–Bangladesh border might have the making of a hard border, yet in practice overlooks the conditions on the ground. Nayanaka Mathur (‘Himalaya as Border in Uttarakhand’) explores opportunities of smuggling and corruption. Petrol and fertilizers from Nepal are smuggled across to India and vehicles that move in both directions are often given new number plates on arrival, thereby indicating state acceptance of this practice.

Another strength of this book lies in the manner in which each chapter captures the deep ethnography of people residing in the borderland and their capacity to negotiate with the state process. While various conceptions of state-making are explored, it is mainly Scott’s and van Schendal’s’ perspectives that influence the writing of various authors in the book. The contributors have spent a long period of time in doing field work; for some it was part of their PhD projects, for others it was re-visiting the field, and these scholars’ engagement with everyday lives of people is notable.

The theme that resonates in most of the contributions is how a border represents the state, and the structural meaning of a border on the lives of people, who in turn view the border as relational, and hence to be navigated in many different ways. Anastasia Piliavsky’s writing on Rajasthan shows how the border represents the apparatus of the modern state and of modern society that is present not only along borders or national boundaries but also in the heartland of Indian Territory itself. Mathur posits the narratives of place as a key technology that aids the imagination of the Himalayan borderlands, a point that Cons reiterates, and reinforces the point that though borders are contested, unstable and sensitive, they nonetheless constitute site of struggle of people, as the state unravels this contestation through engaging in the politics of inclusion and exclusion. The act of opening a corridor to the enclaves allowed people in them to establish contact with opposite side and ‘publicly articulate their histories of suffering for territory’ (p. 239).

One other aspect that makes the book compelling reading material is the engagement of authors in weaving the borderland stories based on their intense field work. Hausner and Sharma, and Rosalind Evans examine the concept of border; in the case of the former, illegal migration between India and Nepal is accepted more readily in comparison to the latter, the Lhotshampas or the ‘transborder people’ find it difficult to politically belong in Bhutan. The Lhotshampas share the Nepali language and cultural practices with the Nepali-speaking in India and Nepal. For long the Lhotshampas have resisted the ‘one nation, one people policy’ of Bhutan on their identity and cultural practices.

Borders are part of a colonial product that impacts the postcolonial politics of everyday lives of citizens. Van Schendal asserts that states in northern South Asia are unique as a result of uncertain sovereignty and ‘apprehensive territoriality’ across borders. Reinforcing territoriality is part of state effect and borders remain fundamentally problematic yet vulnerable that triggers special policies and varied responses from people. This aspect is reflected in case studies that authors have examined in various chapters.

The book provides excellent empirical and comparative research that offers interesting perspective on Border areas, their people, and the impact of state-making. The book contributes immensely to the literature on borders and borderlands and the ethnographic work provides interesting insight into the communities where scholars did their field research.