Transcending Borders: Interplay of Geopolitics, Geo-Economics and Geo-Cultural Dynamics in India’s Relations with Its Neighbours

This chapter analyses multiple interactions in the borderland and their implications on the statist discourse. It argues that the State looks at the border as part of its territoriality and imposes several regulations on crossing the border to separate citizens from foreigners. Though people living near the border accept their political identity as a part of the sovereign state they often question the making of the border which cuts across communities, dividing families, kith, and kins forcing them to define their being in a geo-cultural sense and belonging in a geopolitical context. The chapter focuses on India, which has a large border, rendered porous by geo-economic and geo-cultural actors, and also kept open by the State for geostrategic and political reasons.