Transborder People, Connected History: Border and Relationships in the Indo-Burma Borderlands

The paper presents the perspective of “transborder peoples” who constitute the minority in the states in which they live but have “connected history.” It probes how indigenous notions of space, territory, and identity had been displaced, reconfigured and fragmented by colonial map-making, territoriality, and classifications in the Indo-Burma borderlands, a less known “peripheral” area which has for far too long been only seen from the perspective of the colonial and postcolonial states. The paper examines to what extent are the Indo-Burma borderlands a space where one can see decay and revival of relationships among the transborder people. Moving beyond state-centric conceptions of the border as “fixed lines,” the paper gives emphasis on the “duality” or “paradoxical character” of the borderlands. It argues that while colonial and postcolonial borders divided indigenous communities thereby creating “difference” or “otherness,” it also “unifies” and facilitates revival of relationships among the “transborder peoples” through dialogue, interaction and exchange across the border. It is a case study of the Zo people of the Indo-Burma borderlands.