Hamza Imran

24020181
Borders/Borderlands: ‘Spaces for Refusal’ or ‘Zones for Statehood’
Borders are lines that separate two countries, provinces or other administrative zones from each
other. Borders between two countries are regarded as zones of patriotism and statehood, for example
The Wagha Border that separates Pakistan’s Lahore from the India’s Amritsar is a place where
patriots from both countries come every day since 1959 and witness the flag ceremony and cheer
their soldiers. As stated by Benerjee the borders in South Asia are “agents of active politics” and
therefore they are usually closely monitored by the state. Border areas for example, Kashmir and
Jammu are always under high surveillance by the state due to warlike situations. In addition to these,
there are usually massive crackdowns against spies, smugglers and illegal immigrants in these areas.
Although all of these suggest that borders are places of government sovereignty, this is not always
the case.
Borders between countries like Pakistan and India are often very militarized due to political
tension between the countries, and citizens here are often marginalized and have very few
opportunities to improve and develop, therefore residents here do not hold regard for the state.
Borderlands are the main hub for informal economics. Although borders are very commonly
regarded as zones of statehood, in reality they are relatively porous and illegal exchange of goods and
people happens very easily. The borderland people do not have many job and educational
opportunities due to threats and hence they mainly rely on smuggling and other informal economics.
Doevenspeck in ‘Constructing the border from below’ regards border as a ‘lucrative field’, that offers
‘manifold resources’ to communities living in close proximity to it. Smuggling has also played an
important role in development of many nations and the wellbeing of many borderland people who
were neglected by the state. Pete Andreas for example said “USA was born a smuggler nation, and
smuggling helped give birth to the nation”. In addition to this, there are many markets in India and
Pakistan as well were smuggled goods are sold and the borderland people make money out of them.
These include Lahore’s Azam Market, Patli Gali, and Landa Bazar, Amritsar’s Chor Bazar and
Dehli’s Paalika Bazar. Another reason why borderlands are regarded as zones of refusal is because
people on both side of the borders are often very alike culture, language and morals wise and they
don’t regard the border as a separation between them. An example of this would be the case of
Reshma Bi in 2013 where she casually crossed, the highly supervised, border of Kashmir just to see
her sons. Another example of this is the Pak-Afghan border when millions of Afghanis came into
Pakistan through the Torkham Border, the UNHCR reported in February 2017 that about 1.3 million
registered Afghan citizens still remained in Pakistan. In addition to this another reason why
borderlands are zones of refusal is because the administration here is privately undertaken by
respectable citizens of these areas instead of courts, police and governments. An example of this
could be the smuggling between India and Bengal after 1971 when the trade was supervised and
controlled by influential people on both sides of the borders.
Taking consideration of all the points mentioned I believe that borderlands are more of zones of
refusal rather than statehood.