(B)ordering South Asia

This dissertation examines the creation of 'affective' and 'effective' borders in South Asia both during and after the war of 1971 which led to the creation of Bangladesh. It traces how the violence that erupted in 1971 was caused by the 'affective' distance between the eastern and western wings of Pakistan and argues that this violence threw light upon existing divisions within Bangladeshi society. I use refugees and minorities as a trope to examine how these borders are created. I trace the policies of the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan from the post Partition period to 1947 and examine how they deal with refugees and stateless people through the erection of 'effective' borders including bureaucratic and legal instruments and linguistic manoeuvring. I argue that in India a narrative of refugee 'homecoming' is translated into one of 'illegal infiltration' through the responses of the host communities in Assam and Bengal to the presence of the refugees. Finally, I argue that the fate of these refugees and minorities in the post 1971 period demonstrates how these 'affective' and 'effective' borders often acted in tandem to create this new regime where the minority migrant became a source of official and societal suspicion.