Border, Sense of Belonging, and Conflict: Revisiting the Politics of Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing in Manipur

Abstract

This paper examines the contemporary politics surrounding the Government of India’s decision to revoke the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and fence the Indo-Myanmar border, with particular focus on Manipur. While the state frames border fencing as a necessary security measure to regulate migration, curb insurgency, and strengthen territorial sovereignty, the policy has generated sharply divergent responses across Northeast India. Drawing on border studies, securitisation theory, and ethnicity studies, this paper argues that border fencing in Manipur cannot be understood solely through the lens of state security. Rather, it must be situated within the broader socio-political context of competing ethnic territorialities, homeland imaginaries, and transborder kinship networks. The paper highlights how borderland communities, particularly the Naga and Kuki groups, experience the border as a lived social space that predates the modern nation-state, making state-led bordering practices deeply contentious. It further demonstrates how the politics of border fencing intersects with existing ethnic conflicts, demographic anxieties, and indigeneity discourses, particularly within the ongoing Meitei-Kuki conflict. The study concludes that border fencing has become increasingly ethnicised, transforming the Indo-Myanmar border into a contested arena where struggles over identity, territory, and political belonging are negotiated and intensified.