Doctoral Dissertation Research: Borders, Boundaries, and Identities in India and Bangladesh

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In recent years scholars studying the processes of globalization and international migration have questioned the persistence of place-based group identity categories in the contemporary world. In these literatures the world is often described as having an unprecedented porosity of borders where populations and cultural ideas are moving across boundaries at levels unseen in history. At the same time, however, in many parts of the world the divisions imposed by political borders are being increasingly enforced as people continue to identify strongly with nations and homelands. Using a qualitative research methodology that includes in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, this doctoral dissertation research project engages with these contradictions by investigating the narration and enactment of ethnic, national, and religious identity categories in the borderlands between India and Bangladesh. These borderlands provide a significant case study because the residents of the two sides of the border, while sharing a common language and ethnic classification as Bengali, have been divided by a political boundary for almost sixty years. This project is driven by three inter-related research questions. 1) How are place-based identification processes changing as they intersect with globalization discourses and practices? 2) How are social boundaries developed, maintained, and dissolved in everyday life in the borderlands between India and Bangladesh? 3) Sixty years after the partition of South Asia, how do the populations in the borderlands construct 'the other' across the border? Has the common language and similar culture led to trans-border social networks that affect the processes of identification? Or have the borderlands become areas where separate national identities are vigorously performed, narrated, and enacted? The results of this project will contribute to two related, but often disconnected, areas of theoretical research. On the one hand, recent work in political geography has reconceptualized the role of political borders in society. On the other hand, work across a broad range of disciplines in the social sciences has critically reappraised the development of social boundaries between groups. By mapping out these connections, the findings of this project will contribute to ongoing debates about the durability of ethnic and national identity categories in the contemporary world and the role borders and boundaries play in constructing, contesting, and redefining these social affiliations. The broader impact of this project will be to deepen the awareness of an important but understudied region of the world through publications and presentations at conferences. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career.