Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

11-2024

Abstract

An epicentre of ethnicity-based identity politics and exclusions, India's northeastern region has long been politically imagined as both a ‘frontier’ and ‘borderland’ for state control, territorialization, extractive economies and (re)developments by colonial and subsequent post-colonial regimes. In post-independence India, the region experienced many territorial assertions made on ethnic grounds. With the rise of religio-national and neoliberal politics, new urban ‘developments’ and connectivity projects in the region have deepened exclusions based on class, caste, ethnic and religious borders. These have, in turn, led to further displacement, enclavization, and ghettoization of minority communities who are deemed ‘non-native’ along ethnocentric lines. Taking two cases from Shillong and Guwahati, we introduce the concept of entangled exclusions to analyse the layered, intertwined, multi-scalar nature of divides within these frontier cities. We argue these cities are critical sites for understanding urban geopolitics where concentrated entanglements of exclusions and (re)borderings become manifest as these cities experience new infrastructural investments.

Keywords

borders, frontier cities, northeast India, urban exclusions, urban geopolitics

Discipline

Asian Studies | Human Geography | Urban Studies

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Areas of Excellence

Growth in Asia

Publication

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

First Page

1

Last Page

23

ISSN

0129-7619

Identifier

10.1111/sjtg.12575

Publisher

Wiley

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12575

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