Outlook Magazine바카라s next issue turns away from maps and lines to focus on the people who live at the margins, where national borders aren바카라t just geography, but a daily reality.
What is a border but an invisible line drawn in the sand? Is it just the end of one country and the start of another? Or is it something more: The children who learn early where to run when the sirens start, the families split by fences and rules, the soldiers stationed to defend it, and the civilians left to pick up the pieces of conflict.
The real cost of the current geopolitical border issues바카라whose redrawing has plunged the world into wars, incursions, and offensives바카라is not monetary. It is borne by the people who, through no fault of their own, happen to live in a place of interest.
In Outlook Magazine바카라s next issue, Living on the Edge, turns away from maps and lines to focus on the people who live at the margins, where national borders aren바카라t just geography, but a daily reality. Where a ceasefire doesn바카라t mean safety, and where war doesn바카라t always come with a declaration.
Who gets to live in peace, and who is always on notice? Who owns a homeland when the homeland keeps moving? And what happens when the state redraws boundaries without consent?
바카라Life in these border areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Kathua, Samba and Jammu districts is a daily grind under the shadow of mortar shells and shattered homes.바카라 Ishfaq Naseem writes. From villages shelled without warning, where gurdwaras become shelters, and hospitals are always running out of staff, Naseem바카라s ground report explores the aftermath of the Pahalam attack and subsequent shellings on Kashmir바카라s border downs. 바카라The situation was not even as bad in the 1965 and 1971 wars as it is now,바카라 says one resident. Another recounts, 바카라We stayed hungry on the day of shelling and for several days... both the days and nights were bleak for us.바카라
In Punjab, Pragya Singh tracks how memory and fear shape entire geographies. Amid drone sightings and economic paralysis at Attari-Wagah, families packed their belongings and fled바카라some for the third or fourth time in their lives. Singh explores the cyclical nature of displacement, writing, 바카라Home here is defined by return, not permanence, by rebuilding and restocking, not accumulating.바카라
To the west, in Gujarat바카라s salt-crusted wetlands, Pritha Vashisth documents lives lived in bureaucratic uncertainty. In Kutch바카라s Sir Creek region, borders shift with tides, and belonging feels provisional. Retired BSF jawan Kanji Rajput, who once navigated the marshlands during war, now fights for his pension. 바카라These are settlements that weren바카라t built on dreams or decisions,바카라 writes Vashisth, 바카라but based on displacement from place to place on the fragile ground that once trembled beneath the boots of soldiers.바카라
Further east, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya captures the unfolding crisis on the India바카라Myanmar frontier, where the central government바카라s push to erect a physical fence threatens to sever transborder tribal communities. In Longwa, a village literally split between two nations, the Konyaks protest: 바카라Longwa is one and undividable. So are the Konyaks.바카라 Meanwhile, the Naga and Zo groups raise slogans like 바카라We live by blood, not by choice,바카라 invoking Article 36 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As Bhattacharya notes, 바카라For the Zos living in the India바카라Myanmar borderland, the international border is just an imaginary line.바카라
Against these ground reports, Seema Guha offers a historical lens. The unfinished business of the Radcliffe Line, the McMahon Line, and maritime borders like Sir Creek continue to shape foreign policy and fracture communities. From Mizoram바카라s resistance to Delhi바카라s refugee bans to the lethal fences of the Bangladesh border, she writes: 바카라Contested borders don바카라t just divide nations바카라they split histories, cultures, and families.바카라
In Living on the Edge, Outlook asks what it means to live in places where belonging is conditional, infrastructure is absent, and danger arrives with no warning. Where the state promises security, but offers only surveillance. Where history remains unfinished바카라and memory, inherited. The borders may be quiet for now. But the people who live along them know better.