The Invisible Borders Of Eastern India

The 1,643-km India-Myanmar border still exists largely on maps. Except for a 10-km stretch recently fenced, the rest remains open, demarcated by small concrete pillars at some points. The border passes through Longwa, a hilltop village that has become a tourist attraction due to its uniqueness. The border cuts the village and about 150 of its 700-odd houses, including Phawang바카라�s, into two. The western part lies in Mon district or Nagaland and the eastern part in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in the Sagaing region of Myanmar. Apart from a pillar demarcating national boundaries, there is no physical divide.

No border exists in the people바카라�s minds either. The Longwa Tourist Guest House that local youth Mansheih Wangnao runs has some rooms in India, some others in Myanmar. Their Baptist church falls mostly in Myanmar. Even the Mon-Longwa road zigzags through the border, moving in and out of Myanmar. Their farmlands lie across both countries. The school has teachers and students from both countries. Phawang, the Angh or chief of the Konyak tribe of the Naga ethnic group, is the 10th generation hereditary chief of Longwa. He wields his authority on both sides of the border. In fact, his customary authority applies in 31 Konyak villages in Myanmar and only five Konyak villages in India.

This otherwise peaceful village witnessed an agitation on April 1. The Naga People바카라�s Front (NPF) held a rally to protest the Indian government바카라�s decision to fence the India-Myanmar border. What was once an imaginary line would now become a harsh reality with a physical barrier dividing the Konyaks. Phawang and other Longwa residents find it unacceptable. 바카라�Longwa is one and undividable. So are the Konyaks and all Nagas,바카라� Wangnao says.

Here, tension has been quietly brewing since February 2024, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the entire stretch of the Indo-Myanmar border would be fenced to prevent cross-border insurgency, illegal migration and smuggling. In March 2025, news broke that the government plans to finish the fencing in 10 years.

The Free Movement Regime (FMR) between the two countries allows border area residents to travel to the other side up to a certain limit without any passport or visa but the shrinking scope of the mechanism has alarmed the community.

The Konyaks are among the larger Naga tribes. But the situation affects all Nagas. They predominantly live in the Myanmar-bordering areas of India바카라�s Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar바카라�s Sagaing region. The villages of Old Pangsha, New Pangsha and Dan, located in Nagaland바카라�s Noklak district, are among other Naga villages divided by the international border. Just like Longwa, there are nothing but small concrete pillars to demarcate the boundary. However, the prospect of fencing keeps the Khiamniungan Nagas of Dan and Pangsha tense, as the tribe has a significant presence on the other side of the border, in the Naga Self-Administered Zone. Villagers on the Indian side have their farmlands and grazing land on the Myanmar side. Those living in the Myanmar side come to the Indian side for education and healthcare.

In 2017, Pangsha and Dan residents had halted fencing initiatives, demanding that all parts of their ancestral land lying in Myanmar must be included in India before imposing a physical border. The fencing initiative was shelved for the time being. Now, outfits like the Pangsha Public Organization and the Khiamniungan Tribal Council (KTC) are gearing up to resist fencing. Naga organisations from the other side, such as the Konyak Union Myanmar, have also threatened protests.

April 2 saw large-scale protests in many other parts along the India-Myanmar border, with members of the Tangkhul tribe taking out rallies in Manipur바카라�s Ukhrul district under the leadership of Tangkhul Naga Long and the United Naga Council, among other organisations.

The banner they carried in the Ukhrul rally used Article 36 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It says: 바카라�Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, economic and social purposes, with their own members, as well as other peoples across borders.바카라� They carried posters which read: 바카라�We Live By Blood, Not By Choice바카라�, 바카라�Break The Fence, Break The Chains,바카라� 바카라�Nagas And Their Land Are Inalienable바카라�, 바카라�A Fence Today Is Lost Tomorrow,바카라� and so on.

Article 36 also says that the states, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, shall take effective measures to facilitate the exercise and ensure the implementation of this right. But Nagas allege the Indian government is not heeding them. On April 9, Kohima, the Nagaland capital, saw similar protests. The Angami Public Organisation (APO) and all Naga tribal units in Kohima jointly held a massive rally. The curtailing of FMR facilities and the proposed fencing would undermine Naga identity and unity, they alleged.

According to Leishiyo Keishing, a Naga MLA from Ukhrul district in Manipur, the border should not be fenced until the 바카라�border disputes바카라� are resolved. India and Myanmar do not have a border dispute but the Naga mind does not accept the international border. Their families are on both sides and their festivals, traditions and family programmes are common.

Keishing says that the Chindwin River marks the traditional Naga border in the north, east and south. 바카라�Major chunks of our land have been lost to Myanmar. Until we have the entire Naga territory together, there is no question of allowing fencing,바카라� he says. Given that the river flows through Myanmar quite a few km away from the international border, a formal solution to the 바카라�dispute바카라� is unlikely.

In April, the Zo people, too, carried out protests in Mizoram and Manipur. The Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO) and the Central Young Mizo Association (CYMA), among other organisations, oppose the fencing, arguing that it would threaten cultural and cross-border community ties. The Zos are known as Kuki in Manipur, Mizo in Mizoram, Chin in Myanmar and Bawm in Bangladesh바카라�s Chittagong Hills Tract (CHT) district.

바카라�An Arbitrary Border바카라�

India has open borders with Nepal and Bhutan, allowing smooth cross-border movement, which helps the ethnic groups living on both sides of the border maintain their traditional ties. However, the case is different for borders with Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The India-Myanmar border has northeast India바카라�s Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland on the one side and Myanmar바카라�s Chin and Kachin states and the Sagaing region on the other.

On paper, the Anglo-Burmese Treaty of Yandabo between the King of Ava and the British East India Company in 1826, divided the Naga hills between India and Myanmar. Until the 1880s, the Zo homelands of the Chin hills, North Lushai Hills and South Lushai hills were governed by different tribal chieftains. Following British annexation and the subsequent separation of British India and Burma in 1937, the Lushai residents became Indians and the Chin residents became Myanmarese.

The 1953 agreement between India and Myanmar recognised the same colonial boundary. The demarcation with pillars started in 1967. The division, however, couldn바카라�t separate the ethnic group. Due to the absence of a physical barrier, daily lives were not much affected.

Besides, the FMR, started in 1968, allowed border residents to travel 40 km into the other country without requiring any passport or visa. But the limits gradually reduced to 16 km in 2004 and to 10 km in December 2024. Of the 43 posts for transit under FMR, only half are operational.

While Indo-Myanmar relations haven바카라�t soured, the growth of insurgent and smuggling activities on the Myanmar side and a steady inflow of migrants from Myanmar have triggered security concerns. The anxieties have grown bigger since the deadly conflict broke out between the Meitei and the Zo people in Manipur in mid-2023.

The Meitei, who form the majority of Manipur state and do not have much of a presence on the other side of the border, demand immediate and effective border fencing. However, the Nagas and the Zos vehemently oppose it, saying that such fencing would divide the community.

Destiny and Defiance

More than six decades ago, the Bhutias lost their traditional ties with the sealing of the Indo-China border and heavy militarisation in the wake of the 1962 war. The Bhutias of West Bengal and Sikkim had deep cultural, familial, religious and economic ties with the Bhutias in southern Tibet, especially the Chumbi valley and Shigatse regions. According to the West Bengal Bhutia Development Board, the name Bhutia (also spelt as Bhotiya/Bhotia) is derived from the Tibetan word 바카라�Bodpa바카라�, which means the inhabitants of Tibet.

They freely moved across the Himalayan range to meet families, visit monasteries and trade with caravans. After 1962, families got permanently separated. Tibetan monasteries became out of bounds. The end of the caravan trade hampered their semi-nomadic lifestyle, forcing them to opt for other occupations such as farming, yak-rearing and tourism.

Borders have also divided and deeply impacted the Bengalis, who are now scattered across West Bengal, Bangladesh, Assam and Tripura, apart from other eastern and northeastern states. West Bengal and Bangladesh were their original homeland but the British colonial administration, in the nineteenth century, incorporated some parts of eastern Bengal into Assam. They also encouraged the migration of Bengalis from both western and eastern Bengal into Assam and other northeastern regions.

While colonial policies and religious politics divided the ethnic group, familial and economic ties led to continued cross-border travel. But illegal migration, smuggling and terrorist activities have turned the boundary into one of South Asia바카라�s bloodiest, with dozens of deaths reported every year in alleged firing by the Border Security Force (BSF), which guards India바카라�s border with Bangladesh.

The Nagas and the Zos do not want to be permanently separated. Self-administration of different tribes of Naga and Zo ethnic groups has had its own traditional boundaries. As the fear of fencing brings to the fore the prospect of permanent separation, the Nagas and Zos are gearing up for major protests.

바카라�The people settled here first. We did not separate ourselves. Whatever border the politicians may have drawn came much later and without our consent,바카라� says Longwa resident Wangshu Wangnao. 바카라�We바카라�ll not let an artificial wall divide us.바카라�

While preventing movement of cross-border insurgent groups is one of the motivations behind the government바카라�s push for fencing, any public perception of their identity being attacked can potentially revive separatist sentiments. It바카라�s the maps in the people바카라�s mind that the separatists play with.

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is a journalist, author and researcher

This article is part of Outlook Magazine's June 11, 2025 issue, 'Living on the Edge', which explores India바카라�s fragile borderlands and the human cost of conflict. It appeared in print as 'Maps and Minds.'