Manipur to Chittagong Hills to Myanmar: Why unrest is festering across South Asia’s borderlands

This is the second of a two-part series. Read the first here.

In our continuing discussion of South Asia’s ring of fire, let us talk about the borderlands that mark India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Because – as if things were not tense enough – various governments and vested interests seem to find ways to keep these border regions on the boil. These political plays are over and above the reality of these areas being among the most brutally administered in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. That this attitude birthed numerous rebellions, is axiomatic. Moreover, continuing such impulses and impositions have altogether made these often-interlinked border areas deeply vulnerable to geo-political stress.

For instance, the ongoing self-inflicted mess in the far-eastern Indian state of Manipur, and the self-inflicted and, lamentably, whitewashed situation in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts, only add to the state of tension that an imploding Myanmar superimposes on this sub-region. Countries crying wolf will not cut it.

Here is a quick and uneasy primer as to the why and where-to.

These are significant borders. Beginning at a trijunction with China and Myanmar, India’s far east shares a 1,643km north-to-south border with Myanmar in a north-to-south stack along the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram. The...

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