Social Science Research Council

Borders and Regional Markets, Economies, Cultures Workshop
July 4-6, 2003

Although the field of ‘Borderland Studies’ is growing and expanding in scholarship, sufficient attention has not being given to the area called ‘Zomia’ by Willem van Schendel; the borderland communities lying between southwest China, northern Burma/Myanmar and Thailand and northeast India and Bangladesh. Modern borders between these countries are well defined and fixed and the communities residing in this region are now divided among many states. In reality, however, borders between these countries have been highly permeable and fluid for centuries, as they continue to be. The cultures, economies and scale of population movement that exist here all suggest that this region should be approached in a distinct manner. With support from the Open Society Institute’s Burma Project, the Social Science Research Council, New York held a workshop on “Borders and Regional Markets, Economies, Cultures”. This is the first phase of an initiative that seeks to understand the complexities of transnational linkages in this region and aims to conceptualize the borderlands in their own terms beyond the constraints of the burden of modern state centric cartography. Participants from India, Burma, Thailand and China were invited to write original papers about the impact borders have had on the interaction between the peoples in these regions. Borders were discussed through issues of identity, nation building, memory and trade.

Central to the study of borderlands is the issue of identity for communities living on the margin under conditions of political and social subordination. The issue raises a whole set of questions on the role borders play in the construction of identity and how people come to identify themselves with communities living across borders. Pinkaew Laungaramsri’s paper on the making of Shan nationalism explored the relationship between women and nation in the movement for political independence among the Shan people living along the borders of Thailand and Burma. With the border being a contested space in this context, the struggle over place also becomes a struggle over meaning. Thus, the Shan national identity is not singular and homogenous, but rather multiple and varied. The constant negotiation and construction of identity are part of the everyday experience of living on the margin. This is also the case for the Karen peoples living across the Thai-Burma border who must negotiate their economic and cultural practices on a daily basis in order to achieve a peaceful living. Kwanchewan Buadaeng illustrates how the Karens maintain their social and cultural ties across the border amidst varying cross-border relations. In sustaining their everyday ties, they produce cultural and social boundaries that do not coincide with state boundaries. Similarly, Karin Dean’s study on the Kachin peoples living in Burma/Myanmar, China and India shows how the Kachin nation-state transgresses state boundaries relying on kinship and social ties rather than territorial space to maintain unity.

The role of memory in the construction of identities is important for understanding the ways in which border communities give meaning and shape to their relationship with the borderland. Yasmin Saikia’s analysis of the construction of Tai-Ahom provides insight into how identities or labels gain currency, what processes are involved in building a new memory of the past, and what relationship the new history of the margin has with the center’s national history. Understanding the function of memory is also important to the study of diaspora and the formation of diasporic identities. In Tanka Subba’s autobiographical account of a diasporic Nepali residing in India, memory is fragile and vague, and allows for multiple imaginings of the original homeland. The notion of border between India and Nepal is a constant reminder of this original homeland and consequently prevents the Indian Nepali from developing a different identity.

According to Niti Pawakapan and Guo Suiyan, the relationship between borders and economies is equally dynamic, complicated and often tied to historical practices and conventions. Suiyan examines historical trading routes between Yunnan, Northeast India and Burma/Myanmar, linking them with present day trading networks and practices. Pawakapan focuses on Burmese migrants and traders who regularly cross the border “illegally” to Thailand for economic opportunities. Although Thai and Burmese authorities are aware of the scale of cross-border illicit trade, Pawakapan finds that the practice is permitted and even encouraged because of the benefits gained on both sides. The cross border trade is important to the growth of the local economy in northwest Thailand. In addition, goods exported from Thailand and money transferred from Burmese migrant workers to their families in Burma is necessary for the survival of local Burmese and the Burmese military.

As the workshop drew to close, it became clear that the study of borders was crucial to understanding this region. In bringing together specialists from several disciplines, the workshop succeeded in integrating their respective understandings of the region but, more so, it confirmed how little is known about Zomia. To address gaps in knowledge, the participants formed the Asian Borderland Studies Group, a research network which will develop and lead future initiatives in the region.