Borderland Punjab

The border between the nation-states of India and Pakistan has acquired immense political significance as the demarcating point of difference and negotiation ever since its lines were drawn in 1947. The historically aggressive stance taken by either government has been fortified with military backing, vested political and economic interests of their elites, and the ever changing geopolitics of the international context in which such conflicts as Kashmir, the Cold War and subsequently the ‘war on terror’ have required the border’s sustenance as a marker of national territoriality and sovereignty of India and Pakistan.