Can Borders Speak to Each Other? The India–Bangladesh and Spain–Morocco Borders in Dialogue

By juxtaposing local narratives of border experiences in two volatile regions, the Spain–Morocco border in Melilla and the India–Bangladesh border in Assam, this paper argues for the value of understanding borders as infrastructures. The paper conceptualizes border infrastructures in their broad material and discursive forms by foregrounding local narratives garnered out of a dialogue between the two sites. Through this conversation, the paper explores how state designed infrastructures are lived, experienced, patrolled, naturalized and subverted across scales and locations, becoming part of a global story of violence. The paper argues that, by letting borders ‘speak to each other’ as an analytical and methodological intervention, scholars can potentially bridge gaps between bordering practices worldwide and people’s everyday strategies locally. Such dialogues can also enhance our understanding of the convergent histories of proliferating border infrastructures and movements around and across them.