Zomia Rewired: State Evasion and the Making of Bordering Practices in Northeast India

This article examines the complex interplay between historical patterns of state evasion, characteristic of what James C. Scott termed "Zomia," and contemporary state-driven bordering practices in Northeast India. Integrating Scott's (2009) concept of Zomia—highland regions historically characterized by state-repelling geographies and socio-political structures—with Anssi Paasi's (1996, 2005) processual theory of bordering, this paper argues that state formation and boundary-making in Northeast India are not simply erasing Zomian legacies but actively "rewiring" them. Through an analysis drawing on secondary sources, the article explores how intensified state interventions—manifested through infrastructure development, securitization, economic integration policies (like India's Act East Policy), and citizenship regimes—intersect with, transform, and provoke new forms of local agency, resistance, and adaptation among the region's diverse communities. Rather than viewing Zomia as a static geographical or cultural entity disappearing under state pressure, or borders as mere lines on a map, this framework reveals a dynamic co-constitution. State bordering practices seek to incorporate and control peripheral spaces, yet they simultaneously engage with and are shaped by enduring Zomian logics of autonomy, mobility, and flexible identity. The analysis focuses on how infrastructure projects, security apparatuses (including AFSPA and ILP), economic corridors, and identity politics contribute to the ongoing production of multi-layered, contested borderland spaces. The article contributes to border studies and the understanding of state-society relations in highland Asia by offering a synthesized theoretical lens to analyze the complexities of contemporary statecraft and local responses in historically marginalized regions.