The Long Shadow of Colonialism in the Creation of an Interregional Arena

Abstract This essay provides a conclusion for this special forum, which features four essays that reframe Bengal, Burma, and Northeast India as a coherent region in spite of the political borders that divide it. It explores common themes between the articles, including the authors’ collective commitment to exploring the stakes of writing history from the margins and to exposing the fact that the destructiveness of colonial rule was (at least in part) caused by its weakness instead of its power. At the same time, this essay points out the very different scales—from local to macro-regional—each of the authors uses to make their arguments. It concludes that while each essay is excellent on its own, together they offer important theoretical considerations for imagining regional connections beyond established borders.