The geopolitical wound called 'the border' cannot stop the cultural undercurrents. The 'artistic border' is artificial. It should not be there, and it is up to us to erase it.
– Gomez Pena
The cultural and political identities of people living in international borderlands are constantly in contradiction with one another. Borderlands often serve as buffer zones between hostile neighbouring states, yet people living on opposite sides of a border tend to share cultural attributes. As such, inhabitants of these areas often face severe crises of identity. Borders are also frequently incongruous with economics, as transnational trade tends to render these lines obsolete. While the world remains politically divided, almost every state today seeks to play down the existence of its boundaries for the sake of economy. This disconnect, between a state's political and economic affairs, becomes increasingly stark by the year.
The 4096-kilometre frontier between India and Bangladesh runs through one of the most densely populated borderlands in the world. It is also one of the most porous borders. As such, these neighbours continue to reflect the essence of what Clifford Geertz referred to in his 1963 essay "Old Societies and New States", in which he described the role played by traditional cultures and social structures, particularly "primordial ties and sentiments", in the process of political development. Here Geertz is referring to ties of kinship, tribe, custom, language, region, religion and so on – connections that function as traditional means of social placement, as well as sources of personal security. When citizens prefer to emphasise racial, regional or religious loyalties at the expense of the nation state as a whole, they come to pose a threat to the viability of newly formed states.
The border between Bangladesh and West Bengal runs through what Geertz might call an 'old society'. Close familial ties, as well as social and economic relationships, continue to exist across the border. The semi-permeable nature of the border means that it is possible for these communities to maintain these strong ties, as well as to engage in crossborder trade. At issue, however, is how people living on both sides of the border maintain their identity against the backdrop of the border economy.