[Reader-list] Shahidul Alam detained by Indian Border Security Force

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Where exactly does the continuity of the nation state become the  
discontinuity of the border? Let's take the country currently known  
as Poland. In the twentieth century different bits of it have been in  
Russia, Germany, Lithuania and Slovakia. Today, Poland is part of the  
Schengen system and a part of the European Union. Over the last one  
hundred or so years, Poland has had its borders redefined in various  
ways. Until the early nineties of the twentieth century, it was  
impossible for some one from France to come to Poland without a  
strict visa system, but it was relatively easy for people from  
Vietnam to come to Poland as students and guest workers, today the  
situation is exactly the opposite. So, how exactly has the border  
acted in a way other than arbitrarily. What makes Vietnamese welcome,  
French unwelcome, and then vice versa across a matter of a few years?

I can see your point about the fact that some units of management of  
space have to exist, but why do these have to operate on the basis of  
exclusion? What purposes does exclusion serve? What is the way in  
which priniciples of exclusion can be made fair and just? Can they be  
made fair and just?

What is it that dictates, for instance, that Nepalis can at present  
live and work in India without visas, and that Bangladeshis cant?

Finally, and this is a response to Rakesh. I have not heard people  
whom we normally nominate as the poor, complain about the presence of  
Bangladeshis in our city. For instance, Delhi has a large population  
of Bangladeshi migrant workers who live in squatter settlements.  
Their non-Bangladeshi neighbours who live in squatter settlements do  
not normally lead the climate of opinion that sees Bangladeshi  
immigrants as a problem. Frankly, they have neither the property, nor  
the entitlements to think of their Bangladeshi neigbours as  
encroachers, primarily because they are seen as encroachers  
themselves. The only people whom I have heard complain about the  
presence of Bangladeshis in Delhi are those with property and  
entitlement, to whom the average Bangladeshi constitutes no rivalrous  
threat.

This is somewhat paradoxical, those who complain about the presence  
of Bangladeshis in Delhi are those who are clearly not in a position  
to be the competitiors for resources with Bangladeshis. This makes me  
wonder where exactly the antipathy stems from. My hunch is,  
prejudice, which is passed on as an altruistic defence of the poor  
with whom the carriers of the prejudices have nothing in common.  
Interesting, isnt it?

best

Shuddha


On 21-Jun-09, at 12:54 AM, Rahul Asthana wrote:

>
> Dear Shuddha,
> Please read my reply to Anupam.The analogy was not implied.
> I think that there can be valid reasons to enforce man made ,  
> ephemeral , artificial etc. borders. That catch-all reason alone is  
> not enough to strike down the restriction for free flow of human  
> beings between national borders.
> In principle there is nothing wrong or right about free flow of  
> capital or human beings."Artificial, ephemeral, man-made"  
> geographical and administrational borders are necessary,among other  
> things because of the simple reason of accountability and  
> manageability, as functional units for economic co-operation and  
> security.Someone representing a particular geographic continuum is  
> accountable and responsible for the decisions taken with respect to  
> it.
> I want you to come up with some good reasons why you think the  
> boundaries and definition of a nation state should not be observed.  
> Let me repeat, saying that it is an "artificial, ephemeral, man- 
> made border" , so it should be stricken down is not a good reason.
>
> Thanks
> Rahul
>
>
> --- On Sat, 6/20/09, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>
>> From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Shahidul Alam detained by Indian Border  
>> Security Force
>> To: "Rahul Asthana" <rahul_capri at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>, "anupam chakravartty"  
>> <c.anupam at gmail.com>
>> Date: Saturday, June 20, 2009, 2:28 AM
>>
>>  Dear Rahul,
>> I have always felt quite at home in the world,
>> regardless of whether I was on the terrace of my Old
>> Rajendra Nagar house in New Delhi, which once housed
>> refugees from West Pakistan before it housed my migrant
>> parents and me (where I live), or I was on hilltop in
>> Damascus, or in a ruined factory in Warsaw, or on the border
>> between East and West Jerusalem. I do not sense a feeling of
>> being 'not at home' when I am not in my own country,
>> and there are many places in my own country, where I do not
>> feel quite as home as I would have liked to, for instance in
>> the wide, paranoiac, expansive and empty boulevards of
>> Lutyens Delhi. In Delhi, take me to Akbar Road, and I will
>> feel a foreigner (even a bit of an illegal migrant), leave
>> me in Karol Bagh, Chitli Qabar, Mehrauli, Khan Market or
>> Jungpura, and I will do just fine. Home, after all, is where
>> the heart is. And my heart is not in the Lutyens Bungalow
>> Zone of New Delhi.
>> So I don't quite understand the analogy of
>> locked homes and fenced countries. After all, we lock our
>> homes, primarily against the possible attacks of our own
>> fellow citizens. So, since we lock our homes against our own
>> fellow citizens, logically, then, following your line of
>> thinking, should we not turn the whole country into one vast
>> prison, where everyone watches out for the danger that is
>> everybody else.We don't even have to look as far as the
>> next Bangladeshi.
>> Or, as my friends and I had reason to say in
>> another context, 'Is the outer wall of the detention
>> centre, the inner wall of the city?"
>> regards,
>> Shuddha
>>
>> On 19-Jun-09, at 9:39 PM, Rahul Asthana
>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear
>> Anupam,Your
>> question is a straw man.I am not drawing any analogy between
>> nation and home.My question to Shuddha is based upon his
>> statement about artificial borders etc.
>> ThanksRahul
>>
>>  Shuddhabrata
>> SenguptaThe Sarai Programme at
>> CSDSRaqs Media  
>> Collectiveshuddha at sarai.netwww.sarai.netwww.raqsmediacollective.net
>>
>>
>
>
>

Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net