This paper seeks to understand the transformation of foothill borderlands of the northeast region of India?from fluid crossroads to neoliberal developmentalism and militarized zone and its implication for the borderland communities. The northeast region can be characterized by two specific kind of state interventions, namely ‘development’ and ‘militarization’. The foothills of this region in particular, which serve as interstate borders between the hills and the plains, have continuously been tapped for its natural resources since colonial times and similarly various military installments have also been placed here to facilitate the ‘extractive capital’ as well as for the geopolitical significance of the area. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Dollungmukh foothill areas bordering Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, this paper discusses how the condition of being entrapped by two infrastructural projects – one, the ongoing construction of the biggest hydroelectric dam in India and the other, a highly active 10 sq. km. bombing range of the Indian Air Force, produces different power dynamics as well as aspirations, vulnerabilities, and transformations of the political ecological condition of this area. This paper also seeks to bring out interrelated concerns/discourses/points of contestation on neoliberal development projects facilitated by the state in these internal borderlands. The specific conditions of living in an area which is charcterized by the presence of an inter-state border and its everyday bordering process is also explored in this paper.
