Borderlands: TRAVELS ACROSS INDIA’S BOUNDARIES

Borderlands: TRAVELS ACROSS INDIA’S BOUNDARIES
ISBN-10
9351950247
ISBN-13
9789351950240
Series
Borderlands
Category
Travel
Pages
400
Language
English
Published
2017-02-25
Publisher
Hachette UK
Author
Pradeep Damodaran

Description

For most residents of India’s bustling metros and big towns, nationality and citizenship are privileges that are often taken for granted. The country’s periphery, however, is dotted with sleepy towns and desolate villages whose people, simply by having more in common with citizens of neighbouring nations than with their own, have to prove their Indian identity every day. It is these specks on the country’s map that Pradeep Damodaran rediscovers as he travels across India’s borders for a little more than a year, experiencing life in far-flung areas that rarely feature in mainstream conversations. In Borderlands, he recounts his encounters with the war-weary fishermen of Dhanushkodi at the southernmost tip of Tamil Nadu, who live in fear both of the Indian Coast Guard and the Sri Lankan navy; farmers in Hussainiwala, a village on Punjab’s border with Pakistan, who are unwilling to build concrete houses for fear of them being destroyed in the ever looming war; Tamil traders of Moreh, a town straddling the Manipur–Myanmar border, who pay bribes to at least ten different militant organizations so they can safely conduct their business; and ex-servicemen in Campbell Bay who were resettled there three generations ago and have long been forgotten by the mainland. From Minicoy in Lakshadweep to Taki in West Bengal, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to Raxaul in Bihar, Damodaran’s compelling narrative reinforces the idea that, in India, a land of contrasts and contradictions, beauty and diversity, conflict comes in many forms.

Other editions

Similar books

  • Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South
    By William Bruce Wheeler

    In the early 1970s the Boeing Corporation had sent planners to the region for the purpose of building a new city , to be named Timberlake , near the Tellico ...

  • Britannia in Brief: The Scoop on All Things British
    By Leslie Banker, William Mullins

    Robbie Williams Like Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams got his start in a boy band then parlayed that success into something much bigger.

  • New England, 1999
    By Wayne Curtis, Herbert B. Livesey, Marie Morris

    Frost lived in a cabin on a farm across the road for 23 summers . ... but it's also open to the public at rates of about half what you'd pay at Killington .

  • Frommer's New England 2003
    By Wayne Curtis, Marie Morris, Laura M. Reckford

    You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert...

  • Frommer's? New England 2002
    By Wayne Curtis, Marie Morris, Laura M. Reckford

    "Using the expertise of knowledgeable travel writers and editors, Frommer's New England is stuffed like a turkey, with slivers of information spilling out as soon as you open the cover.Even...

  • The Rough Guide to Peru
    By Sara Humphreys, Steph Dyson, Todd Obolsky

    S/620 01 446 9414, HI Hostel Lima Casimiro Ulloa 328 hihostels.com; map. A great deal, this is the top-rated HI hostel in the capital.

  • Chicago - Frommer's Travel Guides
    By Todd A. Savage

    The most authoritative, easy-to-use guide a traveller can buy

  • French By Heart: An American Family's Adventures in La Belle France
    By Rebecca S. Ramsey

    In a year or so, y'a.ll will move back home andTodd'll buy you some big house in Crawford Creek and you're ... But what is the deal with hotel rooms here?

  • Sons of Thunder
    By James Timberlake

    Book One: Sons of Thunder is the first of two books based on one summers 2000 mile trek across southern Europe.

  • Food Artisans of Alberta: Your Trail Guide to the Best Locally Crafted Fare
    By Karen Anderson, Matilde Sanchez-Turri

    Owners J.P. Fortin and Danielle Black Fortin have a base camp and café in Capstone at Riverlands in Red Deer. Check them out at pursuitadventures.ca.