Crossing Lines: Kinship, Security, and Identity in Mizoram’s India–Myanmar Border Communities

ABSTRACT This article examines how the India–Myanmar border in Mizoram is being reimagined and contested amid stateled securitization measures, with a focus on their impact on Zo communities whose familial, cultural, and religious ties span both sides. It asks how policy shifts, such as the 2024 suspension of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and plans to fence the border, alter local notions of security, mobility, kinship, and belonging. Drawing on policy documents, media reports, and scholarly literature, the analysis situates these developments within a framework that views borders as socially produced and negotiated. The article defines core concepts of security (as territorial control and discourse), mobility (as everyday movement and exchange), kinship (as transborder family networks), and belonging (as identity and place in the borderland) and uses these to interpret how Mizoram's communities experience and respond to securitization. By examining state strategies and local responses, opposition by the Mizoram government and civil society, the study contributes to debates on postcolonial border governance, Indigenous rights, and federalism in South Asia. It argues that borders are experienced not only as imposed lines of separation but also as lived spaces of connection, where security imperatives collide with enduring kinship ties and local agency.