Authors:

Chandan Panigrahi, David Pradhan, Somnath Pal

Abstract:

This article explores the complex workings of migration, legal citizenship, and statelessness in the Indo-Bangladesh borderlands in this conceptualisation as a critical frontier of India's national security. The porosity of the eastern border has turned it into a place of demographic conflict, legal uncertainty, and geopolitical weakness. Drawing on empirical data, legal frameworks and theoretical understandings from realism and the theory of securitisation, the research examines the challenges posed by irregular migration, environmental displacement and cross-border socio-cultural continuities to the identification of citizenship and to the intensification of internal security concerns.

The paper critically reflects on the changing legal order in India, especially on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), and their role in creating conditions of de facto statelessness and extended legal uncertainty. It argues that statelessness and demographic inversion operate as "security-producing mechanisms" to alter the political mobilisation, ethnic unrest and governance difficulties in the North-East. Further, the study places these dynamics in a broader regional context of wider political developments in Bangladesh, the emergence of Islamist networks, and the growing strategic influence from outside.

By connecting border governance to internal cohesion and regional geopolitics, the article shows that the securitisation of migration creates a paradox: efforts to build an impenetrable sovereignty may at the same time undermine democratic legitimacy and social stability. The paper concludes by calling for a balanced policy framework that combines robust border management with constitutionally grounded citizenship practices that will guarantee both national security and human rights protection.

Keywords:

Indo-Bangladesh Borderlands, Migration and Security, National Register of Citizens (NRC), Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Border Governance, Securitisation Theory

Vol & Issue:

VOL.18, ISSUE No.1, March 2026