Published Paper Details:

Assam faces border skirmishes with its neighboring states. Claims and counter claims by communities at the borderland are everyday affairs of Assam and its neighboring Northeast states. The genesis of border skirmish goes back to 1933 Inner line notification and repeated redrawing of Inner line during 1875-1933. 1875 Inner line was the first imaginary border on the map of erstwhile Eastern Bengal Frontier. The line served as border between the hills and plains of Assam. The line also served as jurisdiction limits and administration limits for colonial administrative divisions between the hills and plains of Assam. Border skirmishes have not been resolved due to Assam's firm stand on colonial documents of 1933 Inner line as the official border. This paper analyzes the ongoing border skirmishes between Assam and Mizoram. Various sources are utilized, from Archival papers to make sense of the present to review of Official Border Study Reports. Fieldwork narratives and case study of families at the borderlands between Assam and Mizoram are undertaken. It helps in analyzing different narratives of the ongoing border skirmishes. Overlapping territorial claims by both communities, overlapping administration zones, non-demarcation of borderlands during 1971 Northeast States Reorganisation Act and overlooking of border demarcation during the 1986 Mizo Peace Accord ignite today's border skirmishes on annual and seasonal basis. Till today, no consensus on border issues. Hence, borderland issues have not been solved. Lastly, the paper suggests how border skirmishes can be resolved.