The Politics of Space: Refugees, Displaced and Stranded

Abstract

This write-up is an attempt to traverse a personal journey at different phases of my life as an individual and a researcher. Though the three scenarios are different, but a common thread weaves them together, and this is the modern state. The situation of being “stranded,” “displaced,” and “refugee” or “forcibly displaced” are the consequences and creations of a state’s oppressive policies. However, land/territory and borders too are integral to these creations. Here I would juxtapose the concept of “space” to “territory,” which is otherwise a space as well; however, I would contend that space acquires a different and larger connotation in situations like this. While having a physical realm, it extends beyond the spatial and penetrates the cognitive. The latter becomes a site of defiance, empowerment, and identity formation at the individual and community levels. To take the cue from Nandy, I would argue the politics of territoriality and bordered spaces gives birth to the politics of cognitive spaces which are borderless, and have a timelessness about them, which makes it a much more powerful tool of resistance.