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Nowhere land:

Along India's border, a forgotten Burmese rebellion

By Siddhartha Deb

Last winter I traveled to Moreh, a small town on the border between India and Burma. Moreh sits at the very end of National Highway 39, an outpost of tin-roofed houses and small shops set amid palm trees and dirt tracks that appears quiet even during the day. The principal landmark is the police station, a dark run-down building that the policemen reserve for prisoners and weapons while they conduct their business from a gazebo on the front lawn. The main avenue wanders past the police station and ends, after a walk of twenty minutes, at a border checkpoint marked by a bamboo barrier and a pair of limp flags. Dusk comes early to this eastern edge of India, and since there is rarely any electricity, Moreh is ready for bed by the time the policemen go around to announce the evening curfew, blowing their whistles and tapping their sticks on the shop shutters, asking the odd drunkard who might be loitering on the streets to go home.

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SEE ALSO: Autonomy and independence movements; Burma; Insurgency; Refugees

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