The Biopolitics of Government Directives and the Jumma Indigenous Peoples along the Borders of Bangladesh

Despite an official end to armed conflict, the Jumma people along the colonially imposed borders of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar continue to endure constant militarization and surveillance. This chapter argues that Bangladeshi governmental directives are used as a biopolitical mechanism for the state to assert power over the Jumma people through a military presence in Bangladesh's borderlands. Through a feminist political ecology framework, this chapter uses documentation to explore the slow and violent undertakings of the developmental state and the state's consequential impact on Jumma access to land and resources. This chapter ultimately positions the Jumma's presence in both theoretical and geographical borderlands in Bangladesh in relation to Bengali majoritarianism and ongoing constitutional rights violations committed against Indigenous Peoples by Bangladesh.