The border that divides is the border that connects. In Malini Sur's account of the North-eastern India–Bangladesh corridor, long-standing cross-border mobility, social and cultural interconnectedness, human and non-human relations and resource trade dynamics are transforming in the shadows of increased Indian state security infrastructures and suveillance. Sur ties her empirical cases with wide-ranging theoretical insights in relation to the changing constellation of global economics, national and subnational politics and ecologies.

As an ethnographic text, Jungle Passports excels. Sur transports readers to different settings and periods along and across the India–Bangladesh border and vividly captures the ‘power geometries’ (Massey, 1993) that shape the everyday lives of her informants. At times, it is overwhelming to keep up with the politics and historical details. Yet, this is precisely the plurality and ‘messiness’ characterizing many borderlands in Asia (e.g. Scott, 2009; Turner et al., 2015). In particular, the intersecting lives of inhabitants in this frontier region have been subjected to colonial and post-colonial territorial making and re-making projects ‘whose boundary lines they came to be placed within’ (p.13) and that which sought to demarcate, simplify and disrupt these complicated identities, interdependencies and livelihoods to produce loyal citizen subjects (Chapter 1).

In addition to the political forces, this borderland must contend with ecological shifts. Rivers periodically change courses, silting to create chars—river islands, which can disappear upon flooding, unsettling agrarian livelihoods and impeding the making of neat national boundary lines. Chapter 2 traces how wet rice cultivation underpins border livelihoods and identities but has been politicized to exclude particular ethnicities, religions and classes in the making of modern India. Sur recounts how Assam has been a site of multiple waves of resettlement by Assamese peasants and Muslim peasants from the neighbouring Bengal province both in search of stable and arable land when the chars unpredictably displaced and dispossessed cultivators. With the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Muslim peasants who have long cultivated and harvested rice in Assam's territory were suspected of incorporating Assam into what would become independent Pakistan (and after 1971, Bangladesh). At this juncture, the indigenous Garos and Hajongs formed alliances with border authorities or were otherwise viewed as unruly, disloyal or ‘armed tribals’ (p.56), a familiar colonial gaze casted on indigenous peoples elsewhere in the pursuit for territorial control. Religious and ethnic persecutions worked in tandem with land evictions and deportations. Drawing on Malkki (1992), Sur demonstrates how modern nation-states rely on conceiving space as bounded, discontinuous and divisive, which affixes identity (citizenship) to place (nation). Transborder mobility, local sensibilities, fluid identities and multiple affinities are therefore seen by the state as deviant; discrimination, exclusion and displacement thus follow for populations who do not adhere to dominant religious, ethnic and racial norms.

Like rice, cattle smuggling connects and provides economic security among traders, intermediaries and state agents on both sides of the India–Bangladesh border. Chapter 3 follows the intricate networks and routes that facilitate illegal cattle trade beginning from as far as Northern and Western India where cow slaughter is prohibited through the Garo hills and down low-lying Assam where it is legal, and across to Bangladesh where beef and leather are produced. When the ‘line cuts’, signalling heightened security on the Indian side of the border or failed negotiations between varied actors along the smuggling trails, cattle trade halts. But when the ‘line clears’, mediated by hefty bribes which benefit politicians and border commanders, cattle passage resumes in stealth along the shifting chars and rivers. Sur reveals the convergence of Hindu nationalism in India that protects ‘sacred’ cows and persecutes Muslim cattle ‘smugglers’ infesting the borderland with lawlessness, which in turn justifies the need for increased border management and militarization. Such illegal flows and transactions paradoxically rely on Indian state agents and their Bangladeshi counterparts using duplicity for commercial gains to turn the illegal to legal and informal to formal.

Chapter 4 revolves around Garo Maharis (matrilineal clans) that came to be divided by the border. In response, the Garos used ‘jungle passports’, a local expression to assert their moral claims to land and travel assisted by forest camouflage without passports and visas to cross the border (p.94). Reciprocity, friendships and marriages between the Garo Christians and Hindu and Muslim border troops enabled Garo clan members to travel by ‘jungle passports’ to sell Bangladesh's surplus export-reject garments and collect and trade India's wood. Sur contends these connections further ‘transformed the border into a governable space’ (p.102). By contrast to the masculine fang fung cattle trade or low-skilled Garo men and youth labourers, Garo Christian women traders’ cross-border mobility is neither considered a national threat nor facilitated by bribes and tributes. Such gendered transborder livelihoods are akin to Lertchavalitsakul (2015)’s rich account of Shan women traders’ agency and adaptiveness to new regulations, transport advances and militarization in the politically violent environment along the Myanmar–Thailand borderland. Most Shan small-scale women traders carried their goods in traditional hap bags and were deemed poor, which exempted them from paying tax. Their ‘Shan’ social networks and reciprocal exchanges with militias granted them permission to trade and protection during their travels which were necessary for survival.

Chapter 5 chronicles the building of India's new fortified border infrastructure against Bangladesh, beginning in 2007. The scenes are along rice fields, riverbeds and resource-rich forests that cross over and blur national boundaries. ‘Coded vocabularies of coexistence’ (pp. 127–128) articulated a sense of belonging, emplacement and respect among those whose livelihoods and lives are intertwined in these local environments. By 2015, the new border security complexes are sprawling, displacing and evicting local populations, cutting access to livelihoods and attendance of shared life cycle events, destroying animal habitats and ‘reducing people's ability to “sense” the border’ (p. 131). The reciprocal and convivial exchanges among border crossers, traders, villagers and troops are now fragmenting and overlaid by mistrust and fear. On occasions when political tensions and conflicts between India and Bangladesh rise, the border gates seal indefinitely. Consequently, border traders must seek alternative livelihoods, otherwise prolonged unemployment leads to hunger, depression and even domestic violence. Sur draws on Foucault (1991) to demonstrate how India's imposing border fence and increasingly hardening police state's panoptic model of surveillance internalizes fear and disorientates those most familiar with the border landscape, punishing the undisciplined (i.e. risk-taking border crossers) with lethal violence.

In the concluding chapter, Sur invites readers into Assam's Foreigners Tribunals and courtrooms to witness the making and unmaking of Indian citizenship at the border. We quietly observe bureaucrat officers at work, mechanically entering, sorting and organizing case files before securing each file with thread in preparation for its day in the courtroom. Following Ferguson and Gupta (2002)’s observations of bureaucratic practices that extend and spatialize state power into the everyday life, these seemingly ordinary and prosaic performances of clerical tasks together with colour-coded case files that hold identity documents and other textual evidence individuals have mustered to assert their claims on Indian citizenship, Sur argues, have very forceful effects. They form the very basis upon which Indian state actors at the border determine if an individual is an ‘illegal Bangladeshi’ or a legitimate ‘Indian citizen’. Sur further foregrounds the ‘gendered gradation of Indian citizenship’ by focusing our attention on cases involving Muslim women who are viewed suspiciously by the Indian state (pp.154–160). Instead of closely examining Muslim women's settlement histories, marriage migrations and voting rights, their socio-economic backgrounds, age, thickness of case files, even the freshness of the ink on documents and courtroom appearances, Sur illustrates, intersect to exert dangerous weight in determining their legal status. Like Parashar and Alam (2018), who contend the role of legislation in eroding citizenship rights of the Rohingya in Myanmar, this ‘imprecision of Indian citizenship’ (p.158) at the border demands our attention to see how the notion of ‘citizenship’ and the rights and protections it offers easily comes undone when class, gender, racial and ethnic disparities are deeply rooted and pervade judicial systems.

Reading Jungle Passports during the COVID-19 pandemic gives pause to reflect on the impacts of current border closures and new forms of border infrastructures (e.g. quarantines and PCR tests). Notably, the hardening of state borders has slowed the pace of visa and immigration case processing on all forms of migration, including a downward trend in refugee resettlement in 2020 and 2021 (Papademetriou & Hooper, 2020; UN, 2021). Furthermore, many of us ethnographers are unable to access the ‘field’, which throws up questions on the future possibilities of undertaking extensive fieldwork-based research. While virtual methodologies are facilitating remote fieldwork during this period, they also present limitations for research on far flung places or persecuted populations who might not have equitable access to digital technologies (Storer, 2021). For example, conflict-affected Rakhine and Chin States in Myanmar experienced what is reported to be the world's longest Internet shutdown by its repressive state between June 2019 and February 2021 (Human Rights Watch, 2020). Internet shutdowns have since been deployed by the military regime that took over political control since the February coup to cut information flows within and beyond Myanmar.

In summary, this book will appeal to scholars working on transnational and translocal mobilities, borderland livelihoods, nation-state building and citizenship. Sur's ability to capture the intimate experiences of people and places in her research strikingly reveals how nation-state building remains fraught at the margins and shaped by historical contingencies that serve to reinforce explicit state violence and systemic discriminations and injustices for people who are mobile, marginalized, undocumented and displaced.

划分的边界是连接的边界。在马里尼苏尔对印度东北部-孟加拉国走廊的描述中，长期存在的跨境流动性、社会和文化相互联系、人际关系和资源贸易动态正在印度国家安全基础设施和监视增加的阴影下发生变化. Sur 将她的实证案例与广泛的理论见解联系起来，这些见解与全球经济、国家和地方政治和生态系统不断变化的星座有关。

作为民族志文本，丛林护照表现出色。苏尔将读者带到印度-孟加拉国边境沿线和跨越不同的环境和时期，并生动地捕捉到塑造她的线人日常生活的“权力几何”（Massey， 1993 ）。有时，要跟上政治和历史细节是压倒性的。然而，这恰恰是亚洲许多边境地区的多元化和“混乱”（eg Scott, 2009 ; Turner et al., 2015）。特别是，这个边境地区居民的交叉生活一直受到殖民和后殖民领土建设和重建项目的影响，“他们将被置于边界线之内”（第13页）以及试图划定的项目，简化和破坏这些复杂的身份、相互依赖和生计，以产生忠诚的公民主体（第 1 章）。

除了政治力量之外，这片边境地区还必须应对生态变化。河流周期性地改变路线，淤积形成chars——河岛，在洪水时会消失，扰乱农业生计，阻碍建立整齐的国界线。第 2 章追溯湿稻种植如何支撑边境生计和身份认同，但在现代印度的形成过程中被政治化以排除特定种族、宗教和阶级。苏尔讲述了阿萨姆邦是如何成为阿萨姆邦农民和来自邻近孟加拉省的穆斯林农民多次重新安置的地点，他们都在寻找稳定的耕地。无法预料的流离失所和被剥夺的修炼者。随着 1947 年印度次大陆的分裂，长期在阿萨姆邦境内种植和收割水稻的穆斯林农民被怀疑将阿萨姆邦并入将成为独立的巴基斯坦（以及 1971 年后，孟加拉国）。此时，土著加罗斯人和哈宗人与边境当局结成联盟，或者被视为不守规矩、不忠诚或“武装部落”（第 56 页），这是一种熟悉的殖民眼光，在寻求领土控制的过程中投向其他地方的土著人民。宗教和种族迫害与土地驱逐和驱逐相辅相成。在 Malkki 上绘图（1992)，苏尔展示了现代民族国家如何依赖于将空间视为有界的、不连续的和分裂的，这将身份（公民身份）附加到地方（民族）。因此，国家认为跨境流动、地方敏感性、流动身份和多重亲和力是不正常的；因此，对不遵守主要宗教、族裔和种族规范的人口来说，就会受到歧视、排斥和流离失所。

像大米一样，牛走私将印孟边境两侧的贸易商、中间商和国家代理人联系起来并提供经济安全。第 3 章介绍了促进非法牛贸易的错综复杂的网络和路线，从远至印度北部和西部，通过加罗山和合法的低洼阿萨姆邦禁止屠宰牛，一直到牛​​肉和皮革的孟加拉国。被生产。当“线路切断”，标志着边境印度一侧的安全加强或走私路线上不同参与者之间的谈判失败时，牲畜贸易就会停止。但是，当“线路畅通”时，在有利于政客和边境指挥官的巨额贿赂的调解下，牛群会沿着不断变化的焦炭秘密通过和河流。苏尔揭示了印度教民族主义在印度的趋同，即保护“神圣”的奶牛，并以无法无天的方式迫害边境地区的穆斯林牛“走私者”，这反过来证明了加强边境管理和军事化的必要性。这种非法流动和交易自相矛盾地依赖于印度国家代理人和他们的孟加拉国同行，利用两面性来获取商业利益，将非法转化为合法，将非正式转化为正式。

第 4 章围绕被边界划分的Garo Maharis （母系氏族）展开。作为回应，加罗斯人使用“丛林护照”，这是当地的一种表达方式，以维护他们的道德主张，即在没有护照和签证的情况下，在森林伪装的帮助下登陆和旅行，以越过边境（第 94 页）。加罗基督徒与印度教和穆斯林边防部队之间的互惠、友谊和婚姻使加罗氏族成员能够持“丛林护照”旅行，出售孟加拉国的剩余出口拒绝服装，并收集和交易印度的木材。Sur 认为，这些联系进一步“将边界转变为可管理的空间”（第 102 页）。对比阳刚的芳芳牛贸易或低技能加罗男子和青年劳工，加罗基督教女商人的跨境流动既不被视为国家威胁，也不因贿赂和贡品而助长。这种性别化的跨境生计类似于 Lertchavalitsakul（2015 年）对掸族女性商人的能动性和对缅泰边境政治暴力环境中的新法规、运输进步和军事化的适应性的丰富描述。大多数掸族小规模女商人用传统的手提袋携带货物，被认为是穷人，因此可以免税。他们的“掸族”社交网络和与民兵的互惠交流使他们能够在旅途中进行贸易和保护，这是生存所必需的。

第 5 章记录了从 2007 年开始，印度与孟加拉国建立新的强化边境基础设施。场景沿着跨越并模糊国界的稻田、河床和资源丰富的森林。“共存的编码词汇”（第 127-128 页）表达了在这些当地环境中生计和生活交织在一起的人们的归属感、就位感和尊重感。到 2015 年，新的边境安全综合体正在蔓延、转移和驱逐当地人口，减少谋生途径和参与共同生命周期事件的机会，破坏动物栖息地并“降低人们“感知”边界的能力”（第 131 页）。过境者、商人、村民和军队之间的互惠和欢乐的交流现在正在支离破碎，并被不信任和恐惧所覆盖。在印度和孟加拉国之间的政治紧张局势和冲突升级的情况下，边境大门会无限期地关闭。因此，边境贸易商必须寻求替代生计，否则长期失业会导致饥饿、抑郁甚至家庭暴力。苏尔借鉴了福柯（1991 年）展示了印度强加的边界围栏和日益强化的警察国家的全景监视模式如何将恐惧内化并迷惑那些最熟悉边境景观的人，以致命的暴力惩罚无纪律的人（即冒险的越境者）。

在最后一章，苏尔邀请读者进入阿萨姆邦的外国人法庭和法庭，见证印度公民身份在边境的形成和取消。我们静静地观察工作中的官僚，机械地输入、分类和组织案件档案，然后用线固定每个档案，为法庭上的一天做准备。继弗格森和古普塔之后（2002) 对将国家权力延伸和空间化到日常生活中的官僚做法的观察，这些看似平凡而平淡无奇的文书工作表现，以及持有身份证件和其他文本证据的彩色案件档案，个人已经召集起来断言他们的主张苏尔认为，印度公民身份具有非常强大的影响。它们构成了边境的印度国家行为者确定个人是“非法孟加​​拉人”还是合法“印度公民”的基础。Sur 通过将我们的注意力集中在涉及被印度政府怀疑的穆斯林妇女的案件上，进一步突出了“印度公民的性别等级”（第 154-160 页）。而不是仔细研究穆斯林妇女的定居历史、婚姻迁移和投票权，苏尔表示，他们的社会经济背景、年龄、案件卷宗的厚度，甚至文件上的墨水新鲜度和出庭情况，都相互交叉，在确定他们的法律地位时发挥了危险的作用。像 Parashar 和 Alam (2018 年），谁争辩立法在侵蚀缅甸罗兴亚人的公民权中的作用，边境的这种“​​印度公民身份的不精确性”（第 158 页）要求我们关注“公民身份”的概念以及权利和当阶级、性别、种族和族裔差异根深蒂固并遍及司法系统时，它提供的保护很容易被撤销。

在 COVID-19 大流行期间阅读丛林护照让我们停下来思考当前边境关闭和新形式的边境基础设施（例如隔离和 PCR 测试）的影响。值得注意的是，国家边界的硬化减缓了所有形式移民的签证和移民案件处理速度，包括 2020 年和 2021 年难民重新安置的下降趋势（Papademetriou & Hooper，2020 年；联合国，2021 年））。此外，我们中的许多人种学家无法进入“领域”，这引发了对未来进行广泛的基于实地调查的研究的可能性的疑问。虽然虚拟方法在此期间促进了远程实地工作，但它们也限制了对可能无法公平获得数字技术的偏远地区或受迫害人群的研究（Storer，2021 年）。例如，在 2019 年 6 月至 2021 年 2 月期间，受冲突影响的缅甸若开邦和钦邦经历了据称是世界上最长的互联网关闭时间（人权观察，2020）。自二月政变以来接管政治控制的军事政权已经部署了互联网关闭，以切断缅甸境内外的信息流动。

总之，本书将吸引从事跨国和跨地方流动、边境生计、民族国家建设和公民身份研究的学者。苏尔在她的研究中捕捉人和地方的亲密经历的能力惊人地揭示了民族国家的建设如何仍然充满边缘，并受到历史偶然事件的影响，这些偶然事件有助于强化对流动、边缘化的人的明确的国家暴力和系统性歧视和不公正。 ，无证和流离失所。