History Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Publication Source

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

Abstract

This essay contextualises the emergence of a document regime which regulated routine travel through the deployment of the India–Pakistan Passport and Visa Scheme in 1952. It suggests that such travel documents were useful for the new Indian state to delineate citizenship and the nationality of migrants and individual travellers from Pakistan. The bureaucratic and legal mediations under the Scheme helped the Indian state to frame itself before its new citizens as the sole certifier of some of their rights as Indians. In contrast, applicants for these documents viewed them as utilitarian, meant to facilitate their travel across the new borders. The contrast and contestation between such different perceptions helps us to understand the continued significance of documentary identities in contemporary India.

Inclusive pages

329-349

ISBN/ISSN

0085-6401

Document Version

Postprint

Comments

The document available for download is the author's accepted manuscript, provided in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. Permission documentation is on file. To read the publisher's version, use the DOI provided.

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Volume

39

Issue

2

Peer Reviewed

yes

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