Chapter 1 provides the theoretical premise to explain the formation of identity-based hierarchies to justify social exclusion. Bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh and differential neoliberalism in the two countries reproduce a social hierarchy that serves to socially exclude Bengali Muslims. This exclusion, the chapter contends, can be explained by analyzing how neoliberal ideas shape identity markers – religion, language and culture, geographical importance, and their intersection – which in turn affect biopolitics. In tandem with the fact that Bengali Muslims share cross-border ethnic ties with the majority of Bangladeshis, the minority-migrant complex turns the Bengali Muslim into a group that can be strategically excluded, included, scapegoated, or rendered invisible. In turn, it reveals the contradictions in society: scapegoating is an inward-looking, nationalist, and state-centric strategy because it is geared towards maintaining government control and popularity (albeit based on a constructed foreign threat); neoliberal policies are outward-looking and "decentralized" because of the rhetoric of open markets and individual freedom. Their easy co-existence effectively privatize violence, as emboldened non-state actors turn into purveyors of oppression in response to neoliberal shifts.

Chapter 2 explains how the neoliberal logic of open borders (re)produces liminal identities in the Bangladesh–India borderlands where such neoliberal ideas confront and contend with national security and the nationalist desire for closed borders. The border participates in both fashioning a Bangladeshi Other to be strategically targeted as criminal, and its porosity helps maintain kinship ties and friendships across the border. The attention given to the border makes it clear that in contrast to the mainland, borderlands are fluid spaces with fluid identities with a more nuanced, even humane, sense of belonging and de facto citizenship. Using a qualitative approach, this chapter highlights the lived experiences of borderlanders near land ports and in the chhitmahal areas to show how people have to perform a variety of identities in order to access even the most basic necessities because of uneven neoliberal development. The changing nature of border trade and increased formalization amidst “enhancements” to support a militarized border creates a curious inversion of neoliberalism in the borderlands; although seemingly contradictory, the desire for open borders and mobility sits alongside the necessity of a closed border to gain from petty trade.

Chapter 3 analyzes how economic decay and aspirational neoliberalism justify anti-Bangladeshi xenophobia in Assam. This xenophobia relies on the view that East Bengalis have historically – at least since colonial times – been a source of "economic threat," real or imagined. The segregation of Bengali Muslims in Lower Assam sustains the perception of their outsider, even illegal, status, maintaining this view of the economic threat. While Assam’s desire for national self-determination characterized its relationship with mainland India in the initial decades since (Indian) independence, in recent years fractious politics and separatist movements found resolution in anti-Bangladeshi sentiments, as it served as the common cause that would unite the various ideologically opposed sections of society. The most recent example of this is the mobilization surrounding khilonjiya or indigenous interests in the context of population registration (NRC) and the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (2019). They underscore how anti-establishment claims fit alongside nationalist ideas of strict border control and the expulsion of those deemed foreign, i.e., Bangladeshi. In effect, anti-Bangladeshi sentiments become the glue that holds together the Indian nation state.

This chapter brings into conversation some common themes from across the chapters to comment on the general state of Bengali Muslims and discuss implications of the analysis presented in the book.

The introduction presents the main argument, the historical relevance of the project, and provides a literature review to highlight the interventions that the book makes in a variety of subfields. This chapter also outlines the research terrain and discusses the methodology employed.