Locating Masculinities in Border Policies of Nation State

Abstract

As public policies are tools of nation states that greatly influence and determine lives of people, its intersection with gender is extremely relevant to comprehend unequal social relations and inclusivity. There is a huge lacuna in the domain of research required to detect and locate the presence, productivity and permeation of power, which makes a nation state essentially masculine. This paper locates masculine attributes in the functioning of nation state by juxtaposing public policies pertaining to borders with fieldwork done in Punjab borderlands and demonstrates a practical approach where mainstream policies, which are often portrayed as disembodied entities, are mapped with gender using content analysis to unravel their masculine underpinnings. With the aid of some key policy documents such as – Border Area Development Programme, Policy and Procedure for return of Ex-Militants to Jammu and Kashmir State, and The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, our analysis finds that masculinity emerges from distinct policy contexts and its positioning is varied depending on its end goals. The policies tend to read more masculine when the goal is to eliminate or reduce threats to the sovereignty of state.