Abstract
Since the 1950s much effort has been put in place by historians and social scientists in their attempt to study frontiers in a variety of contexts. However, the study of the frontier has always been associated with one specific historical context which is the study of the American West in the nineteenth century. Unlike the American experience, Bengal’s frontier cannot be seen as a ‘no man’s land’, but rather a zone of interaction between peoples. It is from such an outlook that we see a frontier giving rise to hybrid forms of culture and identities composed of elements from a previously distinct repertoire. Contact between the ‘civilized’ and their attempts at ‘civilizing’ therefore allowed distinct groups to mix, thereby ultimately producing new cultural formations. Such mixture also allowed for the growth of contestation along the frontier, which is a result not of isolation, but of contact.
Keywords: Pre-colonial North Eastern Bengal Frontier, Social Structure, Ecology, Connectedness
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