The latest wave of Chin refugees into Mizoram is a stark reminder that India’s eastern frontier cannot be left to the whims of foreign instability. Nearly 4,000 civilians have fled Myanmar’s Chin State ~ not from junta forces, but from infighting between rival anti-junta militias. India, once again, is forced to absorb the cost of a neighbour’s chaos, even as it struggles to maintain order within its own restive Northeast. Mizoram has done what it always does: open its arms. The ethnic and cultural bonds with the Chin people run deep, and local communities have shown exceptional courage and compassion. But sentiment cannot be the sole pillar of state policy.

India’s borders are being tested ~ not just by external threats, but by the internal tension between empathy and national interest. What makes the current refugee wave particularly unsettling is that the violence is no longer binary.........

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