Soft borders, hard lives: rethinking development from the Indo-Nepal borderlands

This article examines how development operates in the Indo–Nepal borderland, where an open border coexists with persistent social and economic marginalisation. It analyses cross-border livelihoods, remittance economies, and welfare initiatives to explore the contradictions of a border regime that facilitates mobility but does not guarantee inclusion. The findings show that development interventions – including rural infrastructure, livelihood programs, and social protection schemes – reproduce exclusion as donor priorities, bureaucratic procedures, and local hierarchies intersect. Local actors, including NGO workers, traders, and kinship brokers, mediate these processes by translating external agendas into locally meaningful practices. Their agency, however, remains constrained by fragmented institutions and territorially bounded forms of citizenship. To explain these dynamics, the article develops the concept of soft sovereignty. The study contributes to debates on borderland governance and locally led development by demonstrating how authority, citizenship, and development are negotiated in transboundary settings.