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The postcolonial political order in South Asia marked the diffusion of a sense of territoriality and with it the consolidation of a new geographical order. Borders marking the limits of territory—sometimes arbitrarily drawn or carved out—defined the landscape of states and became rigid markers of the identity of nations. Along with challenges to the legitimizing narratives of national identity and nation making, the absolutist notion of territoriality also underwent changes in postcolonial state construction. The constructed geography of the state has been challenged by indigenous communities which, by negotiating borders, constantly deconstruct them. The fishing community along the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka exhibit the process of negotiating such postcolonial spaces by straying across designated borders. The history of Kachchativu reveals the complexity created by close, undefined borders: interstate connectedness and disjuncture between members of a community that share history and resources across the border.

AbstractThis paper investigates the impact of imposing conditionality covenants on the performance of the signatories to a sovereign credit contract. A two period model is developed in which creditors provide a loan to a sovereign conditional upon the implementation of investments. Commitment to these covenants overcome the debt repudiation problem, as it increases the likelihood of repayment, if the implemented conditionalities contribute to an increase in the sovereign's productive capacity. A three period model is also developed to entertain the possibility that the sovereign engage in credit activities in subsequent periods, where in the final period the debtor has obligations towards junior and senior creditors. This allows for dynamic inconsistency, as the sovereign may be tempted to increase its debt in the second period, thus increasing the probability of repudiation in the third period. Imposing conditionality covenants by senior creditors that increase the portion they can appropriate in case of repudiation, relative to junior creditors, reduces the supply of credit by junior creditors in the second period and thus overcomes the debt dilution problem. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.