A mass rising on the Indian border (5)
I believe the answer is:
assam
'indian border' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a mass rising on' is the wordplay.
'rising' says the letters should be written backwards (going up in a down clue).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'mass' written backwards gives 'ssam'.
'a'+'ssam'='ASSAM'
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for assam that I've seen before include "Indian province" , "Tea state of India" , "Indian tea region" , "Tea-growing state in north-east India" , "Top quality tea" .)