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The Unending Conundrum: The Story of Citizens/Foreigners between Politics and the Law in Assam

Date:  May 31, 2018 Author:  PangSau 0  Comments Binayak Dutta Politics in Assam has for long been dominated by contestations over belongingness and citizenship. Seventy years since the transfer of power and well into the twenty first century, the tenor and the dominant theme of politics is no different when C.S. Mullan, the Census superintendent for Assam for the Census of 1931 raised an alarm over the “army corps of the invaders” (Census:1931:49) invading Assam from East Bengal. The raging debate that was ignited in the last century has continued unabated in north-east India ever since with mile-stones such as the Assam Movement and now the construction of the National register of Citizens for Assam along the way. A debate that was initiated in the official and administrative domains has today entered the common place and the current exercise over the NRC with more and more people affected by the process in diverse ways. If I could start with the personal ...
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The Spectre Of “Hindu Bangladeshi”

T he Spectre Of “Hindu Bangladeshi” By Jyotirmoy Prodhani  The phrase ‘Hindu Bangladeshi’ is a curious term. Let us be honest that when we utter this word in Assam we actually mean the Hindu Bengalis. The term has turned out to be a very handy euphemism to target the classical adversary of the Assamese people. Though one cannot deny the historical factors leading to such a deep seated antagonism against the Bengalis, the continuation of the same sentiment, however, against an imagined prospect of doom is necessarily misplaced. One has a strong reason to believe that the recent belligerent outcry against the “Hindu Bangladeshi” is not only against the Bengalis but also a clever ploy to target several tribal and ethnic communities to strategically dislocate and dispossess them. This is quite well known that among the so called ‘Hindu Bangladeshis’ the second largest chunk of people, after the Bengali Hindus, are the people belonging to various tribal and indigenous co...
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A tale of two valleys: What’s behind the demand for a separate Union Territory in southern Assam?

"The Barak Valley, which wants to separate from the state, has always had a strained relationship with the Brahmaputra Valley." There is a new surge in the old demand for the creation of a separate Union Territory out of Assam’s Barak Valley. The area consists of three districts of southern Assam – Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. The Union Territory Demand Committee, an organisation spearheading the movement, has promised to take up the matter with New Delhi in the next few weeks. Sanjit Debnath, president of the committee, said a rally would be organised on January 16 in Silchar, the valley’s most important urban centre, to solicit public support. “People of the valley have been deprived by Assam for a long time now so, slowly, people have started to realise that separation is the only way out,” Debnath said. He alleged that successive governments, no matter which party, have neglected the region. Said Debnath, “The so-called leaders of Assam have not s...
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