tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/assam-20241/articlesAssam – The Conversation2019-12-22T10:53:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1290272019-12-22T10:53:03Z2019-12-22T10:53:03ZNew laws weaponize citizenship in India<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308144/original/file-20191220-11900-13otqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C335%2C3868%2C2658&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protests have engulfed Assam since the National Register of Citizens was published in August 2019. They have intensified since the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by the parliament. Central security forces, pictured here, have been sent in to repress the spontaneous protests by different citizens groups. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Arunabh Saikia)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly two million residents of India’s eastern state of Assam are at risk of losing citizenship. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) published by the state government in August 2019 declares people who cannot prove they came to the state before March 1971, the day before neighbouring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan, to be foreigners. </p>
<p>According to Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, this is potentially “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/30/nightmarish-mess-millions-assam-brace-for-loss-of-citizenship-india">the biggest exercise in statelessness since the Second World War</a>.” Those excluded are primarily poor and marginalized people who can not adequately prove their citizenship.</p>
<p>As the 120 days granted to appeal for those excluded from the National Register of Citizens in Assam comes to an end, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have announced they will implement the NRC across the country. This catastrophic move is part of a broader state project to unravel the secular, inclusive basis of citizenship in India by targeting the country’s Muslim minority and other marginalized communities. </p>
<p>Included in their plan is the unilateral repeal of Kashmir’s constitutional self-determination in August 2019, and the Citizenship Amendment Act passed in December 2019, which omits Muslim migrants from obtaining naturalized citizenship.</p>
<p>Seeking out “illegal migrants” — which in India has become <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/a-foreign-hand-from-the-east/282075">synonymous with “Bangladeshi Muslim</a>” — the National Register of Citizens has torn apart families as some members find themselves excluded from the list. Reports indicate <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/women-without-parents-an-nrc-ground-report">a gendered dimension</a> to this exclusion, with women suffering most from this bureaucratic violence and in detention.</p>
<h2>Militarized borders</h2>
<p>When Dulal Paul, a man in a detention camp in Tezpur, Assam, died in October 2019, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assam-nrc-man-dies-detention-centre-family-refuses-to-take-body-6071123/">his kin in India refused to accept his body</a>. Since Indian authorities had, they said, declared Paul to be a “foreigner” and “a Bangladeshi,” Paul’s family asked them to send his body to Bangladesh. They forced the authorities to acknowledge the fatal inconsistencies within their own system. Bangladesh, meanwhile, insists that it has no citizens living illegally in India.</p>
<p>Many excluded from the NRC have no claim to citizenship elsewhere. Our research shows that South Asia’s historically flexible borders mean that many who have lived their entire lives in India may not have the full complement of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13313">documentary evidence to prove it</a>. The practice of recording births and marriages is relatively recent, and even those who have documents have been <a href="https://shneiderman-commons.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2017/07/Understanding-Statelessness.pdf">excluded</a> because of minor inconsistencies in the spelling of names or dates of birth. Regardless of documentary proof, those people had no reason to think they would ever be required to produce evidence. They had established livelihoods and relationships in their Indian communities — and there was nowhere else they could call home.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-national-citizenship-registration-in-assam-is-shaping-a-new-national-identity-in-india-121152">Migration and the question of who belongs has been central to Assam’s politics since the very inception of postcolonial India’s citizenship acts.</a> Militarized borders have become a focal point to unify and stoke disparate anxieties around minorities and majoritarian identity, just as they have with Brexit in the United Kingdom and the detention and separation of families at the United States-Mexico border.</p>
<h2>The rise of Hindutva nationalism</h2>
<p>The Assam Agitation of 1979-85 demanded the detection and deportation of all “foreigners” regardless of religion or ethnicity. The regional political history of Assam has <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article30276342.ece">dovetailed uneasily</a> with the rise of Hindutva nationalism. Their leaders have pledged to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/india-election-speech/amit-shah-vows-to-throw-illegal-immigrants-into-bay-of-bengal-idUSKCN1RO1YD">detect and deport Muslim “illegal immigrants</a>.”</p>
<p>The religious basis of the NRC becomes explicit with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) just approved by the parliament. That law ensures that Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis or Jains facing persecution in neighbouring countries will be eligible for citizenship in India and not treated as illegal migrants while Muslims will be excluded. This imminent constitutional change is a radical transformation of the secular principles of citizenship in India. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-misadventure-of-a-new-citizenship-regime/article30090226.ece">Political theorists</a> have rightly suggested that the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act must be considered together to grasp the ramifications for India’s secular democracy. The ongoing siege in Kashmir is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-be-an-ally-with-kashmir-war-stories-from-the-kitchen-121801">a critical part of this equation</a>.</p>
<p>States today deploy techniques of both forced inclusion (for example, the so-called “re-education centres” for Uighur Muslims in China) and forced exclusion (the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement deportation of undocumented immigrants, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/world/europe/migrants-africa-rwanda.html">EU processing centres in Turkey and Africa to keep migrants from reaching Europe</a>) to address majoritarian demands around the perceived problems of mobility and difference. Both strategies are on show simultaneously in India. </p>
<p>Also, in August 2019, the Indian government unilaterally repealed constitutional provisions for autonomy in the state of Jammu and Kashmir — India’s only Muslim-majority state — amid a military siege and complete communication shutdown and curfew, much of which continues to date. Kashmiris have been forcibly included in the Indian polity through a downgrading of their self-governing federal state to a centrally governed Union Territory. </p>
<p>In contrast to Assam, where people are forcibly excluded when they cannot meet the high bar for verifiable documents that demonstrate their residence in the region before 1971, this forcible integration is in <a href="https://theconversation.com/call-the-crime-in-kashmir-by-its-name-ongoing-genocide-120412">complete denial of Kashmiri demands for <em>azadi</em>, freedom</a>.</p>
<p>Both actions reveal an Indian state intent on weaponizing the bureaucratic logic of citizenship as a strategy for securing its borders. The nation has been working to radically reshape its secular polity along Hindu nationalist lines by expelling or repressing Muslim minorities. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/100000006877118/protests-india.html">Dissent against the CAA</a> and the attack on secularism is being violently quelled by the government, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/17/india-protests-students-condemn-barbaric-police">particularly on university campuses across the country, including in Delhi.</a></p>
<p>Protesting against human rights violations in all of these locations — both already perpetrated and yet to come — is critical. But effective long-term political action, within India and elsewhere, must address <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/citizenship-amendment-bill-protests-escalate-in-north-east-army-called-out-internet-suspended/story-XRIlMk0lT4scIetBiXyYpI.html">shared structural concerns in Assam and Kashmir</a> where profoundly exclusionary forms of Hindu nationalism seek to strip certain kinds of people of demographic and political power. </p>
<p>Those committed to justice and fighting <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/fascism-disaffection-india-marginalisation">fascism</a> must recognize and reject the linked logics of weaponized citizenship in Kashmir and Assam. Experiences there are neither isolated nor exceptional; instead, these margins have long been subjected to the violent repression that has moved to India’s centres today.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Shneiderman receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of British Columbia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sahana Ghosh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India has been working to expel or repress Muslim minorities. Nearly two million residents of India’s eastern state of Assam are at risk of losing citizenship.Sara Shneiderman, Associate Professor, Anthropology and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British ColumbiaSahana Ghosh, Postdoctoral Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1285582019-12-16T14:43:01Z2019-12-16T14:43:01ZIn India’s Assam, a solidarity network has emerged to help those at risk of becoming stateless<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306855/original/file-20191213-85412-1lghflm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C9%2C613%2C457&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists and local volunteers meet and console Assamese villagers who might have lost their Indian citizenship. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anuradha Sen Mookerjee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The state of Assam in India is <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-assam-burning-is-india-ready-to-handle-after-effect-of-citizenship-amendment-bill/302493">currently burning with violent protests</a> against a new citizenship law passed by both houses of the Indian parliament in early December. </p>
<p>The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will ease the Indian citizenship process for undocumented migrants in India who come from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh – but only for those who are not Muslim, undermining the promise of <a href="https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/india-s-skies-have-dimmed-says-harsh-mander-11576232619152.html">equality by the Indian Constitution</a>. The international community criticised the new law, with the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights calling it “<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25425&LangID=E">fundamentally discriminatory</a>”.</p>
<p>Since its parliamentary approval on December 12, the law has triggered massive protests across India including in the capital Delhi. </p>
<h2>Concerns in Assam</h2>
<p>Assam is directly affected by the new law. It significantly undermines the <a href="https://scroll.in/article/946677/why-even-muslims-targetted-by-assamese-nationalists-are-joining-the-protests-against-citizenship-act">National Register of Citizens (NRC)</a>, a listing process that has been underway in Assam since 2015 through which residents have to prove their claim to citizenship based on documentary evidence. The NRC is designed to update a first list conducted as <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/nrc-timeline-through-the-years/articleshow/70921378.cms?from=mdr">an all-India exercise in 1951</a> to combat illegal immigration flows, primarily from neighbouring Bangladesh. </p>
<p>More than 1.9 million people in Assam – many of whom are Muslim – have failed to make it onto the NRC’s <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/30/asia/assam-national-register-india-intl-hnk/index.html">final list</a> which was published on August 31. They now face the risk of statelessness. But at the same time, the large numbers of Hindus who were excluded in the NRC system can now become Indian citizens under the CAA. </p>
<p>The way the CAA is written makes way for Indian citizenship of all non-Muslims who lived in <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/why-assam-is-protesting-against-the-citizenship-amendment-bill-1626656-2019-12-09">certain areas of Assam</a>, such as the <a href="https://www.journalijdr.com/social-life-char-area-study-neo-assamese-muslim-village-brahmaputra-valley-assam">Brahmaputra Valley</a>, before or on December 31 2014, even if they don’t have documentary evidence, and while rendering Muslims stateless. It contradicts the cut-off date for inclusion used by the NRC, which was midnight on March 24 1971. </p>
<p>For the protesters on Assam’s streets, the CAA gives legal rights to the large numbers of undocumented Bengali-speaking Hindus who have migrated from Bangladesh since 1971 and also those currently excluded by the NRC. </p>
<p>Their fear is <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/why-assam-is-protesting-against-the-citizenship-amendment-bill-1626656-2019-12-09">twofold</a>. First, indigenous Assamese feel that with the inclusion of the Bengali speaking Hindus by the CAA, the composite number of Bengali speaking people (both Hindus and Muslims) will outnumber the Assamese speaking people in the state. Census data shows that the Assamese-speaking people in the state <a href="https://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/language-census-2011-surge-in-hindi-speakers-south-indian-language-and-urdu-speakers-decline-1530869001-1">declined</a> from 58% of the population in 1991 to 48% in 2011. Second, the Muslims both excluded by NRC and those who have migrated later, risk becoming stateless. </p>
<h2>A journey to the Pampara Char</h2>
<p>I’ve seen up close the damage the NRC process has had on communities in Assam. In mid-November, I visited the state with the Indian peace activist Harsh Mandar and several others as part of an initiative called <a href="https://karwanemohabbat.in/">Karwan e Mohabbat</a>, a human caravan of peace, justice, solidarity and consciousness as part of <a href="https://graduateinstitute.academia.edu/ANURADHASENMOOKERJEE">my research</a> on citizenship in the Indian borderlands. </p>
<p>We visited the homes of people who have been excluded from the NRC, particularly from the Muslim community in Lower Assam districts. We listened and learned about their experiences of trauma, suffering and hopelessness with the filing of their documents and how they are coping with <a href="https://sabrangindia.in/article/illusive-citizen-predicament-determining-citizens-between-politics-and-law-assam">their exclusion</a>. </p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-national-citizenship-registration-in-assam-is-shaping-a-new-national-identity-in-india-121152">How the National Citizenship Registration in Assam is shaping a new national identity in India</a>
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<p>Among the people we met in the Barpeta district of Lower Assam were inhabitants of the Chars, low-lying temporary sand islands formed by silt deposition and erosion. These sand bars, which emerge and submerge in the river beds of Assam’s Brahmaputra river, are uniquely vulnerable to disasters such as floods and cyclones. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305822/original/file-20191209-90618-yd36us.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pampara Char, one of the silt islands on the Brahmaputra river, Barpeta district, Lower Assam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pampara+N.C.,+Assam+781302,+Inde/@26.2088284,90.975556,10z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x37598f4296a8fa0f:0xa644e94c7ccc2140!8m2!3d26.2128544!4d91.1173154">Google Maps</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wild grass, thatched huts and distressed residents</h2>
<p>The Pampara Char is a barren wasteland, with wild grass growing all over the place and houses that looked like temporary huts. The only brick building, which was freshly painted in white and blue, was the primary school. It stood distinct from the other houses and seemed sparingly used. The people, toughened by poverty and harsh ecology, were left distraught by their experience of the NRC and gathered around Harsh Mandar and other social activists to share their suffering and tales of horror about the registration process. Many had to go through repeated verification across different drafts of the list. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306621/original/file-20191212-85376-1k1but6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View of the fields in one of the village visited in Pampara Char.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anuradha S.Mookerjee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I observed deep anxiety among the people we met, such as the aggrieved 54-year-old Khaled Ali. Illiterate and landless, Ali is a river fisherman who sometimes also works as a daily wage labourer. Like many others he received a notice in early August that he and his 18 other family members needed to submit more documents or they would be excluded from the final NRC list. Their names had been included in two previous versions. </p>
<p>A reverification hearing was scheduled for the next day in the distant town of Golaghat, which is 460km away from the Pamapara Char. Overnight, Ali raised a loan of 30,000 Indian rupees (US$424 or €383) to travel to Golaghat, with all his family members and two witnesses in a hired bus. After an 18-hour trip, they reached Golaghat and were received by local civil society activists who arranged for them to camp at a community centre and also helped them to submit their documents.</p>
<p>After their reverification hearing, Ali and his family members found themselves excluded in the final NRC list. While they have 120 days to appeal against their exclusion, his wife lamented that they lack the money to produce more documents from paralegals to support their cases before the appeal deadline on December 29. Meanwhile, a distraught Ali told us that he still has a loan of 14,000 rupees (US$198 or €178) to repay. </p>
<h2>Complex documentation process</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306856/original/file-20191213-85417-10m4sza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harsh Mander and other social activists listening to the plea of the Char villagers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anuradha S.Mookerjee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>For marginal and illiterate residents of the Chars such as Ali, the NRC and the process of proving citizenship has become a very <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/national-register-of-citizens-assam-supreme-court-amit-shah-nationwide-nrc-6135243/">stressful and expensive burden</a>. As we found out during our home visits, a new parallel economy of document production has flourished. Paralegals charged anywhere between 500 to 1,000 Rupees for each document, a very large sum for these poor people. </p>
<p>The highly complex documentation process, which includes requirement for family trees and residency documents dating back to before March 24 1971, is also to blame for the exclusion of large numbers of people from the final <a href="http://www.nrcassam.nic.in/dldd.html">NRC register</a>. The process is extremely insensitive to the difficulties of the large mass of illiterate and poverty-stricken populations who are finding it very difficult to make sense of how to navigate registration on their own. </p>
<p>Processes of verification and reverification have been implemented in a way that firmly establish a <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/is-assam-mirroring-the-idea-of-india-on-the-citizenship-amendment-bill">hierarchical relation between the state and its citizens</a>, with the complete domination by bureaucrats and public office holders over the rights of the citizens and residents.</p>
<h2>‘Citizen-making’ humanitarians of Assam</h2>
<p>Many of the marginalised populations in Lower Assam, such as Ali and his family, have needed constant support to be able to file their documents and fight their cases. </p>
<p>Local activists are playing a significant role in helping people deal with the burden of proving their citizenship, understanding the terminology and filling in the application <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/north-east/volunteers-help-fill-nrc-claims-form/cid/1677347">forms and claims</a>. They are also offering guidance about attending case hearings, support in procuring documents for submission from paralegals and also offering psycho-social counselling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306627/original/file-20191212-85397-1xnfgv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Barpeta, volunteer Shahjahan Ali Ahmed receives an award from social activist Uma Shankari in recognition of his work helping people left out of the NRC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anuradha S.Mookerjee</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Volunteers and human rights groups of Lower Assam have also connected with civil society actors in Upper Assam to help residents commute from Lower to Upper Assam for hearings and verification, and on some occasion even raise money, creating a <a href="https://observers.france24.com/en/20191120-volunteers-india-assam-state-help-two-million-residents-fight-citizenship-NRC">solidarity network</a>.</p>
<p>Such a humanitarian network is crucial at a time when marginalised people feel threatened with the changing legal regime which seeks to redefine the basis of Indian citizenship. These networks of solidarity in India’s north-eastern borderlands attempt to draw out the real Indian body politic, reinforcing the plural fabric of the Indian constitution. </p>
<p><em>* Some names in this article have been changed to protect the anonymity of the participants.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anuradha Sen Mookerjee currently does not receive funding from any organisation. Her PhD field-work 2016-2017 was supported by the Flash Research Programme for India of Cooperation and Development Centre, CODEV, EPFL, Lausanne.</span></em></p>As new citizenship law will further discriminate against people on religious basis in India’s north-eastern Assam, local activists are uniting across the region to help distressed residents.Anuradha Sen Mookerjee, Research fellow, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1211522019-08-29T17:02:33Z2019-08-29T17:02:33ZHow the National Citizenship Registration in Assam is shaping a new national identity in India<p>As the monsoon continues to strike several states in India, millions of residents face not only devastated homes and landscapes due to <a href="https://scroll.in/article/931127/these-satellite-images-show-the-severity-of-the-floods-in-assam-and-bihar">extreme flooding or drought</a> but also frustration, fear and hopelessness.</p>
<p>Residents living along the India-Bangladesh border have a long history of being considered “foreigners” in India, and <a href="https://graduateinstitute.ch/communications/news/boundaries-citizenship-former-border-enclaves-bangladesh-and-india">my doctoral research</a> demonstrates their centrality in understanding the state today. India as a political and bureaucratic apparatus and as a social process is working to homogenise borderlands with a goal of shaping of national identity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289867/original/file-20190828-184217-plhj77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Assam is located at the border with Bangladesh, in India’s far east.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medium-india-political-wall-map-vinyl-moi4781121786238-original-imaezawqex9x5dbb.jpg">Imranism9/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), created in 1951 and which registers all identified as “genuine citizens”, is expected to <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/nrc-to-be-published-on-aug-31-says-assam-cm/articleshow/70745944.cms">be published</a> on August 31 for the state of Assam along the India-Bangladesh border. It will decide upon the future of millions of people in the state.</p>
<p>Why is this register crucial to understanding the way Indian politics are going today? What can it tell us about citizenship and identities, and how will it affect thousands of people in the South-Asian region?</p>
<h2>Unwanted people</h2>
<p>In the last four years the right-wing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been particularly vocal about ridding the Indian territory of “Bangladeshi infiltrators”.</p>
<p>Assam became a starting point following prevalent “anti-infiltrator” sentiments in the state. Agitators demanded that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Citizens_of_India">1951 NRC</a> – conducted for the entire country – be updated. It led the Indian Supreme Court’s order of 2014 in directing the government to <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/everything-you-want-to-know-about-the-nrc/cid/1352646">update the NRC in the state of Assam</a>.</p>
<p>The final draft of Assam’s updated NRC was approved on July 30 2018. It now classifies as an illegal immigrant and foreign national <a href="http://citizensagainsthate.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Making-Foreigner.pdf">any individual who entered the state after March 24, 1971</a>.</p>
<p>More than 31 million people in Assam have since had to prove their <a href="https://scroll.in/article/932645/can-you-prove-you-are-an-indian-citizen-take-the-nrc-test">Indian citizenship</a>. Last year, four million found out that they would no longer be considered Indian citizens. Closely following the draft publication, on August 29, 2018, the state of Assam was declared a “disturbed area”, with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), being <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/afspa-extended-in-assam-for-6-months-1327051-2018-08-29">extended for another six months</a>.</p>
<p>It brought the entire state of Assam under the rule of the security forces, giving them special rights and immunity in carrying out operations. The whole state remains <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/politics/armed-forces-special-powers-act-to-continue-in-assam-for-at-least-a-year/articleshow/69815411.cms?from=mdr">under AFSPA</a>, making the ordinary people vulnerable to the power of the security forces.</p>
<h2>Sorting out human beings</h2>
<p>On July 17 2019, the Indian Home Minister, Amit Shah, who belongs to the BJP, announced in the upper house of the Indian parliament that the government will identify illegal immigrants staying in any part of the country and <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/will-identify-and-deport-every-illegal-immigrant-amit-shah-1570496-2019-07-17">deport them</a> as per international law.</p>
<p>These pronouncements sound like the trumpet of Kafka’s <a href="https://www.babelmatrix.org/works/de/Kafka%2C_Franz-1883/Der_Aufbruch/en/34804-The_Departure"><em>The Departure</em></a>, an indication from political leaders to the settlers in Assam, many of whom are now being recategorised from Indian citizens as “illegal immigrants”.</p>
<p>The NRC process and lists have been considered <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/corruption-in-nrc-process-government-wants-to-engage-senior-officers-for-re-verification/articleshow/70302757.cms?from=mdr">highly questionable and erroneous</a>, which explains the delays in finalising and publishing the final draft.</p>
<p>Nearly four million people, <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/assam-outs-new-nrc-citizens-list-data-says-counting-process-compromised-2079014">constituting 12.5% of Assam’s population</a> await the final verdict. Many will face an uncertain journey that may very well lead them to <a href="https://scroll.in/article/932134/worse-than-a-death-sentence-inside-assams-sham-trials-that-could-strip-millions-of-citizenship">life-long exclusion</a> and marginalisation.</p>
<p>As soon-to-be noncitizens, they will be removed from the voters list and expropriated. Many may end up in jails and <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/over-110-declared-foreigners-sent-to-detention-camps-in-assam-families-claim-indian-citizens-being-harassed/story-QyAbBtgbqbCfKn3j2SnbAJ.html">detention centres</a> that are being built in Assam, according to <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/assam-mulls-10-centres-for-those-excluded-from-nrc/article28363214.ece">media reports</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2PLmtmVYQGw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Assam detention camps, The Print.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Instilling national fear</h2>
<p>Right-wing politics around the globe have been shaping a political narrative of “national fear”, identifying names and faces of the unknown “infiltrator”. In this scenario, created to politically control immigration, “foreigners” and “nationals” are increasingly being <a href="http://www.thegreatregression.eu/symptoms-in-search-of-an-object-and-a-name/">determined by their bloodline</a>.</p>
<p>Assam experienced <a href="http://www.raiot.in/the-spectre-of-citizenship-history-politics-of-nrc-in-assam/">migration from 19th century</a> onwards from the neighbouring regions of Bengal, Jharkhand, East Bengal (which later became East Pakistan and then Bangladesh), Nepal, among others. Census data from 1901 till 1971 shows large movement of population from East Bengal to Assam, but a <a href="http://www.raiot.in/the-spectre-of-citizenship-history-politics-of-nrc-in-assam/">drop in population growth since the 1971 creation of Bangladesh</a>.</p>
<p>The creation of the India-East Pakistan border in 1947 transformed the easy movement of settlers into Bengal delta into international migration. Millions of Hindus moved from East Pakistan to India and Muslims moved from India to newly formed East Pakistan. In 1971 it took the name of Bangladesh. These movements took place in waves. The narrative of homecoming identified new settlers under many labels: political migrants, repatriates, refugees and displaced persons. It blurred the distinction between “political” and “economic” settlers.</p>
<p>As Willem Van Schendel <a href="http://www.anthempress.com/the-bengal-borderland-pb">points out</a>, the border was instrumentalised in fuelling the anti-migrant settlement argument. It also nourished the Indian narrative of “infiltration”. The argument gained traction when it was discovered that many recent immigrants from Bangladesh were Muslims. It empowered the claim of Hindutva politics that such movement was a threat to Hindu India as it pegged Bangladeshi infiltration as a national issue.</p>
<p>Since the early 1990s, such a framing has led to many Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants in the Delhi region being rounded up on the suspicion of being Bangladeshis. Many were illegally deported to Bangladesh or <a href="https://scroll.in/article/843734/branded-bangladeshis-in-noida-anger-turns-to-fear-for-domestic-workers-after-police-raid">simply held under duress by Delhi police</a>.</p>
<h2>The Bangladeshi “infiltration” and Assam</h2>
<p>As Professor Debarshi Das has observed in his 2019 book, <em>The Saga of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC)</em>, (People’s Study Circle, Kolkata):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fear of outsiders has deep roots in the history of immigration into the state and the politics of son of the soil, which has had a sterling career in the state.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed the <a href="http://sanhati.com/excerpted/12468/#1">Assam Movement</a>, which took place between 1979 and 1985, was an agitation by the indigenous Assamese against large-scale migration of Bengali-speaking population from neighbouring Bangladesh. </p>
<p>The movement opened the Pandora’s box of Indian citizenship.</p>
<p>Since the late 1980s, certain persons who had voter status in Assam were recategorised as undocumented immigrants by the Foreigners Tribunals established in the state and reclassified as “doubtful” (D) category of voters.</p>
<h2>The art of inventing foreigners</h2>
<p>This political discourse shaped the Indian national identity through amendments to India’s Citizenship law since 1986.</p>
<p>The large numbers of people who do not figure on the NRC list today are a consequence of <a href="http://citizensagainsthate.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Making-Foreigner.pdf">“foreigner-making”</a>. The NRC methodology indeed relies on documentary proof. But most of the targeted population lack official records or paperwork to back their claims. Many observers also denounced the register as flawed with bias against the poorest segment of the population. It includes landless nomadic tribes, Bengali-speaking Hindu and Muslim migrants and Assamese Muslims.</p>
<p>Trends indicate that the final list will see large numbers of people being <a href="https://amp.scroll.in/article/931530/humans-of-assam-this-bjp-leader-was-born-in-assam-in-1964-but-still-did-not-make-it-to-the-nrc">excluded from Indian citizenship</a>. This number is likely to include many genuine citizens, both Hindus and Muslims, who have been in Assam since before March 24, 1971.</p>
<h2>Fear, anxiety, suicides and violence</h2>
<p>The anxiety surrounding this issue is so huge that more than <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48754802">51 cases of suicide have already been reported</a>. </p>
<p>In some areas, such as the Morigaon district of Assam, Bengali-speaking Muslims <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/nrc-deadline-approaching-families-stranded-in-assam-floods-stay-home-dont-want-to-be-rescued-5833091/">refused to vacate their homes</a> despite the heavy floods that devasted their villages. To them, physical occupation is their only way to support their claims to citizenship.</p>
<p>Whether or not the NRC achieves its aim of correctly identifying and segregating those who arrived in Assam after March 24, 1971, it will serve the purpose of the Hindu nativist agenda by segregating “outsiders” in India from indigenous Assamese people.</p>
<p>The new regime of legal and street-level scrutiny of citizens across the country has also being shaped with the enactment of the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/why-does-assam-need-more-foreigners-tribunals/article27951416.ece">Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order, 2019</a>, an institution – so far – unique to Assam (100 Foreigners Tribunals exist across the state). It empowers all state agents and district magistrates to set up tribunals for identifying a “foreigner” living in India “illegally”. The practice could extend to other states.</p>
<p>Migrants (particularly Muslims) from rural areas of West Bengal and the <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/nagaland-to-begin-its-own-nrc-process-from-july-10-4155521.html">north-eastern states</a> are most likely to bear the brunt of this nation-wide hunt for “foreigners”. Targeted residents are likely to live in constant fear of being suspected as India’s “Others” in what seems to be increasingly the emerging of a police state.</p>
<h2>Suffering, statelessness and intolerance</h2>
<p>The NRC is likely to neither stop the low-intensity transnational flow of undocumented migrants from Bangladesh, nor reduce the demand of their labour in India’s growing urban-construction industry. As <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/borders-and-walls-do-barriers-deter-unauthorized-migration">migration patterns globally demonstrate</a>, despite the growth of barriers, walls and enhanced border surveillance regimes, the continuous deaths due to drowning of boats in the Mediterranean and the large-scale apprehensions at the US-Mexico border have not stopped people from migrating.</p>
<p>At the very least, the NRC process is likely to cause large-scale and long-term human suffering materialising a culture of statelessness. It will alter the fabric of national society in India, fostering a regime of mutual suspicion, intolerance and the hardening of social and cultural boundaries between Indian citizens. It will make Indian citizenship far less stable as a cultural experience. India in trumpeting the collective fear of “foreigners” inside its borders, follows the footsteps of the populist turn globally, with majoritarianism fuelling nativism, to the exclusion and marginalisation of “Others”, who are invariably the minorities and the migrants, rescripting the relationship between population and territory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I currently do not receive funding from any organization. My Ph.D. field work between 2015-2016, received funding from the Cooperation and Development Centre(CODEV), EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, under their Flash Programme for India.</span></em></p>On August 31, the final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the state of Assam, along the India-Bangladesh border will decide upon the future of millions of people in the state.Anuradha Sen Mookerjee, Research fellow, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1006242018-09-05T11:24:33Z2018-09-05T11:24:33ZHow India is using identity documents to marginalise the weak and poor<p>Citizenship controversies have made repeated headlines in countries across the world in 2018. From the <a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-latest-to-be-stripped-of-their-rights-in-the-name-of-migration-control-95158">Windrush scandal</a> affecting Commonwealth citizens in Britain, to the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/daca-deadline-passes-congress-fails-to-act-and-fate-of-dreamers-remains-uncertain-6-essential-reads-92886">Dreamers</a> who were brought to the US by their parents as children, these scandals are inevitably tied up with the movement of people across borders, whose claims to citizenship have been thrown into question by hostile states.</p>
<p>Amid a worsening political environment for immigrants globally, governments have deployed ever more capricious mechanisms to certify citizenship, pushing the burden of authentication onto people themselves. This has vastly expanded bureaucratic control over individual lives – no more so than in India. </p>
<p>In late July, following years of controversy, India published the National Register of Citizens living in the eastern state of Assam, on the border with Bangladesh. This was the first time the list had been published since it was compiled in 1951 and the stated purpose was to <a href="https://scroll.in/article/888587/explainer-what-will-happen-to-the-40-lakh-people-left-out-of-assams-draft-register-of-citizens">identify "illegal immigrants”</a>. Nearly 4m people <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-45002549">risk losing</a> Indian citizenship if they cannot prove that they are lawful citizens of the Indian state – a task complicated by the contested history of immigration into this region from Bangladesh. As deportation is neither being openly suggested nor politically feasible, those excluded face an uncertain future.</p>
<p>Successive amendments to India’s Citizenship Act of 1955 have inserted new conditions that must be retrospectively met by people suspected of living in the country illegally. The <a href="https://assam.gov.in/documents/1631171/0/Annexure_10.pdf?version=1.0">1985 Assam Accord</a> had set the benchmark here, declaring that anyone who entered the country after March 25, 1971, the day before the creation of Bangladesh, would be declared a foreigner and deported. In 2003, another amendment to the Citizenship Act excluded anyone born in India that has one parent who was an illegal immigrant at the time of their birth. </p>
<p>The latest twist is the <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/citizenship-amendment-bill-2016-assam-illegal-migrants-protests-348372-2016-10-25">2016 Citizenship Amendment Bill</a> which seeks to amend the 1955 Citizenship Act to allow “persecuted minorities” – Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis – from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to gain Indian citizenship after six years of residence. The bill <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/what-is-the-citizenship-amendment-bill-2016/article23999348.ece">doesn’t have</a> the same provision for Muslim sects such as Shias and Ahmadiyas, who face discrimination in Pakistan, and as such would alter the secular face of India’s citizenship regime. The proposed changes cater to the hardline Hindu agenda of India’s ruling BJP party, but they have <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-indias-new-citizenship-law-is-so-controversial-and-why-some-regions-are-angrier-than-others-97799">caused strong protests in Assam</a> as people fear the changes would legitimise immigration from Bangladesh. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-indias-new-citizenship-law-is-so-controversial-and-why-some-regions-are-angrier-than-others-97799">Why India's new citizenship law is so controversial – and why some regions are angrier than others</a>
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<p>There have been political tensions in Assam around the subject of Muslim immigration from Bangladesh for decades. And now, the fate of the excluded 4m people from the Orwellian National Register of Citizens depends on a long, drawn out bureaucratic process of verifying documents, pending hearings at 100 so-called “foreigners tribunals” established in 2015 for the task of determining illegal immigrants. These could have terrifying consequences, including <a href="https://scroll.in/article/888896/the-daily-fix-the-citizenship-of-millions-in-assam-depends-on-a-whimsical-bureaucratic-process">eliminating women</a> because their documents are worthless. The Indian state also does not care that documents may have been lost in destructive cyclones and floods.</p>
<p>This is the latest incarnation of a very old problem. Following <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766">partition in 1947</a>, both India and Pakistan assumed the burden of adjudicating claims of citizenship that arose from multiple border crossings. This led to the evaluation of various identity documents (IDs) by officials, in order to determine citizenship. As the political commentator Niraja Gopal Jayal has <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066847&content=reviews">explained</a>, Muslims living in India and Hindus in Pakistan who fled to the other country for fear of religious persecution in those fraught early years could not find their way back easily. They had to obtain documentary proof such as permits in order to “return” and these documents were then subjected to years of scrutiny by officials. </p>
<h2>Odisha’s alleged ‘infiltrators’</h2>
<p>Laws do not always straightforwardly translate into political action and bureaucratic orders, but occasionally they do. Back in 2005, the government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha produced a list of 1,551 persons, declaring them to be <em>anuprabeshkaris</em> (infiltrators), who had <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09584935.2017.1303445">supposedly arrived</a> after the cut-off date in March 1971 or were born to someone who had. </p>
<p>Identifying such people amid entire villages with origins in East Bengal, later Bangladesh, all of whom had arrived in India and made their way to Odisha at different points and in different ways since the 1950s was an impossible task. Such identification was also not undertaken in a rigorous manner and produced incomprehension and fear among those named on the list. Their IDs, including voter cards and ration cards, were struck off. The authorities never deported them, and the matter grew cold. </p>
<p>Their “nullified” existence on paper has left a traumatic legacy of abrupt exclusion. They can scarcely access the meagre subsidies such as pensions or food rations provided by the state. They have problems with local Odiyas, native to Odisha, around fishing and are unable to lead a dignified social life. This is a community divided, even when the concerned immigrants were all Hindu, the majority religious community. </p>
<h2>Excluded, not empowered</h2>
<p>Throughout history, IDs have allowed states such as India to engage in verification and surveillance, silently infusing these practices with categories such as “desirable citizen” and “undesirable migrant”. In this way IDs have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09584935.2017.1407293">become key to regulating</a> migrant movements. In Africa, states such as Zimbabwe and Kenya have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WvI5zMscV6EKFfkTRnYz/full">used IDs</a> to police and provide different entitlements to different groups of people. </p>
<p>IDs don’t just certify citizenship. They <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09584935.2018.1471042">reveal how citizenship</a> is an unequal and uneven political and social playing field. They seek to empower people, but in practice, they often exclude them. The Indian state’s ongoing experiments with digital identification cards (<em>Aadhar</em>), the possession of which is linked with a range of welfare schemes, have led to <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/fifth-column-aadhaar-an-idea-gone-very-wrong-5023463/">significant numbers of exclusions</a>. The string of miseries for the poorest people, amounting to indignity, hunger, even death, leaves little doubt of the tyranny of IDs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vasudha Chhotray has received funding from NERC-ESPA UK for a research grant on Just Ecosystem Management: Linking ecosystem services with poverty alleviation (2010-2012) that covered the field costs for a research project that has informed this article.</span></em></p>Shifting parameters for citizenship are at risk of excluding millions from Indian citizenship.Vasudha Chhotray, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/977992018-07-04T10:08:17Z2018-07-04T10:08:17ZWhy India’s new citizenship law is so controversial – and why some regions are angrier than others<p>Citizens of India’s north-eastern states have been <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/massive-protests-held-in-assam-against-citizenship-amendment-bill-1273652-2018-06-30">protesting vigorously</a> against a proposed new citizenship regime that they claim will “<a href="https://scroll.in/article/878227/foreigners-are-foreigners-brahmaputra-valley-says-no-to-granting-bangladeshi-hindus-citizenship">destroy their culture</a>” in the region. The protests have been diverse and dramatic – petitions, hunger strikes, effigy-burning, a rebel militant group threatening to end talks with the Indian state. </p>
<p>The source of their anger is the Citizenship Amendment Bill, first tabled in the lower house of the Indian Parliament in 2016. It is set to change the Citizenship Act of 1955, which has formed the basis of India’s citizenship regime since it gained independence from the British Empire in 1947. The amendment seeks to allow select “persecuted minorities” (Hindus, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhist and Jains) from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan citizenship status in India after six years of residency. Other groups must wait 11 years to become naturalised citizens.</p>
<p>In the north-eastern states, the fear is that this amendment would legitimise migration of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh in particular, potentially affecting the demographic make-up of the region.</p>
<p>When the bill’s parliamentary committee began touring the north-east in May, protests grew steadily larger, stronger and <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/majority-in-north-east-against-citizenship-to-minorities-from-bangladesh-pakistan/articleshow/64310123.cms">more widespread</a>. As almost 99% of their boundaries are international borders, the citizens of these states have been quick to <a href="http://morungexpress.com/nagaland-state-may-become-first-victim-of-citizenship-amendment-bill-2016-ntc/">point out</a> that they would be the first “victims” of the new amendment if it makes it easier for minority immigrants to travel across the border, settle in and become full citizens. The complaints are loudest in the state of Assam, which has waged a four decade struggle against the Indian state to prevent what some there <a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/assam-facing-huge-threat-unchecked-infiltration-1239328">call</a> “unchecked infiltration” from neighbouring Bangladesh.</p>
<p>The committee’s decision to visit the north-east – and the media coverage of the protests – have framed this as a north-eastern issue, not a national concern. But in fact, the Citizenship Amendment Bill will change the character of citizenship not just for this region, but for India as a whole.</p>
<h2>Birthright and blood</h2>
<p>When India achieved <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766">independence</a>, its citizenship regime was established on the basis of <em>jus soli</em> (birth within a territory), meaning that people were members of the political community regardless of their religion or ethnicity. While mistrust of Muslims has persisted into present-day India, particularly in recent years with growing <a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-against-indian-muslims-who-eat-beef-has-hypocrisy-at-its-heart-49457">Hindu right-wing populism</a>, the law has so far upheld the secular, non-religious character of the Indian state. The Citizenship Amendment Bill would fundamentally alter this basic tenet, shifting the basis of citizenship towards <em>jus sanguinis</em> (by right of blood).</p>
<p>But, as historians such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X12000428">Joya Chatterji</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X09990102">Ornit Shani</a> have documented, there have been frequent challenges to the principle of citizenship by birth – especially in the period immediately after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.</p>
<p>In contrast to Muslims, Hindus were from the start considered “natural citizens” of India. Muslim citizens of pre-independence India were ostensibly given a choice between the two countries, but in practice they were subjected to arbitrary processes to “prove” their loyalty to the Indian state. Similar demands were not made of Hindu citizens crossing the border from the newly-formed Pakistan back into India.</p>
<p>Regardless of which states or regions would be most affected by a sizeable influx of migrants, the bill changes the character of Indian citizenship and the basis on which it is granted, moving from secular to overtly favouring specific groups – particularly Hindus. It opens the door for the creation of second-class citizenship for non-Hindus and most of all Muslims – not just in the extra-legal practices of discrimination and violence that exist today, but in the law.</p>
<h2>Slipping away</h2>
<p>Given that India repeatedly fails its own minorities, perhaps it’s not surprising that it is only prepared to offer refuge and asylum on the basis of ethnicity, not humanitarian need. It’s no coincidence that this amendment was introduced by the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, which has an abysmal track record in protecting India’s minorities, whether they are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/india-institutions-failing-muslims-180502100321517.html">Muslims</a>, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/864291/creeping-fear-not-just-muslims-india-is-also-failing-its-christian-minority">Christians</a> or <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/immersive/documenting-violence-against-dalits-one-assault-at-a-time.html">Dalits</a>. Nor has it shown any inclination to help rehabilitate South Asia’s largest persecuted minority, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/eyewitness-the-rohingya-horrors-and-aung-san-suu-kyis-whitewash-84750">Rohingya</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the bill also leaves out Muslim minorities in Pakistan, such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44280552">Shias</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-religion/pakistans-ahmadi-community-releases-damning-persecution-report-idUSKBN1HZ06R%22%22">Ahmadis</a>. There is also speculation about whether the bill is a means to <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/why-the-citizenship-amendment-goes-against-the-basic-tenets-of-the-constitution?0=ip_login_no_cache%3De286ebf7af6e91bfd53181d59d64ed1e">appease India’s Hindu diaspora</a> abroad – an important funding base for the ruling party. </p>
<p>Even the relatively hardline BJP is not immune to public resistance. The protests in the north-east prompted India’s government to backtrack and <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/citizenship-amendment-bill-decision-only-after-peoples-concerns-addressed/articleshow/64384881.cms">table discussions</a> to address what it euphemistically referred to as “people’s concerns”. But by framing the amendment as a regional issue, the government has managed to confine public opposition to the people of the north-east. Because the region is already marginalised in Indian politics, the rest of the country is often apathetic about its concerns, which rarely become pan-Indian ones.</p>
<p>Still, that the citizens of the north-east are protesting so vehemently – whatever their precise grievances – is currently the only sign of dissent. Unless it feels the heat of visible and vocal public outrage, the Indian state is likely to continue its slide towards becoming a very different, less inclusive, and increasingly more unjust country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saba Sharma receives funding from the Gates Cambridge Trust for her PhD research.</span></em></p>At the point of independence, Indian citizenship law was a matter of residency, not religion or ethnicity. That could be about to change.Saba Sharma, PhD Candidate in Geography, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786362017-06-06T05:25:40Z2017-06-06T05:25:40ZBridges and roads in north-east India may drive small tribes away from development<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171669/original/file-20170531-25676-gep86.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Eze or Deopani river, near Roing. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kherepe Meme gestures with her hand animatedly. She vividly remembers and describes the Great Assam Earthquake of 1950. The epicentre of this 8.6 magnitude earthquake <a href="http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=may0115/at057">was in eastern Tibet</a> along the Sino-Indian border, a few hundred kilometres from Kebali, Meme’s home for about 80 years, the whole of her life.</p>
<p>Kebali is one of the many remote villages located near Roing, the main city of the Lower Dibang Valley district in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, about 2,500 km from New Delhi, and the furthest of India’s north-eastern states. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171830/original/file-20170601-25673-v6uawy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Location of Roing in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roing,+Arunachal+Pradesh+792110,+India/@26.2664666,83.0261332,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x373e49bbeb471a07:0x70244a2ad8a1a89!8m2!3d28.1428773!4d95.8431495">Google Maps</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kherepe Meme was a young girl at the time of the earthquake, but still recalls how the earth shook violently, as if it was the end of the world.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-21753-6_19">The disaster</a> devastated landscapes and villages in the Eastern Himalayas killing about 5,000 people, leading to flash floods in the Subansiri, Siang, Dibang and Lohit rivers of Arunachal Pradesh, and rise of the riverbed of the Brahmaputra in the plains of Upper Assam. </p>
<p>Meme lives very close to a river, known in her Idu language as Ephe, a tributary of the Dibang. During the peak monsoon season, the sounds of the river remind her of what she heard during the earthquake.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171675/original/file-20170531-25684-l5mdyv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kherepe Meme looks in the direction of the river Ephe from her home in Kebali village.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Idus, along with the Miju and the Digaru communities, comprise the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2844036?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">larger Mishmi tribe</a>. They have a symbiotic relationship with the various tributaries of the Dibang and the Lohit rivers, which meander and tumble down from the Mishmi Hills. The rivers are often described by locals as mad, thunderous and impassable during the rainy season.</p>
<p>For many old women like Kherepe Meme, crossing rivers during the monsoon, even in their youth, required tremendous strength and courage, sometimes using suspended bamboo bridges built by locals. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171997/original/file-20170602-18788-czxaxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This typical bamboo bridge connects remote villages over rivers in Arunachal Pradesh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other times, they simply stay away from the ferocious river, letting it have its peace of mind. Kherepe Meme has never ventured out beyond Roing. She cannot comprehend the new bridge built over the Lohit river about 70 kms from her home, now connecting Arunachal Pradesh and its neighbouring state, Assam.</p>
<h2>A geopolitical connection</h2>
<p>On May 26 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/dhola-sadiya-bridge-indias-longest-river-bridge-inaugurated-by-pm-modi/article18582249.ece">inaugurated India’s longest river</a> bridge, named after the legendary Assamese singer Bhupen Hazarika and connecting just over 9 km between Dhola and Sadiya towns in Assam. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2_ByfPJngWQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bhupen Hazarika composed many songs on the Brahmaputra and other rivers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With work starting in 2009, the bridge offers an important <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/dhola-sadiya-bridge-will-trigger-economic-revolution-in-assam-northeast-pm-narendra-modib-4674532">connectivity link</a> within Assam and between Assam and <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/sadia-dhola-bridge-10-facts-about-indias-longest-bridge-on-the-brahmaputra-4672683">eastern Arunachal Pradesh</a>.</p>
<p>Several <a href="http://www.mdoner.gov.in/node/1269">infrastructure projects</a> undertaken by New Delhi in this state have picked up pace <a href="http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/india-puts-china-border-roads-on-the-fast-track---------/16044">in the past decade</a>, more so after the current BJP government <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/nitin-gadkari-promises-more-roads-worth-rs-50000-crore-to-arunachal-pradesh-4474491">came to power in 2014</a> and <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=114241">has fast-tracked</a> the work.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171672/original/file-20170531-25676-1hsx942.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bhupen Hazarika Bridge, connecting Dhola and Sadiya in Assam, about to be inaugurated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The development of roads and bridges have been seen <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/india-china-border-idINKBN0HA03U20140915">as a concerted effort</a> to strengthen the war preparedness of the Indian armed forces given that China contests India’s <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09700161.2011.591248?src=recsys&journalCode=rsan20">claim over the territory of Arunachal Pradesh</a>. In April, Beijing <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/china-renames-6-places-in-arunachal-pradesh-on-its-official-map-retaliates-against-dalai-lama-visit/story-GopcxKWUJsOQ7Cys3nOcsK.html">even renamed six places</a> on its official map, stating that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to South Tibet, triggering New Delhi’s anger.</p>
<p>To match China’s infrastructure in Tibet, New Delhi has simultaneously invested in road-building constructions, directed at enabling better conditions to carry heavy machinery, <a href="https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/map-of-dams-in-arunachal-pradesh-7590">including turbines</a> to <a href="https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/map-of-dams-in-arunachal-pradesh-7590">dam project sites</a>. These are part of India’s ambitions to stake its riparian rights <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-and-indias-race-to-dam-the-brahmaputra-river-puts-the-himalayas-at-risk-65496">over trans-boundary river water conflicts with China over the Brahmaputra</a>. </p>
<p>The central government of India is also claiming that these projects will address the <a href="https://in.boell.org/2014/11/10/hydropower-development-arunachal-pradesh-new-narrative-natural-resource-politics">huge developmental gap</a> that the various <a href="http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/dh_st_arunachal.pdf">tribes of Arunachal Pradesh</a> <a href="http://www.idsa.in/idsacomments/DamsinArunachalPradesh_mbisht_010210">live with</a>. </p>
<p>But when asked about it, local inhabitants seem doubtful.</p>
<h2>A bridge feared by the local community</h2>
<p>Jibi Pulu, a 45-year-old Idu Mishmi local leader involved in conservation activities in Roing, told me that these projects will have many implications for his community. Because of their very small population (about <a href="http://roing.nic.in/idu_mishmi.htm">12,000 to 14,000</a>), the Idu Mishmis fear a demographic change as infrastructure work – such as those planned for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/india-untamed/2014/oct/22/indias-largest-dam-given-clearance-but-still-faces-flood-of-opposition">Dibang dam project</a> – will bring in more labourers and engineers who usually hail from different parts of India. </p>
<p>The Idu Mishmis speculate that the migrants will easily outnumber them and that this will lead to a loss of cultural and linguistic identity.</p>
<p>At the same time, they also hope for positive changes such as greater market access, health care, education and jobs. The Mishmis have missed out on various economic benefits in the region since the 1950s.</p>
<p>Sadiya, in Assam, was at the beginning of the 20th century an important river port for the British economy (aimed mainly at tea and oil exports inthis region) to maintain control over eastern Assam and the Mishmi Hills, then <a href="http://www.ide.go.jp/library/English/Publish/Download/Jrp/pdf/133_5.pdf">known as the Sadiya Frontier Tracts</a>. </p>
<p>But after the earthquake, the riverbed of the Lohit and the Brahmaputra moved up. And this reduced the navigability of the river, making this region <a href="https://books.google.fr/books?id=4LZN5ewzQ8AC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=mishmi+hills+development&source=bl&ots=jsw3B3szwg&sig=xjkMvQ1koodC5qdKus84GdaIfAA&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mishmi%20hills%20development&f=false">lag behind in overall development</a>. </p>
<h2>Failed connectivity</h2>
<p>Roads have also been a major priority of the Indian government. <a href="http://archivepmo.nic.in/drmanmohansingh/press-details.php?nodeid=706">The Trans-Arunachal Highway Project</a>, announced by the previous government in 2008, aims to internally connect the districts in eastern Arunachal Pradesh and has seen some <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/arunachal-governor-for-early-completion-of-1800-km-frontier-highway-along-china-border">stretches of excellent roads being built</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172002/original/file-20170602-18788-5c0kf0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stretches of roads built between Tezu and Roing are unused due to the unfinished Dipu Nallah bridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But because some critical bridges have not been completed yet, these roads are not that usable. From May onwards, during the monsoons, the river is high so people cannot cross below these half-built bridges. They then have to take the old roads back through Assam, for instance through Sadiya.</p>
<p>This is the case for the bridge going over the Dipu Nallah, connecting Roing in Lower Dibang Valley district with Tezu in Lohit district, both inhabited by Idu Mishmis. This bridge is only about a tenth of the length of the Bhupen Hazarika bridge. But while its construction started at the same time, it is yet to be completed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171999/original/file-20170602-18763-c5pf7g.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Idu lady looks at the unfinished Dipu Nallah bridge, with Tezu on the other side.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the rainy season, residents and goods need to travel 400-500 km downstream from major towns of eastern Arunachal Pradesh like Roing, on the north bank of the river, and all the way through parts of Assam on the south bank, in order to cross the Brahmaputra river at Tezpur to reach again Arunachal via its state capital Itanagar by land. The entire journey by bus from Roing to Itanagar in this circuitous manner can take 16-18 hours.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172007/original/file-20170602-18813-1ccd4uq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Makeshift wooden plank bridges for motorbikes to cross parts of the braided Dipu Nallah river in the dry season.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Locals left out</h2>
<p>The bridges and roads that are supposed to help connect this region have actually been priorities for military and hydropower projects over local needs.</p>
<p>And, as Jibi Pulu laments, the Idu Mishis – as well as other small tribal communities such as the Tai-Khamtis, the Singphos, the Meyors – cannot contribute. They lack the knowledge, the education and the formal training of engineers or semi-skilled technicians needed for these infrastructure projects.</p>
<p>They also lack the information to take a stance over majority decisions that are eventually imposed upon them. Often, they are consulted only when there is a problem due to land acquisition aspects of <a href="http://www.icsin.org/uploads/2015/04/12/dc44619f98243f09109da6867923a56a.pdf">such infrastructure development</a>. </p>
<p>While India looks at these mega-bridges, roads and hydropower projects for strategic reasons, it needs to develop an inclusive model for the local inhabitants too. Otherwise, tribal communities will be left behind as doubly marginalised under the weight of such fast-paced development goals. </p>
<p>In the meantime, Kherepe Meme still listens to the river flowing beside Kebali. Whatever India’s ambitions, she knows that the waters cannot be tamed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman is affiliated with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India.</span></em></p>As India opens up a new bridge in its north-eastern region, local tribal communities feel left out of the development picture.Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Researcher in International Relations and Politics, Development Studies and Borders, Indian Institute of Technology GuwahatiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/596322016-05-20T11:03:56Z2016-05-20T11:03:56ZIndian state elections give Modi a boost – but the country is fracturing<p>On the face of it, the results of elections in four important Indian states seem like an endorsement of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his Baratiya Janata Party (BJP). But scratch the surface, and plenty of other forces are there: anti-incumbency feeling, the rise of Hindu political identity in general, and most importantly, the failure of other more established parties. </p>
<p>And while Modi and the BJP have plenty to celebrate, particularly their historic <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/assembly-polls-2016-counting-of-votes-today-will-it-be-advantage-bjp-1407730">victory in Assam</a>, they have conspicuously failed to make any inroads in other southern states.</p>
<h2>Assam: Hindu identity politics</h2>
<p>That’s not to downplay just how striking the party’s Assam victory is. This state has become the top battleground for the Hindu nationalist agenda, and after careful planning and execution, the BJP made a successful push to introduce its brand of communal politics, skilfully playing to anti-incumbency sentiment. </p>
<p>Playing to local issues such as a growing influx of <a href="http://qz.com/652033/ticking-time-bomb-in-assam-a-final-count-of-illegal-immigrants/">immigrants from Bangladesh</a> in the south and the long-running separatist insurgency in the north, the BJP successfully positioned itself as the only party that could address the state’s problems. It now controls 86 seats out of 126 in the Assam Assembly, putting an end to 15 years of rule by the Indian National Congress (commonly known as Congress), the country’s oldest political party.</p>
<p>The results have clearly shown that the BJP’s grassroots work, carried out through <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-the-origins-of-todays-hindu-nationalism-55092">its Hindutva organisations</a>, has paid off tremendously. The Hindu voters in Assam clearly made their choice to support BJP as the best defender of their rights. </p>
<p>But this exuberant campaign will come at a price, as the BJP will now have thoroughly alienated itself from southern Assam’s significant Muslim population. </p>
<h2>West Bengal: Congress in decline</h2>
<p>The ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC, not to be confused with Congress) has strengthened its hold on the state of West Bengal, but this says less about its success per se and more about the the decline of the state’s other main parties – Congress on the one hand, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on the other. </p>
<p>Left-wing parties ruled West Bengal for nearly three decades, backed up by some support from Congress. But ever since the TMC was formed in 1998, it has positioned itself as an authentic Bengali political party committed to development, and the shortsighted and opportunistic alliance between it and the leftist parties has fallen out of favour.</p>
<p>The BJP expended significant time and energy in this state, promising its followers that it would make strong inroads – but in the end, it garnered a fairly paltry 11% share of the vote. But it’s Congress who should be deeply worried: it’s gone from bad to worse in a state where it was expected to do well, and its decline has only given a lifeline to the leftists as they try to recover.</p>
<h2>Kerala: the left resurgent</h2>
<p>Kerala has long been a stronghold for Congress and a range of left-wing parties, offering them solace when they fall short in national parliamentary elections. For more than four decades, it was ruled alternately by two coalitions: the left-wing Left Democratic Front, led by communist parties, and the United Democratic Front, led by Congress.</p>
<p>While these coalitions battle it out fiercely in state elections, their fight over alternating success means that they’ve managed the state in more or less the same way. Kerala has a high literacy rate and large populations of Muslims and Christians, and religious tolerance and socialism have consistently been at the heart of its politics.</p>
<p>This picture was shaken up by the last round of parliamentary elections in 2011, when the BJP <a href="http://thewire.in/2016/05/18/bjp-wont-capture-kerala-yet-but-rss-culture-is-sweeping-the-state-36806/">increased its vote share to 16%</a>. The critical factor in Kerala this year was the movement of marginalised communities, tea estate workers and many minorities who showed their support for the parties on the left, due to the failure of Congress policies over the past five years. </p>
<h2>Tamil Nadu: success for the Amma (mother) of freebies</h2>
<p>Tamil Nadu is a very different affair. In no other state is the <a href="http://thewire.in/2015/12/31/new-fronts-are-taking-shape-in-tamil-nadu-but-the-dravidian-parties-are-still-on-top-18342/">growth of caste-based politics</a> so visible, and this year’s elections were marred by <a href="http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/the-m-factor/article8581108.ece?homepage=true">reports</a> of corruption and the handing out of “freebies” in exchange for votes. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_peoples">Dravidian</a> parties DMK and ADMK have survived primarily by appealing to various caste-based constituencies. This <a href="http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/complex-scene/article8581042.ece?homepage=true">helped to divide</a> voters in Tamil Nadu along caste lines, and the state’s political system has been greatly fragmented.</p>
<p>The DMK used to be the champion of Tamil and Dravidian identity, but it’s been rather marginalised by the growing political infighting among the two groups, and other political parties have been formed around Tamil identity. There are also new parties representing the Dalits and Vanniyars, among them the Dalit Panthers and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). </p>
<p>But in the end, the state’s ADMK premier, <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/article/india-news/tamil-nadu-election-results-2016-counting-of-votes-begin/259300/">Jeyalalitha Jayaram</a> ran a successful populist campaign, overcoming both the fragmentation of the vote and the anti-incumbency factor. Congress was almost wiped out in the state, and the BJP made significant inroads.</p>
<h2>Inching forward</h2>
<p>These elections show that for many Indians, regional issues still trump national ones. It seems Modi’s charm offensive and economic promises have not had much effect on many parts of the country. Still, the BJP is clearly getting the hang of state politics, and coming off 2015’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-regional-election-in-india-ends-in-a-damning-verdict-on-prime-minister-modi-50345">disastrous state elections in Bihar</a>, the party can take heart at its strong showings. </p>
<p>But the elections bode ill for the future of Indian politics. More and more people are apparently buying into the idea that the BJP is the rightful sole party of national government. The fragmentation of the political landscape along caste, religious and ideological lines is only helping the BJP consolidate its position, despite some of the disastrous events that have unfolded on its watch over the last two years. </p>
<p>There’s still plenty of disenchantment with the government, and many voters view Modi as anything but the superman of Indian politics. But nonetheless, he and the BJP continue to gain ground.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anderson Jeremiah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government can take heart, the political landscape is fragmenting along caste, religious and ideological lines.Anderson Jeremiah, Lecturer in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473052015-09-16T05:27:49Z2015-09-16T05:27:49ZIndia’s tea capital can recover from devastating floods – if the government gets its act together<p>Heavy flooding has affected <a href="http://qz.com/497015/over-a-million-people-are-hit-by-floods-in-assam-but-india-doesnt-care/">more than a million</a> people in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, with <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/assam-flood-dead-people-affected-guwahati-brahmaputra/article1-1388098.aspx">45 dead</a> and <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/200000-camps-india-hit-flooding-assam-monsoon-150908061307897.html">more than 200,000</a> in relief camps. And yet there is still very little coverage of the disaster in the international media – perhaps not surprising when you consider even most Indians <a href="http://qz.com/497015/over-a-million-people-are-hit-by-floods-in-assam-but-india-doesnt-care/">aren’t paying attention</a>.</p>
<p>But they should – and so should you. The fact a region that is flooded regularly should be so unprepared for the latest downpour is scandalous, as is the shortsighted or uncaring government response. </p>
<p>The floods have also affected local wildlife, with the Kaziranga National Park – home to two thirds of the world’s Indian rhinos – <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/fleeing-from-flood-affected-kaziranga-elephant-dies-of-electrocution/#sthash.3ObhQPHz.dpuf">reporting</a> the electrocution of elephants fleeing from the water, as well as the death of at least three rhinos. </p>
<p>The floods come <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/census-2011-religion-data-rekindles-demographic-invasion-fear-in-assam/article1-1384347.aspx">amid reports</a> of increasing illegal immigration from Bangladesh and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34173532">poor working conditions</a> on local tea plantations, while <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/over-75000-take-shelter-in-relief-camps-in-kokrajhar-army-goes-all-out-against-rebels/">armed conflicts</a> between separatist groups and state security forces make the situation in the region even more unstable. </p>
<h2>Perfect conditions for tea – and flooding</h2>
<p>Assam is best known for its black tea, which grows well in the hot, steamy Brahmaputra valley. But while the monsoon may create perfect conditions for tea, it also means the region is highly susceptible to flooding. </p>
<p>More <a href="http://sdmassam.nic.in/project_flood.html">than 40%</a> of the region is at risk and severe floods occur <a href="http://sdmassam.nic.in/project_flood.html">every few years</a>, eroding riverbanks and dumping large amounts of sand on farmland, often rendering lands infertile.</p>
<p>For local communities, these floods <a href="http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/areas-of-concern/india-floods-july-2012.aspx">have been disastrous</a> and many are not receiving sufficient aid. For example my own research on <a href="http://www.academia.edu/10202076/Disaster_recovery_and_resilience_Case_study_of_Assam_floods_India">recovery after major floods in 2012</a> found affected families who hadn’t received the promised compensation from the government, even two years on. </p>
<p>Government initiatives to build new embankments have led to further distress. For example, new barriers constructed in 2012 displaced hundreds of families who found their resettled homes were now <a href="https://washresilience.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/solmari-another-village-lost/">on the wrong side of the embankments</a>. Compensation was poor, lower than market rates, while others received no support for resettlement due to identity and land ownership issues for <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/simply-put-in-assam-an-ongoing-effort-to-detect-illegal-bangladeshi-migrants/">illegal immigrants from Bangladesh</a>.</p>
<p>Some embankments built along the Brahmaputra in central Assam as an ad hoc response to the 2012 floods were so poorly constructed over natural drainage they actually failed to keep the river movements in check and increased erosion. The embankments simply breached in the following year’s monsoon. The subsequent relocations and distress were entirely preventable.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94897/original/image-20150915-29630-1c377ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Embankment building in Assam, 2013. Floodwaters breached the walls within a week of this photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sneha Krishnan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Brahmaputra has caused serious erosion <a href="http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/Rohmoria.pdf">for decades</a> now, and yet the government response has been inefficient. Plans to tackle the problem remain confined only to paper.</p>
<h2>The real cost for Assam’s communities</h2>
<p>The floods in Assam have taken a heavy toll on <a href="https://sphereindiablog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/sitrep-assam-floods-sept-2.pdf">water, sanitation, health and education systems</a>. Affected people flee their homes and create makeshift camps, where access to essential facilities is inadequate for the hundreds of thousands displaced.</p>
<p>The quality and accessibility of drinking water in particular is severely affected, and people are depending on contaminated sources – even when they know it <a href="http://scroll.in/article/754401/ground-zero-glimpses-from-a-relief-camp-in-flood-ravaged-assam">isn’t clean</a>. Defecation in the open becomes dangerous, especially for women and adolescent girls, all the more so during floods and regular displacement. </p>
<p>During floods the government turned some public schools into relief camps for a week or two. This of course affects the school term. Once the water recedes people start leaving the camps and are forced to fend for themselves. When they return to their villages they’ll be faced with destroyed homes, lost food grains and fields ruined by silt or sometimes even entirely lost to erosion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94901/original/image-20150915-29611-5pt5ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Families living in a school during the 2012 floods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sneha Krishnan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The road to recovery is hard to see, particularly as <a href="http://chimalaya.org/2012/08/23/assam-faces-worst-ever-floods-in-10-years/">no long-term support is guaranteed by government</a>, civil groups <a href="https://sphereindiablog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/assam-floods-second-phase-jrna-report-september-11-2015.pdf">or NGOs</a>.</p>
<p>The floods also have an adverse affect on marginalised people, <a href="http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/01/assam-women-climate-impacts">such as women</a>, who bear the responsibilities of running households, childcare and rebuilding homes after floods. A <a href="http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/01/assam-women-climate-impacts">2013 study</a> involving 900 households around Assam found that soil erosion, as a consequence of flooding, heavily affected the standard of living for farmers. This in turn forced women to leave the home and earn an income which resulted in girls dropping out of school to look after younger siblings and do the chores.</p>
<p>India’s 2005 <a href="http://www.ndma.gov.in/en/disaster.html">Disaster Management Act</a> doesn’t recognise the chronic challenges of erosion as a natural disaster. The present <a href="http://www.adb.org/projects/38412-023/main">development plans</a> are shortsighted. They do not feature a long-term recovery, or take into consideration environmental factors.</p>
<p>In the case of Assam, disaster resilience will only be possible through education and the participation of local communities and institutions. Something that needs to be done if the area is prone to flooding.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sneha Krishnan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Assam state suffers from severe flooding every few years but authorities still aren’t prepared.Sneha Krishnan, PhD Candidate and Teaching Assistant, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.