ABSTRACT
Political developments in the Brahmaputra Valley since the late 1970s dramatically changed the basic character of identity discourses in Assam. The Assam Movement essentialized citizenship for political mobilization centering on Asomiya national identity, relegating linguistic nationalism to a secondary position. The movement launched for protection of “Assamese culture” with an anti-bahiragat fervor turned into anti-videshi, and gradually it was directed against the immigrant Bangladeshis, more specifically against the Bangladeshi Muslims. Commitments made by the state apparatus in the “Assam Accord” to resolve the question of illegal foreign nationals politically satisfied the caste Hindu Assamese leadership; however, the sanctity of the “Public Law Contract” was quashed by state’s apathy to implement it. The unresolved issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh though remained crucial for existentialist politics of Asomiya regionalism for decades, it reappeared more forcefully with the idea of the ‘National Register of Citizens’ (NRC) projected as a panacea of the tangle question. The political project spearheaded by judicial activism was initiated without making the executive wing of the state responsible for the aftermaths. However, publication of the draft NRC substantially provoked the political regime to immediately push the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) linking citizenship with religion. The centrally sponsored move was defeated by the temporarily formed regional alliance, but interestingly, many of the regional forces, which once vehemently opposed the CAB, remained with the Bharatiya Janata Party that, despite the party in power, sought its mandate in the last Lok Sabha elections with a promise to make CAB a reality. The “Final NRC” that excluded nearly two million residents of Assam has largely been contested with a clandestine communal tone. Hundreds of Foreigners Tribunals are being put in place to provide a legal mechanism for the people excluded from the NRC to prove their citizenship, and at the same time, several detention camps are being built to provide shelter to the people declared as “foreigners” by the Tribunals. This chapter makes an attempt to analyze the question of citizenship in Assam historically and comprehend the political process that resulted in the communalization of the question of citizenship.
