ABSTRACT
The Indian subcontinent, a region with a complex set of ethnic communities, Assam State in India, has been witnessing ethnic conflict for a very long time in history. Such contestations arise due to asserting the dominant ethnic group identity over the subordinate ethnic groups leading to violence and gradual loss of habitat. Consequently, the dominant social group resists processes of outgroup upward social mobility to safeguard its control and use of the available resources. Such ethnic mobilizations gradually become political in nature resulting in litigations, policy formations and, finally, enforced laws and regulations. Within such a process of social contestations, the meaning of citizenship is developed and redeveloped in Assam. The National Register of Citizens for Assam (NRC Assam) is a list of ‘genuine’ Indian citizens in the state that has been maintained since 1951 (post-independence); however, the list was updated in 2013–2019. During the period, many people in the state could not prove the ‘genuineness’ of their association with the state; therefore, they were identified as ‘not legal’ citizens of the country or ‘foreigners’. This chapter would be discussing the process of constituting the idea of ‘legal citizenship’ and ‘illegal citizenship’ among the tea tribes (Paroja tribe) and the role of media in constituting the idea of nationality based on majoritarian cultural practices in the state of Assam.
