ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the formation of linguistic states contributes to the hegemonic accretion and entrenchment of ethnic identities and how even the demand for the formation of such states being voiced in some quarters is sparked off by the same objective. It discusses the anomalies implicit in the political game of granting statehood to ethnic demands for statehood with particular reference to the Bodo movement/insurgency. The chapter shows that regional and identitarian demands and their fulfilment involve governmentalisation of identities and a certain dissipation of the emancipatory potential of democracy. The Bodos, according to the dominant Assamese nationalist discourse, are regarded as an indispensable part of Assamese nationality. Although the Bodo movement developed predominantly as a critique of the dominant Assamese nationalism, Santhals and the Bengali-speaking Muslims rather than the Assamese settled in the proposed Bodoland area had to bear the brunt of violence organised intermittently by the Bodo militants.
