ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the political rhetoric of rightwing populism, ideologically backed by the communal-fascist and the majoritarian nationalist forces in India in the context of the debates pertaining to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The contemporary debates on citizenship in India have a specific geographical context of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and the northeastern state of Assam. Both states share borders with each other and with Bangladesh; this forms a unique ecotone of the Indian subcontinent. Both states have seen the influx of refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan (currently Bangladesh) in the aftermath of the partition of India in 1947 and the Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971. The chapter highlights the figure of the infiltrator in the rightwing populist discourses who is generally regarded as an illegal immigrant from outside the Indian nation-state, particularly from neighbouring South Asian countries. In this respect, the chapter will primarily interrogate the rhetoric of the majoritarian party, the BJP, during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign in India, and the debates around the NRC and CAA.
