Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

The multi-ethnic setting of India provides a fertile soil for the development of different forms of identity-quest. When the burgeoning bureaucratic exercise of updating National Register of Citizens is going on, it is important to understand that in reinforcing dominant norms, the legal responses expose how the ‘excess’ that which does not fall within the dominant norms and boundaries of citizenship is regarded as transgressive and justifiable subject to restrain, persecution, social stigma, incarceration, and even annihilation. The migration of different communities to Assam led to strife between the Assamese and ‘bideshi’ /‘Ona-Axomiya’ (non-Assamese) over access to resources. The immigrant communities came to be associated with two terms bahiragota (outsider) and bidexhi (foreigner). A line of demarcation was drawn between the ‘indigenous’ and ‘outsiders’ and a cry for the protection of ‘Assamese identity’ began to germinate. When they were threatened on economic and cultural front, the Assamese evoked their identity of language and culture, to feel distinct. This feeling of distinctiveness gave way to the political expression of or ‘sub-nationalism’. Such distinctness however alienates many tribes, ethnic groups, religion, and geographical regions. This paper traces the construction of illegality of people in Assam to understand the access to entitlements of citizenship. The study also attempts to understand what meaning the updating of National Register of Citizens (NRC) holds for various ethnic groups and communities in Assam.