Journal Article by Sanjay Barbora
Peasants, Students, Insurgents and Popular Movements in Contemporary Assam, 2018
This essay is an effort to understand the compulsions and contexts in which popular movements hav... more This essay is an effort to understand the compulsions and contexts in which popular movements have taken place in Assam since the mid-20 th century. Since the turn of the 20 th century, political mobilisation for change and renegotiation of power in Assam has centred on the peasant. Initially emerging as an important focus of analysis for modern historians of Assam, the figure of the peasant has become important for other social scientists and politicians alike. The early intellectual scaffold of this process that emerged in the middle of the 20 th century, had been the valley-based, male, Assamese-speaking, rent-paying, rural farmer, who had limited access to modern markets and whose way of life was constantly being threatened by other cultivators and the (tea) plantation industry. The peasant, as Lenin pointed out in the early 20 th century, was seen to have two souls: one that craved private property and the other that dreamed of visions of equality in a rural community (Lenin 1965: 40-43). Seen thus, the peasant became an important actor in political mobilisation in most parts of the decolonising world. Although the conditions in Assam were similar to many colonised countries in the middle of the 20 th century, there were several occasions where peasants in the two valleys and hills in Assam were mobilised politically only to be abandoned, because those who spoke for the peasant, were also responsible for the erosion of the rural community.
Antipode, 2017
Since 2004, media and public opinion in Assam (India) have focused on increasing instances of poa... more Since 2004, media and public opinion in Assam (India) have focused on increasing instances of poaching of rhinoceros for their horns and presence of Bengali-speaking Muslim peasants, especially in and around the iconic Kaziranga National Park. From hastily made digital films, to anti-poaching motifs at Durga Puja pandals, the plight of the rhinoceros has occupied an important position in an acrimonious political discourse on Assamese culture. The innocence and dignity attributed to the animal stands in marked contrast to the lack of discussion on the large numbers of young men who have been killed in anti-poaching campaigns by the state. This article looks at the interstices of class, culture and commerce in an attempt to understand the popular deification of the rhinoceros and implications of the developmental discourse that seeks to put people and rhino in their "rightful" place.
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2015
Tying together the different threads that explain the persistence of violent conflicts in definin... more Tying together the different threads that explain the persistence of violent conflicts in defining the politics of Assam is a difficult proposition, more so because the analyses tend to concentrate on big episodes and rely on a causal explanation that leaves little room for understanding the layered realities that have emerged as a result of three decades of conflict. This article attempts to suture together the different levels at which expressions of violence have been manifested in contemporary political entanglements in Assam. It does so by reflecting on the repertoire of melancholic manifestations of these conflicts in everyday life. It argues that decades of engagement between rebels and the Indian state have led to emotional suffering and self-preservation, but have been sacrificed to a cynical political vocabulary that narrows the possibility of solidarity.
Economic & Political Weekly, 2002
An analysis of conflicts in the north-east entails also a closer look at the wider debates on the... more An analysis of conflicts in the north-east entails also a closer look at the wider debates on the issue of ethnicity. While official and administrative policies may generate impoverishment and ethnic conflict, ethnic claims of territorial integrity put forward by different groups are also often ranged against demands for a greater homeland demanded by others. This paper seeks to relate ethnic politics, to the growing importance of land relations and land use, by focusing on changes in land use patterns and social control over land in the North Cachar Hills.
explorations: E-journal of the Indian Sociological Society, 2019
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has raised several issues pertaining to citizens... more The National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has raised several issues pertaining to citizenship, migration and political mobilisation throughout the region. An administrative exercise of this order that uses technology, law and the bureaucracy to address historically contentious grievances within a region of a country is an interesting phenomenon for social scientists working on citizenship in the 21st century. This is more so since approximately nineteen lakh persons from various walks of life and ethnic heritage have been left out of the rolls, leaving every stakeholder (including the ruling party in Assam) disappointed with the outcomes. While there have been great benefits derived from the use of technology, this article argues for closer, nuanced attention to ethnographic details about other contingencies – such as floods and climate change – that influence the process, especially since the process is being promoted for the entire country.
International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 2008
Autonomous arrangements have always been a matter of contention in Northeast India. In the federa... more Autonomous arrangements have always been a matter of contention in Northeast India. In the federal unit of Assam, conflict and inter-ethnic tensions have been markers of a peculiar kind of constitutional politics that are unable to resolve competing claims for resources and power in a manner that prevents violent political mobilisation. This article examines the trajectory of political events in Karbi Anglong, the largest autonomous district in Assam, and traces the course of social and cultural changes that have affected politics in the district. The article also looks at possible ways out of the impasse created by constitutional political vocabularies in the said district.
Papers by Sanjay Barbora
Homeland Insecurities
This chapter looks at the ramifications of such violence and its capacity to corrode democratic i... more This chapter looks at the ramifications of such violence and its capacity to corrode democratic institutions and social structures. These processes were highlighted by civil rights groups throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century in Assam. In the three decades of insurgency that produced a retaliatory and disproportionate violence from the state, political actors and their positions underwent inversions where politics acquired other lives outside its location in law, authority, and institutions. This chapter reflects on how violence and the access to tools that allow its perpetuation have shaped political discourse in contemporary Assam. Additionally, it focuses on organic attempts at peacebuilding that engage with issues of social justice and equity.
Homeland Insecurities
This chapter focuses on both a historical trajectory of the autonomous movement, as well as its m... more This chapter focuses on both a historical trajectory of the autonomous movement, as well as its more quotidian moments where much of the political rhetoric is constantly being challenged on the ground. It argues that the militarized social milieu does not allow for the resolution of many of the nuanced outcomes of conflicts that arise in the process of political mobilization by local communities and conflict management strategies of the government. Based on fieldwork in Kamrup (rural), Nalbari, and the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), it locates contemporary demands for territorial autonomy by indigenous communities in historical experiences of land and resource alienation, as well as in the strategic use of violence to leverage political demands for autonomy.
Homeland Insecurities
This chapter looks at the way issues around peasants and farming communities have been framed in ... more This chapter looks at the way issues around peasants and farming communities have been framed in contemporary Assam, especially since the turn of the century when armed organizations purported to speak on behalf of the rural farmer receded into the margins of political discourse. This process allowed for the emergence of non-human elements into society and politics in Assam. It happened in ways that had not been seen earlier. The focus of the chapter is on the ongoing encounters between animals and humans, much of which is being slowly militarized. This process allows readers to understand the changes that are taking place in the political ecology in Assam.
Homeland Insecurities
The process of updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) between 2012 and 2018 and subsequent ... more The process of updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) between 2012 and 2018 and subsequent announcement of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in 2019 ushered in a new set of conflicts around the issue of citizenship, identity, and resource sharing in Assam. In doing so, it relegated previous causes for conflict in the region to the background. Civil society’s protests against CAB and the acquiesce to the NRC in parts of Assam underline the persistence of history in the analysis of conflicts. This introductory chapter traces the trajectory of conflicts around autonomy and social justice and lays out the way historical details make their presence felt in contemporary political debates in Assam.
South Asia Citizens Web, Dec 23, 2020
Homeland Insecurities
Venturing beyond the statistical aggregates of migration and remittances, to more intimate matter... more Venturing beyond the statistical aggregates of migration and remittances, to more intimate matters such as life histories, this chapter draws from some new developments in the old narratives about migration to the region. It argues that the standard notions of migration of peasants and workers to Assam that were crucial to establishing the political discourse framed in settler–indigenous conflicts have changed since the first decades of the 21st century. There are many more individuals leaving the region in search of work than coming in. This raises crucial questions about the kind of transformation that has transpired in the stable, enclave economy framework that had been central to any analysis of politics and society in 20th-century Assam.
This book engages with key political and social issues in Assam following the pacification of ins... more This book engages with key political and social issues in Assam following the pacification of insurgencies in the 21st century. Keeping in mind the impact of counterinsurgency, migration, and conflicts arising out of demands for political and territorial autonomy, it focuses on the emerging issues that will play an important role in defining the future of social and political relations in Assam. Arguing that old conflicts have taken new forms, this book reflects critically on the dominant themes that animate academic research on the region—autonomy, migration, and conflict—and accentuates tentative peacebuilding efforts to show how there is a creative social world of solidarity that survives violence.
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2022
Two large-scale environmental disasters in Assam's easternmost district Tinsukia, raised grea... more Two large-scale environmental disasters in Assam's easternmost district Tinsukia, raised great passion and held much traction in local print, electronic and social media platforms in 2020. The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) granted post-facto approval for opencast mining in Saleki Proposed Reserved Forest (PRF) under Dehing-Patkai Elephant Reserve in Assam. Later, the public sector company, Oil India Limited (OIL) reported a gas leak in Baghjan that resulted in a major blowout resulting in deaths and displacement in the area. In this article, we argue that these events constitute a tragic outcome of decades of appropriation of natural resources by the oil, tea and coal industry all of which depend on obsolete technologies of extraction. We focus on how this is happening in a place that has several disaffected, marginalised people who once relied on agriculture for their livelihoods. We argue that these two events are not aberrations in the global narrative of inter-governmen...
Geographies of Difference, 2017
Migration is an important social and historical reality in South Asia. In the past decade, migrat... more Migration is an important social and historical reality in South Asia. In the past decade, migration from one country to another and internal migration (i.e. migration within a particular country) have assumed different dimensions for people in the region. Contemporary research on migration is placed in a spectrum that ranges from exponents of economic benefits at one end, to those who see migration as a security threat, at the other. This paper combines the work of three researchers and looks at the different political locations from which the South Asian subject is induced to move. It also discusses the economic and political implications that arise from these migration trajectories. Drawing on their research, the authors emphasise the need for understanding how migration is linked to a complex set of processes that reflect power relations in unequal societies.
Studies in Indian Politics, 2019
Santana Khanikar, State, Violence, and Legitimacy in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2... more Santana Khanikar, State, Violence, and Legitimacy in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2018. 270 pages. ₹875.
Antipode, 2017
Since 2004, media and public opinion in Assam (India) have focused on increasing instances of poa... more Since 2004, media and public opinion in Assam (India) have focused on increasing instances of poaching of rhinoceros for their horns and presence of Bengalispeaking Muslim peasants, especially in and around the iconic Kaziranga National Park. From hastily made digital films, to anti-poaching motifs at Durga Puja pandals, the plight of the rhinoceros has occupied an important position in an acrimonious political discourse on Assamese culture. The innocence and dignity attributed to the animal stands in marked contrast to the lack of discussion on the large numbers of young men who have been killed in anti-poaching campaigns by the state. This article looks at the interstices of class, culture and commerce in an attempt to understand the popular deification of the rhinoceros and implications of the developmental discourse that seeks to put people and rhino in their "rightful" place.
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Journal Article by Sanjay Barbora
Papers by Sanjay Barbora
The India Forum review of In the Name of the Nation by Sanjay Barbora.
Sanjib Baruah’s In the Name of the Nation: India and its Northeast is not simply another book about the Northeast. It is 'a prescient ledger' of what Northeast India has become and at the same time 'a cautionary tale' of where muscular policy may take us in the rest of India.