Another, very well thought out and informative piece Baruah. It is also depressing at the same time.
m On May 3, 2011, at 7:04 AM, Sanjib Baruah wrote: > > Forbes India Magazine, 06 May, 2011 > > http://business.in.com/article/special/assam-dont-hold-your-breath/24462/1 > > Assam, Don’t Hold Your Breath > > In spite of successful elections, it’s too early to declare that the troubled > state is on the road to recovery > > by Sanjib Baruah | May 2, 2011 > > There are signs that the Assam elections mark the beginning of a new phase in > the state’s politics. The voter turnout rate of 76.03 percent was impressive > and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) did not call for a poll > boycott. While the familiar controversy over the citizenship status featured > in the campaign, especially in the BJP platform, it was not a defining > element as it was in 2006, or arguably, in all state elections since the > beginning of the Assam Movement of 1979-85. > > Is this the end of Assam’s troubles and the inauguration of the politics of > good governance and development? Unfortunately, such a reading would be > premature, and it would be a triumph of hope over reality. > > Politicians often respond to problems with words rather than deeds, or by > symbolic rather than instrumental actions. That buys time, but ultimately, > rhetoric cannot be a substitute to solutions. And the problems underlying > Assam’s political troubles are neither minor, nor provincial. They raise > fundamental questions about the Partition’s vision of two, and subsequently > three, bounded nation-states, and whether it matches the subcontinent’s > subsequent ground realities. > > During the Assam Movement of 1979-85, the campaigners claimed that tens of > thousands of “foreigners” were enfranchised in Assam. This is hardly an issue > that can be settled in any obvious way. Thus, when the Supreme Court in 2005 > — 20 years after the end of the Assam Movement — found the Illegal Migrants > (Determination by Tribunals) Act to be unconstitutional, its ruling read > almost like an official text of the Assam Movement. There can be “no manner > of doubt,” said the court that Assam is facing “external aggression and > internal disturbance” because of large-scale illegal immigration from > Bangladesh. > > To solve the problems animating Assam’s troubled politics would mean > confronting a number of inconvenient facts. First, the insertion of an > international border between India and East Pakistan in 1947 did not turn off > the flow of people from one of the subcontinent’s most densely populated > areas to a relatively sparsely populated one. The pressure of migration > actually increased since the Partition because it generated a big and > continuous movement of Hindus, while the economically induced migration of > poor Muslims also continued. > > Second, our citizenship laws take little cognizance of the post-Partition > cross-border population flows, except those that occurred during the > immediate years after the Partition. Indian citizenship laws embody the > spirit of the Nehru-Liaquat pact of 1950 that sought to maintain a population > status quo. Thus, there is no way in Indian law to make a distinction between > Hindu and Muslim arrivals from Pakistan or Bangladesh except in the context > of the immediate post-Partition years; and that too only by implication. But > there is a tension between the legal definition of Indian citizenship laws, > and the fact that many Indians believe that Hindus have an implicit right of > return to post-Partition India. > > Third, we have been able to live with these ambiguities because our > citizenship practices enable a blurring of the line between citizens and > non-citizens. In particular because the documentation that enables a person > to be included in the electoral roll in India can be rather rudimentary > including say, a ration card. > > In the words of the Japanese scholar Hiroshi Sato, there are fault lines > between the normative definition of citizenship in Indian law, and the actual > exercise of franchise by people “based on the legitimacy of rudimentary > documents rather than on the registration of citizenship.” It is hardly > surprising that by bringing the issue to the centre stage of Assam politics, > the campaigners of the Assam Movement set in motion a virtual earthquake and > multiple aftershocks in the state’s political landscape. > > ULFA was founded in 1979. Even though the citizenship issue has never been > directly on ULFA’s agenda, it views the gradual political marginalisation of > locals, because of immigration and the enfranchisement of non-citizens, as a > symptom of Assam’s subordinate political status in the pan-Indian > dispensation. > > ULFA as an idea has always been more powerful than the reality of ULFA as a > political organisation. Unlike our security experts, politicians like Tarun > Gogoi intuitively understand it. This has led to attentiveness to questions > such as the dignity of ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa since his arrest. That > the election season included a meeting between the ULFA leaders and the Prime > Minister is hardly accidental. However, it is difficult to imagine a solution > of the “ULFA problem” within existing policy parameters. > > Words that appear in ULFA’s vocabulary, whether “sovereignty” or “full > regional autonomy”, essentially invoke ideas of serious constitutional > reforms including for instance, the radical expansion of the powers of the > state legislature to include powers over questions of citizenship. It is not > hard to see why ULFA would want to talk of such reforms. Nor are such > arrangements unheard of in the world of federations. But it is hard to square > them with the repertoire of political solutions to Northeast India’s > “insurgencies” available among our officials that go little beyond the idea > of an ethnic peace accord. > > (Sanjib Baruah teaches political science at Bard College in New York. His > books include India against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality) > > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > [email protected] > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
