The politics of eviction and citizenship in the Brahmaputra valley, Assam, India

ABSTRACT

Floods and erosion have been among the primary factors to induce the displacement of indigenous Axomiya and the Miya communities in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. This trend has been observed since the last quarter of the twentieth century, and more prominently in the first decade of the twenty-first century. These displaced communities encountered eviction as their self-settlement in exclusive zones like forests, embankments or grazing lands were legally appraised as encroachments. Therefore, contested claims over land are a central concern in the governance and bureaucratic milieu of Assam. The eviction drive that was carried out in Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary of Guwahati in 2017 is regarded as one of the most vulnerable evictions of recent times. This article deals with the question of counter-insurgency operations of the State from the narrative of erosion, eviction and indigeneity. This study derives its data and inferences from primary modes of data collection, mainly field study and face-to-face interviews.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship
• displacement
• erosion
• eviction
• indigeneity

Acknowledgements

I thank Professor Jagannath Ambagudia and Xonjoy Barbora for the primary comments on my article. I am also thankful for the comments of some of my fellow researchers, Priyanka Kakaty, Nirban Roy, Devika Saikia, Arup Kalita and Unmilan Kalita which helped a lot in the writing process of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Tania Murray Li, ‘What is land? Assembling a Resource for Global Investment’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39(4), 2014, pp 589–602, p 589.

2 Sarasij Majumder and Subhra Gururani, ‘Land as an Intermittent Commodity: Ethnographic Insights from India’s Urban-Agrarian Frontiers’, Urbanisation, 6(1), 2021, pp 49–63, p 49.

3 Li, ‘What is land?’, p 600.

4 Li, ‘What is land?’, p 589.

5 ‘Miya’ has been used in the public domain in Assam to denote the Bengal origin of Muslim peasants. However, academic discourse has been increasingly used to imply the Bengal-origin Muslim peasants as an ethnic entity. The context of the use of the term in the article is not in the derogatory sense. The community members have used Miya in the public domain as neither Axomiya nor Bengali. I am using it to denote the difficulty of not being included within the cultural mainstream of the Brahmaputra valley. I intend to use the term to signify the poor working class who are primarily engaged in the informal economy of the state and suffer due to natural disasters such as floods and erosion.

6 This study is connected with some significant flood and erosion vulnerable areas. My two-year engagement with the communities in Salmora in Majuli, Dibru Saikhowa and Mandiya in Barpeta. It shows how displacement becomes a crisis in these vulnerable geographies. Though Amchang is not directly connected to these regions yet, this reveals that displacement is the crucial reason for internal migration.

7 Sanjay Barbora, ‘National Register of Citizens: Politics and Problems in Assam’, Explorations 3 (2), October 2019, p 8, critically argues the similarities between immigration in Australia and Assam where the colonial paranoia becomes the source of various conflicts.

8 Amalendu Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj, New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2006, p 167, described that a line was drawn in the districts under pressure from immigrants in order to settle immigrants in segregated areas, specified for their exclusive settlement.

9 Arup Saikia, A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900, London and New York: Routledge, 2014, p 10.

10 The 1897 and 1950 earthquakes had a magnitude of 8.1 and 8.7 on the Richter scale respectively. These changed the course and configuration of the Brahmaputra and its numerous tributaries. See D C Goswami, ‘Brahmaputra River, Assam, India: Physiography, Basin Denudation, and Channel Aggradation’, Water Resources Research, 21(7), 1985, pp 959–978.

11 The new course of the Brahmaputra river system drastically led to new patterns of flooding and erosion in the valley. See, Saikia, A Century of Protests, p 38.

12 Arup Saikia, A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900, London and New York: Routledge, 2014, p 44.

13 Arup Saikia, The Unquiet River, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019, p 444.

14 Speech of Hem Barua, Lok Sabha Debates, 11 August 1970. See Deepak Das, The Fearless Democrat: Hem Barua, Guwahati: Bhabani Books, 2010, p 85.

15 Between 1954 and 2012 alone, about 7.4% of the total landmass of the valley succumbed to erosion, which amounts to about 3860 km² with an annual erosion rate of 80 km². More than 2500 villages and 18 towns, and several tea gardens were wiped out during this period and destabilizes the livelihoods of millions of people. See A Phukan, R Goswami and C Mahanta, ‘River Bank Erosion and Restoration in the Brahmaputra River in India’, The Clarion: Multidisciplinary International Journal, 1(1), 2012, pp 1–7, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/River-Bank-Erosion-and-Restoration-in-the-River-in-Phukan-Goswami/5a28ecf8fa23b5e416048a0a52198792d1868296.

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20 Barbora, ‘Peasants, Students, Insurgents’, p 5.

21 According to the Indian Forest Act of 1927, a forest is an area controlled by the Government for the conservation and management of biological and ecological resources. Three sectors are included in the public forest lands, i.e. reserved forests, village forests and protected forest lands. The Forest Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, India stated, ‘there cannot be any uniform criteria to define forest which can be applicable to all forest types’ in all states and union territories. See Aditi Tandon and S Gopalkrishna Warrier, ‘[Explainer] What is a Forest’, Mongabay, February 27, 2020, https://india.mongabay.com/2020/02/explainer-what-is-a-forest/.

22 Bryant Raymond and Sinead Bailey, Third World Political Ecology. London: Routledge, 1997, p 24.

23 The Mishing are an indigenous community of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

24 For a full discussion, see https://thewire.in/environment/700-families-left-homeless-assam-governments-eviction-drive-amchang-wildlife-sanctuary (accessed 11 December 2017).

25 According to National Remote Sensing Agency, a wasteland is that land which is presently lying unused or which is not being used to its optimum potential due to some constraints, https://bbsbec.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wasteland-development-ppt.pdf.

26 Tania Murray Li, ‘Indigeneity, Capitalism, and the Management of Dispossession’, Current Anthropology 51(3), June 2010, p 395.

27 Rohini K Baruah, Anil K Bhattacharya and Ajoy K Dutta, Romesh Borpatragohain, Final Report on Committee for Protection of Land Rights of Indigenous People of Assam, 30 December 2017, 23. For a full discussion, see https://pratidintime.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/2018/05/BRAHMA-COMMITTEEM-Report.pdf (accessed 5 February 2018).

28 The Citizenship Amendment Bill became Citizenship Amendment Act on 12 December 2019, under the Ministry of Law and Justice, India.

29 Khilangia means indigenous, these words are interchangeably used in the article.

30 Micheal Foucault, ‘The Subject and Power’, Critical Inquiry, 8(4), 1982. pp 777–795.

31 Adams and Hutton, ‘People, Parks and Poverty’, pp 147–183.

32 Similar questions are raised by Adams and Hutton, ‘People, Parks and Poverty’, p 148.

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36 Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory, London: Fontana Press, 1996.

37 For full details, see https://ashishkothari.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Displacement-fears-Frontline.pdf (accessed 12 December 2021).

38 Daniel Brockington and James Igoe, ‘Eviction for Conservation: A Global Overview’, Conservation & Society, 4(3), 2006, pp 424–470, p 455.

39 K S Zimmerer, ‘The Reworking of Conservation Geographies: Nonequilibrium Landscapes and Nature-Society Hybrids’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90(2), 2000, pp 356–369.

40 William M Adams, ‘Geographies of Conservation III: Nature’s Spaces’, Progress in Human Geography, 44(4), 2019, pp 1–13.

41 Bernhard Gissibl, Sabine Höhler and Patrick Kupper (eds), Civilizing Nature: National Parks in Global Historical Perspective, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2012.

42 Adams, ‘Geographies of Conservation’, pp 1–13.

43 Jevgeniy Bluestein, et al., ‘Between Dependence and Deprivation: The Interlocking Nature of Land Alienation in Tanzania’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 18, 2018, pp 806–830.

44 Adams, ‘Geographies of Conservation’, pp 1–13.

45 Jared D Margulies, ‘The Conservation Ideological State Apparatus’, Conservation and Society 16, 2018, pp 181–192.

46 World Bank Operational Policies: Indigenous Peoples 2005 par.4. see https://ppfdocuments.azureedge.net/1570.pdf (accessed 22 April 2019).

47 Marisol de la Cadena and Orin Starn (eds), Introduction in Indigenous Experience Today, Oxford: Berg, 2007, pp 1–30.

48 Tania Murray Li, ‘Articulating Indigenous Identity in Indonesia: Resource Politics and the Tribal Slot’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 42(1), January 2000, pp 149–179.

49 Juri Baruah, ‘Tribal Politics in Assam: From Line System to Language Problem’, Social Change and Development XVI (1), 2019, p 98.

50 B N Bordoloi, Transfer and Alienation of Tribal Land in Assam, Guwahati, Self-published, 1991, p 51.

51 Baruah, ‘Tribal Politics in Assam’, p 90.

52 Jeff Corntassel, ‘Who is Indigenous? ‘Peoplehood’ and Ethnonationalist Approaches to Rearticulating Indigenous Identity’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 9(1), 2003, p 75.

53 Amalendu Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj, New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2006, p 31.

54 Guha, Planter Raj, p 31.

55 The term ‘indigenous Assamese’ is used to indicate Khilanjia Axomiya.

56 Clause 6 of the Assam Accord of 1985 promises that ‘constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards […] shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people’ For a full discussion, see https://cjp.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Clause-VI.pdf, p 3, (accessed 12 February 2020).

57 According to the Report of the Committee on Implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, indigenous tribal or indigenous Assamese classification may be defined into three categories: (i) indigenous Assamese people (native/khilanjia), (ii) indigenous Assamese tribal (Janajati) and (iii) greater Assamese people (other inhabitants of Assam). However, the meaning of these three classifications are varied during several phases and accepted/rejected by different actors. For a full discussion, see https://cjp.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Clause-VI.pdf, p 25, pp 39–41, (accessed 12 February 2020).

58 Nicos Poulantzas, ‘The Problem of Capitalist State,’ New Left Review 1(58), 1969, p 73, https://newleftreview.org/issues/i58/articles/nicos-poulantzas-the-problem-of-the-capitalist-state

59 Claus Offe, Contradictions of the Welfare State, London: Hutchinson, 1984, p 164.

60 Simon Clarke, ‘Marxism, Sociology and Poulantzas’, Capital & Class 1(2), September 11, 2016, pp 1–31, https://doi.org/10.1177/030981687700200101.

61 Simon Clarke, The State Debate, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991, p 9.

62 Arun Chandra Bhuyan and Sibopada De (eds), Political History of Assam: Vol, III, 1940-1947, Guwahati: Government of Assam, 1980, p 134.

63 For a detailed discussion, see, https://dlrar.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/porlets/Land%20Policy%201989.pdf (accessed 10 March 2018).

64 Bigha is a traditional unit of measurement of area in India. 14,400 square inches is equal to 1 bigha in Assam. See, Manual of Mensuration for Mandal and Patwaris in Assam, Shillong: Assam Secretariat Printing Office, 1900, p 17, https://landrevenue.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/MANUAL%20OF%20MENSURATION%20%26%20SURVEING%20FOR%20MANDAL%20%26%20PATWARIES%20IN%20ASSAM.pdf.

65 Kishor Kalita, ‘Brahmaputra Upatyakyat Khahaniya’, Aalap, 3, 2018, p 185.

66 For a full discussion, see https://asbb.gov.in/Downloads/Assam%20Forest%20Policy%202004.pdf (accessed 16 April 2017).

67 For a full discussion, see https://asbb.gov.in/Downloads/Assam%20Forest%20Policy%202004.pdf (accessed 16 April 2017).

68 For a full discussion, see https://asbb.gov.in/Downloads/Assam%20Forest%20Policy%202004.pdf (accessed 16 April 2017).

69 Similar cases are found in Sundarban where even after the disastrous cyclones, the Irrigation Department did not take seriously the problem of land erosion and allocation of the budget proposal. See Annu Jalasis, Forest of Tigers: People, Politics & Environment in the Sundarbans, London: Routledge, 2012, p 15.

70 Scott, ‘Weapons of the Weak’, p 297.

71 For a full discussion, see, https://dlrar.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/porlets/Land%20Policy%201989.pdf (accessed 31 August 2018), p 2.

72 For a full discussion, see, https://dlrar.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/porlets/Land%20Policy%201989.pdf (accessed 31 August 2018), p 3.

73 For a full discussion, see, https://dlrar.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/porlets/Land%20Policy%201989.pdf (accessed 31 August 2018).

74 A land patta is a legal document that includes the details of the legal owner of the land property/plot or the person in whose name the property is registered at the registrar’s office. It is a part of the Register of Landholdings maintained by the Tahsildar. It is also referred to as ‘Record of Rights.’

75 The majoritarian nature of the State also influences the functions of the political characteristics of the Assamese state. However, eviction affects people across the community, especially in the case of Amchang. In reality, every community that is displaced faces the same kinds of risks and vulnerabilities. However, the current situation in India where political parties have begun to openly target Muslim-speaking people, shows those who belong to the riverine communities face additional instances of micro-aggression from local police and administration.

76 Sanjay Barbora, ‘Counting Citizens in Assam: Contests and Claims’, The South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (1), 2021, p 225.

77 ‘Deportation practices have long been part of a wider set of in carceral institutions that include detention centres, refugee camps, and waiting zones to house people in a legal limbo between being deportable and not being actually deported in effect, people who are stateless.’ See Sanjib Baruah, ‘Stateless in Assam’, The Indian Express, January 19, 2018, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/national-register-of-citizens-5030603/.

78 The Directorate of Char Areas Development, Government of Assam describes ‘char’ as, ‘The riverine areas (island) of the river Brahmaputra, locally known as ‘Char/Chapori’’. For a full discussion, see https://dircad.assam.gov.in/about-us/history-0 (accessed 24 February 2020).

79 Barbora, ‘National Register of Citizens’, p 6.

80 Barbora, ‘Counting Citizens in Assam’, p 225.

81 Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Gopa Samanta, Dancing with the River: People and Life on the Chars of South Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017, p 38.

82 Kasia Paprocki, ‘Threatening Dystopias: Development and Adaptation Regimes in Bangladesh’, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(4), 2018, p 60.

83 Baruah, ‘Tribal Politics in Assam’, p 92.

84 NRC has polarized public opinion, at least among those who question the norms and rules of citizenship. See Barbora, ‘National Register of Citizenship’, p 6.

85 Matthew S Hull, Government of Paper: The Materiality of Bureaucracy in Urban Pakistan, Berkeley: University of California, 2012, p 212.

86 By the present government, I mean two elections, firstly in 2016 and the other in 2021, which brought the BJP-led government to power in the Assam legislative assembly.

87 Barbora, ‘Counting Citizens in Assam, p 223. For a full discussion see https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/toxic-ecologies-assam-oil-and-crude-future (accessed 21 September 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juri Baruah

Juri Buaruah is a doctoral scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati.