Bureaucratic Mediations for Biometric Governance in India’s Northeast—Aadhaar in Tripura

Abstract

Interrogating Aadhaar, India’s biometric ID project for its billion-plus residents, in the small north-eastern state of Tripura, where it first achieved high levels of acceptance, reveals that ‘success’ at enrolments into the database was dependent on the subversion of its celebrated biometric potentials by a local mediating bureaucracy. By limiting enrolments to previously documented subjects and enrolling Aadhaar into an ongoing regional situation of strife and reconciliation, the work of the bureaucracy highlights the contextual, territorial conditions of securitisation within which a biometric database takes shape. This paper aims to challenge claims about Aadhaar as an emblematic case of biometric governance ushering in a ‘new’ state, instead suggesting linkages with existing forms of state practices and ongoing state projects.

Keywords:

• Aadhaar
• biometric governance
• bureaucracy
• Northeast India
• peace
• securitisation
• Tripura
• welfare

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the two anonymous South Asia reviewers for their helpful suggestions. I am indebted to Ashish Rajadhyaksha for introducing me to research on Aadhaar at CSCS, Bengaluru, and for his continued insights, and to Akhil Gupta, Christopher Kelty and Jessica Cattelino at UCLA for their valuable comments on prior versions of this paper. Thanks also to the government organisations for giving me access to conduct this research, and to support from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), which gave me the time to work on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

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2. David Lyon, The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994); and Kelly Gates, ‘The US Real ID Act and the Securitization of Identity’, in Colin J. Bennett and David Lyon (eds), Playing the Identity Card: Surveillance, Security and Identification in Global Perspective (London: Routledge, 2008), pp. 75–92.

3. Unique Identification Authority of India, Strategy Overview: Creating a Unique Identity Number for Every Resident in India (Delhi: UIDAI, 2010).

4. Anant Maringanti, ‘Sovereign State and Mobile Subjects: Politics of the UIDAI’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 44, no. 46 (Nov. 2009), pp. 35–40; and Swagato Sarkar, ‘The Unique Identity (UID) Project, Biometrics and Re-Imagining Governance in India’, in Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 42, no. 4 (June 2014), pp. 516–33.

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7. Keith Breckenridge, Biometric State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 2.

8. Abraham and Rajadhyaksha, ‘State Power and Technological Citizenship in India’, p. 82.

9. Bidisha Chaudhuri and Lion König, ‘The Aadhaar Scheme: A Cornerstone of a New Citizenship Regime in India?’, in Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 26, no. 2 (Sept. 2018), pp. 127–42; Maringanti, ‘Sovereign State and Mobile Subjects’, pp. 35–40; and Sarkar, ‘The Unique Identity (UID) Project, Biometrics and Re-Imagining Governance in India’, pp. 516–33.

10. Parul Baxi, ‘Technologies of Disintermediation in a Mediated State: Civil Society Organisations and India’s Aadhaar Project’, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 42, no. 3 (June 2019), pp. 554–71.

11. Ravi Shukla, ‘Reimagining Citizenship: Debating India’s Unique Identification Scheme’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 45, no. 2 (Jan. 2009), pp. 31–6.

12. Breckenridge, Biometric State, p. 2.

13. Akhil Gupta, Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012).

14. Abraham and Rajadhyaksha, ‘State Power and Technological Citizenship in India’, p. 82.

15. Unique Identification Authority of India, Role of Biometric Technology in Aadhaar Enrollment (Delhi: UIDAI, 2012).

16. For a discussion on the slippage between identity and identification in Aadhaar, see Nishant Shah, ‘Identity and Identification: The Individual in the Time of Networked Governance’, in Socio-Legal Review, Vol. 11, no. 2 (2015), pp. 22–40.

17. See Jane Caplan and John Torpey (eds), Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 2.

18. ‘Aadhaar Launched in Tripura, First in N-E Region’, The Economic Times (3 Dec. 2010) [https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/aadhaar-launched-in-tripura-first-in-n-e-region/articleshow/7035460.cms?from=mdr, accessed 4 Jan. 2021].

19. ‘Unique Identification Authority of India’, Press Release (Delhi: UIDAI, 2011) [https://uidai.gov.in/images/pressrelease/final_event_press_note.pdf, accessed 11 June 2020].

20. Ipsita Chakravarty, ‘Aadhaar Has Run into Pockets of Resistance in Three States of the North East’, Scroll.in (15 Nov. 2017) [https://scroll.in/article/857074/aadhaar-has-opened-up-pockets-of-resistance-in-three-states-of-the-north-east, accessed 4 Jan. 2021].

21. Ibid.

22. Government of Tripura, Economic Review of Tripura 2010–11 (Agartala: GoT, 2011) [http://14.139.60.153/bitstream/123456789/11133/1/Economic%20Review%20of%20Tripura%202010-11.pdf, accessed 4 Jan. 2021].

23. Sven Opitz, ‘Government Unlimited: The Security Dispositif of Illiberal Governmentality’, in Ulrich Bröckling et al. (eds), Governmentality: Current Issues and Future Challenges (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), pp. 93–114; Btihaj Ajana, Governing through Biometrics: The Biopolitics of Identity (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); and Benjamin Muller, ‘(Dis)Qualified Bodies: Securitization, Citizenship and “Identity Management”’, in Citizenship Studies, Vol. 8, no. 3 (May 2004), pp. 279–94.

24. Opitz, ‘Government Unlimited’, p. 101.

25. Anindita Ghoshal, Refugees, Borders and Identities: Rights and Habitats in East and Northeast India (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), p. 152; and Gayatri Bhattacharyya, Refugee Rehabilitation and Its Impact on Tripura’s Economy (Calcutta: Omsons Publications, 1988), p. 40.

26. R.K. Debbarma, ‘Where to Be Left Is No Longer Dissidence: A Reading of Left Politics in Tripura’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 52, no. 21 (May 2017), pp. 19–22.

27. Subir Bhaumik, ‘Introduction’, in Subir Bhaumik (ed.), The Agartala Doctrine: A Proactive Northeast in Indian Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 1–36.

28. Unique Identification Authority of India, Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Tripura, (Delhi: UIDAI, 2010) [https://uidai.gov.in/images/mou/TripuraMOU.pdf, accessed 20 June 2020].

29. For more on Aadhaar as a gift, see Lawrence Cohen, ‘The “Social” De-Duplicated: On the Aadhaar Platform and the Engineering of Service’, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 42, no. 3 (May 2019), pp. 482–500, DOI: 10.1080/ 00856401.2019.1593597.

30. See Lawrence Cohen, ‘India as Database: Response to Reetika Khera’, in Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 53, no. 2 (June 2019), pp. 328–40. Further, more time has gone in assembling Aadhaar than using the database as a source of authentications or even reported instances of surveillance demanding equal if not more attention to the early conditions of its emergence.

31. Ghoshal, Refugees, Borders and Identities, pp. 120–1.

32. Who is truly indigenous is open to question as even the ‘original’ inhabitants have been shown to migrate from elsewhere by Misra: see B.P. Misra, Socio-Economic Adjustment of Tribals (Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1976). The migration is ongoing, as seen in the recent quadripartite decision to rehabilitate Bru refugees from Mizoram to Tripura: see Vijaita Singh, ‘34,000 Bru Refugees to be Settled in Tripura’, The Hindu (16 Jan. 2017) [https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/displaced-bru-tribals-from-mizoram-to-permanently-settle-in-tripura/article30577152.ece, accessed 4 Jan. 2021]. Yet, several scholars agree that indigenous communities were outnumbered and stripped of control over land by incoming Bengalis over the decades after Partition.

33. Bhattacharyya, Refugee Rehabilitation and Its Impact on Tripura’s Economy, p. 152.

34. Ibid.

35. Ghoshal, Refugees, Borders and Identities, p. 142; J.B. Ganguli, The Bengal Hills: A Study of Tripura’s Population Growth and Problems (Agartala: Tripura Darpan, 1983), p. 14; and Manos Paul, The Eyewitness: Tales from Tripura’s Ethnic Conflict (New Delhi: Lancer Publishers, 2009), p. 27.

36. B.G. Verghese, India’s Northeast Resurgent: Ethnicity, Insurgency, Governance, Development (New Delhi: Konark Publishers, 1996), p. 38.

37. Ghoshal, Refugees, Borders and Identities, p. 201.

38. Ibid., p. 234.

39. K.G. Öktem, ‘A Comparative Analysis of the Performance of the Parliamentary Left in the Indian States of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura’, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 35, no. 2 (June 2012), pp. 306–28.

40. Ranajay Karlekar, ‘The Tripura Riots, 1980: Problems of Marxist Strategy’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 20, no. 34 (Oct. 1985), pp. 1427–32; and Debbarma, ‘Where to Be Left Is No Longer Dissidence’, pp. 19–22.

41. Sanjib Baruah, Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 3.

42. Ghoshal, Refugees, Borders and Identities, p. 232.

43. Debbarma, ‘Where to Be Left Is No Longer Dissidence’, p. 2.

44. Subir Bhaumik (ed.), The Agartala Doctrine: A Proactive Northeast in Indian Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 18.

45. Sanjoy Hazarika, Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India’s Northeast (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2000), p. 477.

46. Subir Bhaumik, ‘Tripura: Counter-Insurgency and Governance’, in Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Government of Peace: Social Governance, Security and the Problematic of Peace (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2016), pp. 79–105 [92].

47. Sudeep Chakravarti, ‘“Bangalistan” May Take Tripura Back to Its Bloody Past’, Mint (22 Jan. 2020), [https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/-bangalistan-may-take-tripura-back-to-its-bloody-past-11579716487421.html, accessed 4 Jan. 2021].

48. Baruah, Durable Disorder, p. 16; state-directed violence and impunity from criticism has been described in Amnesty International, Persecuted for Challenging Injustice: Human Rights Defenders in India (London: Amnesty International, 2000).

49. Bhaumik, ‘Tripura: Counter-Insurgency and Governance’, in Ranabir Samaddar (eds), Government of Peace: Social Governance, Security and the Problematic of Peace (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2016), pp. 79–105 [92].

50. Ghoshal, Refugees, Borders and Identities, p. 58.

51. Ibid., pp. 66–7.

52. Government of Tripura, The Tripura Panchayat Raj Rules (Agartala: Tripura Administration, 1961).

53. Bhaumik (ed.), The Agartala Doctrine, p. 4; and Thongkholal Haokip, ‘India’s Look East Policy: Its Evolution and Approach’, in South Asian Survey, Vol. 18, no. 2 (Sept. 2011), pp. 239–57.

54. Nandan Nilekani, Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation (Delhi: Penguin Books, 2010).

55. Unique Identification Authority of India, Strategy Overview (Delhi: UIDAI, 2010).

56. Unique Identification Authority of India, Aadhaar Product Document (Delhi: UIDAI, 2014).

57. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, In the Wake of Aadhaar: The Digital Ecosystem of Governance in India (Bangalore: Centre for Study of Culture and Society, 2013), p. 131.

58. Government of Tripura, eRoR [http://eror.tripura.nic.in, accessed 12 Dec. 2020].

59. Niraja Jayal Gopal, Citizenship and Its Discontents, p. 17.

60. Ipsita Chakravarty, ‘After Assam, Will Tripura Be the Next State to Get a National Register of Citizens?’, Scroll.in (17 Oct. 2018) [https://scroll.in/article/898388/after-assam-will-tripura-be-the-next-state-to-get-a-national-register-of-citizens, accessed 4 Jan. 2021].

61. Pradyot Deb Barman, ‘Tripura Isn’t Anti-Hindu. But We Must Stop Citizenship Bill, We Can’t Take In More People’, The Print (10 Dec. 2019) [https://theprint.in/opinion/tripura-not-anti-hindu-but-must-stop-citizenship-bill-cant-take-more-people/333220/, accessed 4 Jan 2021].

62. Taha Mehmood, ‘The Fuzzy Logic of National Frontiers or a Frontier Nation: Reflections on the Multi-Purpose National Identity Card Scheme in India’, in Monica Narula et al. (eds), Sarai Reader: Frontiers (Delhi: CSDS, 2007), pp. 144–58.

63. Pushpita Das, ‘India–Bangladesh Border Management: A Review of Government’s Response’, in Strategic Analysis, Vol. 32, no. 3 (May 2008), pp. 367–88.

64. Ranabir Samaddar, ‘Introduction’, in Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Government of Peace: Social Governance, Security and the Problematic of Peace (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2016), pp. 1–18.

65. Government of Tripura, Dhalai [https://dhalai.nic.in/history/, accessed 6 Jan. 2021]; Unique Identification Authority of India, Number of Aadhaar for Tripura [https://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar_dashboard/india.php?map_state=Tripura, accessed 6 Jan. 2021].

66. Subir Bhaumik, ‘Tripura: Ethnic Conflict, Militancy and Counterinsurgency’, in Policies and Practices, Vol. 52, no. 1 (2012), pp. 18–9.

67. Haokip, ‘India’s Look East Policy’, 239; and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Northeastern Region Vision 2020 (Delhi: MoDONER, 2008) [https://mdoner.gov.in/contentimages/files/Vision_2020.pdf, accessed 12 Dec. 2020].

68. Shibashis Chatterjee, ‘Conceptions of Space in India’s Look East Policy: Order, Cooperation or Community?’, in South Asian Survey, Vol. 14, no. 1 (June 2007), pp. 65–81.

69. Government of Tripura Planning Department, Vision 2030 Tripura (Agartala: GoT, 2019).

70. NITI Aayog and United Nations India, From Vision 2030 to Planning and Implementation for North Eastern States (Delhi: NITI Aayog, 2016), p. 9.

71. Samaddar (ed.), Government of Peace, p. 3.

72. Ibid.

73. Ibid., p. 37.