Written by Amrita Dutta |Updated: April 6, 2019 12:45:06 am
Book review: Not quite at home
The fraught question of belonging, identity and autonomy in the Northeast
The fraught question of belonging, identity and autonomy has been playing out in the Northeast for decades. It has erupted in insurgencies in Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram. It fuels the racism that residents of the Northeast face in the mainland, where they are embattled outsiders. But there is another side to this story, the unacknowledged experience of those who are “outsiders” and minorities in the Northeast. In his essay in the anthology under review, Sanjoy Hazarika lists the derogatory names for “outsiders” in each state — the Bongaal or miyah or bidekhi in Assam, the dkhar in Meghalaya, the vai in Mizoram. As the turmoil in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) reveals, the question of belonging still has desperate consequences for the so-called outsiders — 40 lakh people now face the threat of being designated non-citizens.
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