Homeland Insecurities: Autonomy, Conflict, and Migration in Assam (Hardbound-2022)

'Homeland Insecurities' engages with the impact of counterinsurgency, migration, and conflicts arising out of demands for autonomy in Assam, Northeast India. It asks three sets of related questions: (a) what are the origins of demands for ethnic homelands? (b) why does migration continue to be such an overarching oeuvre in political discourse in Assam and how does one engage with new forms of mobility? (c) how does a society recover from counterinsurgency and what are the new forms of militarisation that are emerging in the present? Working on the main argument that demands for autonomy and social justice have been central themes that have been historically articulated in Assam, it shows the tensions that arise in explanations about causes of conflict in the state. These tensions, I argue, are best understood through a critical engagement with everyday politics of organisations and individuals working on the ground. Although there is a general tendency to read conflict in Assam through the lenses of ethnicity and development, nevertheless there is evidence to show that affect offers an additional analytical tool because of its ability to offer a layered, sometimes paradoxical account of events and situations that cause conflicts in the region.

Sanjay Barbora is a sociologist who has worked extensively with media and human rights advocacy. His research interests intersect along issues pertaining to agrarian change, media, science and technology impact on social sciences, migration and human-animal interface in conservation. In the past decade, he has contributed to debates on borderlands, citizenship, identity, and human rights in South Asia. He is affiliated to the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India, and is on the editorial board of Refugee Watch.