Statelessness as Rule and Citizenship as Exception: Analysing Rights and Risks of the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh
By Subha Mangal Chakma
Politically, the Chakma tribal community, a small indigenous group located from Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh were uprooted painfully due to the decolonising projects of partition as well as de-partition, and now with the changes of geographical location to India their political status remains in an ambiguous location between identity of conflicting refugee(hood) and contested citizenship. Politically, as a mere figure of human bodies they are reduced to a contentious issue in Arunachal Pradesh. This paper unpacks the underexplored settings of marginalities and vulnerabilities in-between such identities in shape. Simultanously, it examines the downtrodden processes of emerging necessities and compulsions that led the Chakmas to resort to a legal battle in Court to locate themselves justly in this universe of population. At times, although they succeeded in getting reliefs from the Courts, however, as the author observes, the State’s political willingness is against the Chakmas’ interest and is also contrary to the Court’s rulings. The author argues that the State is a powerhouse on the verge of dismantling Chakmas’ internal core self and indulging in its ultimate collapse. Instead of balancing societies, in reverse, the issue is now stalemated, politicised, criminalised and left in an extraordinarily suspicious precarity.