Category: Article

Citizens in Suspense? Portraying the Voices of the Borderlanders along the Indo-Bangladesh Border

Article

By Nisha Chettri and Nawal K Paswan

The India-Bangladesh border, demarcated by the Radcliffe Line in 1947, stretches around 4,096 km along the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. The border fencing was introduced to curb illegal migration and enhance national security. However, in Assam, the fencing has introduced a range of social and economic challenges. Many residents of border villages, especially those living outside the fence or near the zero line, face restricted access to land, mobility, healthcare, and other basic services. Movement across the fence is strictly regulated by the Border Security Force through scheduled gate timings and with mandatory identification checks. While existing literature has largely focused on security concerns, migration, and territorial integrity, there remains a significant gap in understanding the everyday realities of those residing in these fenced border areas. Issues such as disrupted livelihoods, displacement, psychological distress, and limited compensation for land loss are underrepresented in both academic and policy discussions. This study, therefore, explores the socio-economic conditions and human security status of border villages in Assam. Engaging with the conceptual framework of citizenship in suspense, it argues that residents in these zones occupy a paradoxical position where they are legally recognised as citizens but functionally excluded from full political and material inclusion. The paper calls for a rethinking of border governance that goes beyond security logics to address the rights, needs, and uncertainties faced by those who live under constant surveillance but remain beyond protection.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17745446

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Statelessness as Rule and Citizenship as Exception: Analysing Rights and Risks of the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh

Article

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.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17549379

Women and Agency: A Study of Women’s Reproductive Lives in Assam

Article

By Adishree Borgohain and Sarmistha Das

A woman’s reproductive health is an important aspect of her overall physical and mental wellbeing and should be understood within the wider socio-economic, political and behavioral context of her life. The ability of women to make decisions and lifestyle choices in terms of her reproductive health will be discussed in this paper vis-à-vis her agency, i.e., autonomy over her own body and fertility. This notion of reproductive agency will be explored via the parameters of education, occupation and age of marriage to shed light on how non-biomedical factors have a crucial impact on reproductive health. The paper will to unpack the existing discourse of reproductive health in Guwahati city of Assam through in-depth qualitative interviews conducted by the authors with women of selected areas of the city. It will also critically examine the government intervention to improve the reproductive health status of the women in the city through its various policies, programmes and discuss whether and how it has impacted the women’s reproductive health status.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17542560

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Public Perceptions of Police in Mizoram: A Study of Demographic and Contextual Variables

Article

By Lalthanmawia and Zonunsanga Colney

This paper is an attitudinal study that examines how demographic factors such as race, age, gender, education, occupation, and income and such contextual variables as police contact, corruption, fear of crime, police fairness, determine public perception of police in Mizoram that is one of the states of North East India. It is the first attempt of its kind that studies public attitude towards the police in Mizoram. The findings of this study show that the police are admired and revered by the people for their role in the state. All predictors employed in the study are statistically significant predictors of police perception. The general public have positive attitude toward the police if their requests are met by the police. Those people who exhibit unequivocal appreciative view about the police are ready to help and cooperate with the police. This positive perception of the police has important implications for community policing in the state. Our research results concur with the findings of certain researchers that in small states of India like Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura, people are generally happy with police performance. But police still need to adopt better and more people friendly approach so as to make the police-public relations more conducive to the successful implementation of community policing.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17500978

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Cultural Jewellery and Accessories of the Lamkang Tribe

Article

By Sungnem Shimla Lamkang and Th. Purnima Devi

Jewellery and accessories constitute an important part of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) that is used to express cultural imagination and experiences.  The Lamkang tribe has a unique identification marker of heritage and their culture.  The knowledge of weaving, jewellery, and accessories has been passed down from generation to generation and plays a significant role in people’s social and cultural lives. This paper uses a survey method study, with interviews as the mode of data collection with community members, artisans, and elders to gather first-hand accounts of the cultural meaning and functions of Jewellery and accessories. Materials are analyzed by collecting through photography and written records. The study found 13 pieces of traditional jewellery and accessories in males and females, nine pieces of jewellery from females, and four from males with photography collected during fieldwork. In the past, each personal adornment had significance and symbolic aspects attached to it. Later on, jewellery was limited to folk dance and festive occasions in the contemporary era. The paper also illustrates the significance of human civilization development in improving accessories created with technology, such as forging and filing techniques; therefore, metal material could be used.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17475151

References

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Dhaundiyal, D., & Dangwal, S. (2024). Ethnographic Insights into Bead Jewellery Traditions of the Women of the Van Gujjar Community of Uttarakhand. Chitrolekha Journal on Art & Design, 8(1).

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Ding, W., & Liu, S. (2022, July). Combination of ornamentation and health preservation. In 2022 3rd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2022) (pp. 732-739). Atlantis Press.

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Peopling in the Empire’s Borderland: A Note on Kuki History and Ancestry in Northeast India

Article

By Jangkhomang Guite

This paper examines the history and ancestry of the Tibeto-Burman Family (TBF) in general and the “Kuki-Chin Group” of the TBF in particular. It argues against the dominant colonial civilizational narrative that ridiculed the whole tribal peoples in Northeast India as “peoples without history”. Based on the written accounts (both religious and secular) of the valley states and societies surrounding their mountain redoubts, supplemented by objective linguistic, genetic, and archaeological sources, studies in recent years have successfully reconstructed the history of the tribes since the ancient period. The latest genetic studies show that the ancestry of TBF in the region dates back to the second millennium BCE. Studies on ancient literature show that Kukis are the “Tilabharas” of Mahabharata, the “Tiladai” of Ptolemy’s Geography, and the “Thalutae” of Pliny’s History. Buddhist sources known them as “Ko-ki” which had become, in the Bengal world since ancient times, the generic nomenclature for the hills tribes of the southern Himalayas. One copper-plate inscription from ancient Tripura (Bengal) is a testament to the “Kuki” ancestry on the eastern frontier of Bengal. Their presence in the rolling mountains between Bengal and Burma plains in the medieval world is also testified by the Rajmala and Cheitharol Kumbaba, the royal chronicles of Tripura and Manipur respectively, the Burmese inscriptions, and the Tang Chinese chronicle. Their megalithic remains, which are of a living tradition amongst them until recent times, are a living testimony of their ancestry in the southern Himalayas.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17491275

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The Enduring Legacy of Khasi Blacksmithing: Indigenous Metallurgy and Craftsmanship in Meghalaya

Article

By Natalie Jo-Anne Diengdoh

This study explores traditional blacksmithing and indigenous metallurgy among the Khasi people of Meghalaya, India, with a focus on the villages of Mylliem and Nongkynrih. Drawing from oral histories, ethnographic fieldwork, and archival sources, the paper examines how ironworking practices persist as both a livelihood and a cultural expression rooted in myth, ritual, and resistance. In the modern landscape, blacksmithing in Khasi society reflects an adaptive material culture, responding to environmental, spiritual, and socio-political changes. In Mylliem, smithing remains linked to ancestral knowledge, communal cooperation, and utilitarian craft, while in Nongkynrih, it embodies historical defiance especially during the Khasi resistance against British colonial intrusion. The paper also investigates the economic dynamics of local trade, seasonal production, and artisanal specialization. Despite the pressures of modernization and market competition, Khasi blacksmiths continue to forge tools essential to agricultural, domestic, and ritual life. Their work illustrates a resilience that merges technical knowledge, symbolic meaning, and cultural continuity.

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Debating the Dire Need for Discourse on Racism in India

Article

By Ratna Huirem and Kathiresan Loganathan

Racism is a word not often featured in academic discourses in India. Ignored, deflected, defied, or denied by intellectuals and the common man alike, it is like a damp squib. This article aims to point out that racism is not a farcical phenomenon; but is instead deeply embedded in our society. It therefore traces the narratives of racial discrimination that people from Northeast India have been facing. Ogling, mocking, shaming, name-calling, discrimination at work places have been the relatively softer practices of racism, which can be termed as ‘footnote racism’. However, violent attacks and physical intimidation have been not rare either. These are termed as ‘headline racism’. The 2012 exodus of the NE people from various cities of ‘mainland’ India, their racial profiling, and selective targeting during COVID-19 are testimonies of racism against them within India, their own country. The media relegates stories of and from the NE to near insignificance. The NER is perceived by most outside the region as a hotbed of violence. This further adds to the foreboding and misconceived imagination and perceptions.  Hence, public knowledge about the NER is marred often by falsities, stemming from poor or wrong narratives. This is often manifested in the form of racist practices. Distinct bio-physical markers make the NE person stand out and this ‘different’ appearance creates a lot of complexities. Being an ethnic and racial minority in India, their ‘otherness’ is made palpable through various overt and covert hierarchical social positioning and practices of racial supremacy by the dominant majority. Neo-capitalistic practices towards employment in typical sectors also have a foreboding of colonisation. Arguments that the SC/ST Act provides protective cover is untenable as every person residing in the NER is not all SC/ST. It is the lurking covert but embedded racist pathology that must be tackled.

Keywords: Denial, Discrimination, Ethnicity, Hierarchy, Northeast India, Phenotype, Racial Formation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17455989

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Women and Gangte Danpi: A Feminist Perspective of Customary Law among the Gangte Tribe

Article

By Mercie Gangte

Customary law embodies the governance and cultural identity of a society, shaping how its members live and interact on a daily basis. Even today customary laws are established social practices which are implemented as the mode of social control and social sanction amongst many tribe societies of North East India. Focusing on the patriarchal and patrilineal Gangte tribe, the paper will highlight the instances in which women share their lived experiences wherein they have been perpetually entrapped in multiple problematic situations when negotiating their spaces pertaining to laws with regard to marriage, divorce, inheritance and decision making. It also seeks to examine how the social structures of the patriarchal Gangte society stunt women’s development and perpetuate their invisibility and the paper also aims to unravel how the customary laws have been responsible for the oppression of women, denying them social and economic security.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14866712

Territoriality and State Making Practices in the Northeast Frontier of British India

Article

By Lipokmar Dzüvichü

This article explores the relationship between territoriality and state making practices in the Northeast Frontier of British India in the nineteenth century. It examines the complex ways in which colonial territorial strategies were framed and enacted in a variety of spatial settings. Territoriality formed an important strategy of the British raj in its attempt to “control actions, interactions [and] access” of people, things and relationships over the frontier geographies. By establishing symbols of state institutions in the “wild” frontier spaces, colonial officials sought to institute and put in place a semblance of order and control over the imperial margins. These undertakings were in turn closely entangled with the colonial efforts to transform the “ill-defined” frontier landscape into clearly defined state spaces. Colonial territorial strategies were not only critical in order to define its spatial and institutional presence in the frontier, but also simultaneously aimed to historicize colonial authority and territorial possession. Colonial territorializing strategies were, however, not a simple linear enterprise. It proceeded over a landscape that was marked by a variety of political systems, relations and practices. Even as colonial authorities worked its way into the region, the state attempt to institute new forms of regulations and authority would also engender various responses and reactions by a variety of actors. The article will examine some of these complex processes that accompanied state territorialization initiatives and ascendancies in the frontier.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14717281

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