Assamese jatiyatabadis (ethno-nationalists) continue to argue that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise that was undertaken in Assam over the last two years was a necessity and must be supported. They believe that an all-India NRC would be disastrous and communal, but the Assam list, which ended up excluding 1.9 million people in its final iteration, has some “nuance” to it, which the “outsiders” do not understand.

This is a view coloured by ethno-nationalist bias. It is the direct outcome of decades of anti-immigrant, xenophobic and chauvinist propaganda pushed into the public imagination of Assam by the mainstream civil society organisations, intelligentsia and political elites. According to this view, Assam faces a demographic, cultural and economic threat from “illegal Bangladeshis”. The NRC, thus, is a much-required tool to identify them.

Ethno-nationalists of all political persuasions continue to hold this view despite the fact that the NRC process led to widespread misery, panic and anxiety amongst the most marginalised and vulnerable of Assam’s communities. The list-making exercise is also part of the same citizenship determination regime in Assam that includes the judicially-twisted Foreigner Tribunals (FTs) and the undemocratic Detention Camps. The distance between the NRC and the horrid interiors of a detention camp isn’t very big.

The NRC in Assam has to be rejected and opposed with the same insistence and ferocity as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 and the prospective all-India NRC. In fact, it is the Assam NRC model that the government will try to emulate across the country while simultaneously building new detention facilities.

Following is a list of articles authored by some of us from Assam on how unjust, segregationist, oppressive and undemocratic the NRC process was. The list is multi-disciplinary and also touches related themes of Assamese ethno-nationalism (from which the NRC derives its core legitimacy), the Indian citizenship framework, statelessness and the recently-enacted CAA.

  1. Assam’s Miya Community is now threatened with Eviction, The Indian Express, 7th October 2021 / Nazimuddin Siddique
  2. The BJP has doubled down on Identity Politics in Assam: Why is the Congress steering clear of it? Scroll, 27th March 2021 / Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi
  3. The Scorching Rays of Assamese Nationalism, The Hindu, 30th September 2021 / Suraj Gogoi
  4. Assam Eviction Violence, Under Sarma Rule, Muslims face a Double Attack, The Quint, 24 September 2021 / Suraj Gogoi
  5. Delhi Treats Northeast as Just a Frontier, What about its People? The Quint, 3 August 2021 / Suraj Gogoi
  6. How to Shred a Fabric: the Assam Repealing Act, The Telegraph, 29th January 2021 / Suraj Gogoi
  7. False Pledge: NRC in Assam, The Telegraph, 30th November 2020 / Suraj Gogoi
  8. Who is an Assamese? Why new ‘cut-off’ date proposal is dangerous, The Quint, 13th August 2020 / Angshuman Choudhury
  9. Saving “Jati, Maati, Bheti”: Assamese civil society needs to recognise where the real threat lies, The Scroll, 13th July 2020 / Angshuman Choudhury
  10. The Myth of anti-secular protests in Assam, Eleventh Column, 9th August 2020 / Suraj Gogoi & Abhinav P Borboa.
  11. Refusal, Romanticism and Ground Realities in Northeast India, Borderlines, 22 May 2020 / Suraj Gogoi.
  12. Suddenly Stateless Conversation Series V: “Procedure as Violence”, Polis Project, Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Suraj Gogoi.
  13. An Open Letter To Noam Chomsky ON CAA, NPR, NRC, Countercurrents, 20 February 2020 / Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi
  14. Covid-19 pandemic is an opportunity for Assam to correct the historical wrong, Polis Project, 9th April 2020 / Arijit Sen.
  15. All Assam Students’ Union, Anti CAA protests and lack of women’s representation, Countercurrents, 7 February 2020 / Bhargabi Das & Sutputra Radheye
  16. Assam NRC exercise and citizenship determination drive hold warning to other states of the shape of things to come, Firstpost, 30 January 2020 / Angshuman Choudhury
  17. All Assam Students’ Union, Anti CAA protests and lack of women’s representation,
    Countercurrents, Feb 7, 2020/ Sutputra Radheye
  18. Assam NRC exercise and citizenship determination drive hold warning to other states of the shape of things to come, Firstpost, Jan 30, 2020/ Angshuman Choudhury
  19. CAA-NRC Has Set Off Dangerous Identity Politics in the Northeast, Freedom Gazette, Jan 21, 2020/ Prasenjit Biswas
  20. The Indian State’s approach to CAA-NRC is flawed, Hindustan Times, Jan 21 2020/ Suraj Gogoi
  21. Does the CAA legalise exclusion?, People’s Review, Jan 20, 2020/ Prasenjit Biswas
  22. CAA and Laws in the Making in Northeast India, Newsclick, Jan 20, 2020/ Prasenjit Biswas
  23. Can Assam Look Beyond Ethnic and Regional Politics?, India Cultural Forum, Jan 10, 2020/Suraj Gogoi & Rintu Borah
  24. Isn’t NRC Elitist And Patriarchal? Looking At National Identity Through A Feminist Lens, Youth Ki Awaaz, 23 Oct 2019/ Pooja Kalita
  25. NRC: The state as a dehumanized machine, The Telegraph, 14  Nov 2019/ Bhargabi Das
  26. Assam’s NRC consensus: Lack of public disorder after draft didn’t mean absence of violence, Scroll, 23 Dec 2019 / Suraj Gogoi & Abhinav P Borbora
  27. Assam cabinet nod to accord stature of state language to Assamse may striffle growth of other tongue spoken, Firstpost, 23 Dec 2019/ Samyak Ghosh & Suraj Gogoi
  28. AASU return to centre stage as Assamese elites, commoners, repose faith in student body to lead fight against CAA, Firstpost, 18 Dec 2019, Abhinav P Borbora & Suraj Gogoi
  29. Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC are two sides of same coin; both seek to alienate India’s Muslims, Firstpost, 17 Dec 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi
  30. Why Assamese are against CAB, Mumbai Mirror, 11 Dec 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury
  31. Why is the Indian state shockingly blind to the problem of statelessness?, Scroll.in, 30 Oct 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury
  32. Psychology behind NRC mirrors narrow, dominating side of Assamese language, and its fragile nationalism, cultural identity, Firstpost, 20 Oct 2019 / Suraj Gogoi
  33. The NRC’s spillover effect, Himal Southasian, 14 Oct 2019 / Suraj Gogoi & Rohini Sen
  34. How my mother briefly became an illegal immigrant in India, Channel NewsAsia, 10 Oct 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury
  35. Patriarchal Worlds of Contemporary Assamese Nationalism, Raiot, Sep 13, 2019/ Pooja Kalita & Prithiraj Borah
  36. A narrow nationalism again, The Hindu, 12 Sept 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi
  37. Re-contextualising the NRC: A Response to Hiren Gohain, Countercurrents, 10 Sept 2019 / Suraj Gogoi & Angshuman Choudhury
  38. Counting to Segreggate: Behind Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), South Asia Journal, 6 Sept 2019/ Angshuman Choudhury
  39. The State needs identity politics so that its agenda can survive, The Telegraph, 6 Sept 2019 / Rintu Borah & Suraj Gogoi
  40. The NRC signals a deeper crisis of citizenship, Hindustan Times, 3 Sept 2019 / Suraj Gogoi
  41. What the spam dossier on journalists and activists covering NRC tells us about Assamese Supremacy, Newslaundry, 28 Aug 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi
  42. National Register of Citizens (NRC) – A Synonym for Deep Anxiety, The Citizen, 19 Aug 2019 / Abhinav P Borbora, Suraj Gogoi & Angshuman Choudhury
  43. Miyah poetry row: How to read public statements against the backdrop of the backlash, Firstpost, Aug 08, 2019/ Yengkhom Jilangamba
  44. Miyah poetry row in Assam: Analysing the pushback through lens of attitude towards marginalised, Firstpost, Jul 30, 2019/ Gorky Chakraborty
  45. Ex-Assam guv SK Sinha’s report on illegal immigration in state is riddled with contradictions, dubious data, Firstpost, 29 July 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury
  46. Language Games of Assam: The Mainstream vs the Margins, Indian Cultural Forum, 17 July 2019 / Parag Jyoti Saikia, Suraj Gogoi & Angshuman Choudhury
  47. Mainstream ‘progressives’ in Assam are actually liberal hegemons, Newslaundry, 16 July 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury
  48. What Hiren Gohain’s bitter criticism of Miyah poetry tells us about Assamese nationalism, Firstpost, 6 July 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi
  49. Miyah Poetry Weaves a World of Suffering and Humiliation in Contemporary Assam, The Wire, 3 July 2019 / Suraj Gogoi
  50. Miyah Poetry in the time of  Nationalism, The Wire, 14 Jul 2019, Rintu Borah & Prithiraj Borah
  51. Complains of low exclusions from NRC reflects a mode of thinking, Countercurrents, 17 Sept 2019/ Abhinav P. Borbora
  52. Home Minister Amit Shah expands Foreigner Tribunals across India, Asia Times, 14 June 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury
  53. With Anti-Immigrant Stance, Are We Becoming A ‘Gardening State’?, The Quint, 13 June 2019 / Suraj Gogoi & Angshuman Choudhury
  54. In the Guise of Protest Music, Assamese Artists Churn out Hate Speech, The Wire, 9 May 2019 / Suraj Gogoi & Abhinav P Borbora
  55. What Do Walls in Guwahati Tell Us About Its People and Their History?, The Wire, 14 April 2019 / Samyak Ghosh & Suraj Gogoi
  56. Debate: The Real ‘Burning Questions’ of Assam, The Wire, 14 March 2019 / Suraj Gogoi, Parag Jyoti Saikia, Gorky Chakraborty & Abhinav P Borbora
  57. It’s time we talk about racism in Assam, Newslaundry, 5 Feb 2019 / Suraj Gogoi
  58. Citizenship Bill: JPC report shows how proposed law violates constitutional principles of equality before law, Firstpost, 25 Jan 2019 / Angshuman Choudhury & Jonmani Das
  59. Citizenship Determinational Processes in Assam: The NRC and Beyond, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (Special Report), October 2018 / Angshuman Choudhury (pages 5-8)
  60. Tinsukia killings: After almost a decade of relative calm, Assam faces threat of violence over ethno-nationalism, Firstpost, 17 Nov 2018 / Angshuman Choudhury
  61. Underprivileged risk losing citizenship in India’s NRC drive, Asia Times, 1 Aug 2018 / Angshuman Choudhury
  62. My Mother Can Fight Her NRC Exclusion, but What About the Rest?, Bloomberg Quint, 1 Aug 2018 / Angshuman Choudhury
  63. The NRC and Legal Voids in Statelessness in India, The Envoy, 11 July 2018 / Angshuman Choudhury
  64. NRC Assam: Sarbananda Sonowal, Himanta Biswa Sarma warn ‘illegal foreigners’ but overlook constitutional obligation, Firstpost, 4 May 2018 / Angshuman Choudhury
  65. Assam Against Itself: A Reply to Sanjib Baruah, LSE South Asia blog/ Suraj Gogoi, Gorky Chakraborty, & Parag Jyoti Saikia
  66. Narrow Assamese identity thrives amidst shameful citizenship process, Asia Times, 9 Jan 2019/ Suraj Gogoi
  67. Strikes have become test-cases for freedom of space in Assam, Asia Times, 23 Jan 2019/ Suraj Gogoi
  68. A lack of citizenship will produce second class citizens, Asia Times, 7 Feb 2019/ Suraj Gogoi
  69. Dissent over citizenship bill causes havoc, Asia Times, 8 Feb 2019/ Suraj Gogoi and Shyamal Chakma
  70. Professor  Hiren Gohain, Let’s talk about Assam again, The Wire, 13 Feb 2019/ Gorky Chakraborty, Suraj Gogoi and Paraj Jyoti Saikia
  71. Citizenship Bill: The other in Assam, The Statesman, 25 Feb 2019/ Suraj Gogoi  and Prasenjit Biswas
  72. Waiting for citizenship: a global phenomena, Asia Times. 12 Mar 2019/ Suraj Gogoi and Paraj Jyoti Saikia
  73. In Assam, Nostalgia shelters Assam Gana Parishad’s flexible regional beliefs, The Wire. 21 Mar 2019/ Suraj Gogoi and Abhinav P. Borbora
  74. NRC Updation Ends: 19 lakh Indians are not Indians anymore, Pune Mirror, 1 Sept 2019/ Suraj Gogoi
  75. The silence of the media: National Register Of Citizens in Assam, Newslaundry, 2 Jul 2018/ Parag Jyoti Saikia & Suraj Gogoi
  76. The rise of Philistines in Assam, Newslaundry, 16  Jul 2018/ Parag Jyoti Saikia & Suraj Gogoi
  77. How NRC legitimised xenophobia and chauvinism in Assam, Newslaundry, 2 Aug 2018/ Parag Jyoti Saikia & Suraj Gogoi
  78. A Reply to Dr. Hiren Gohain, Countercurrents, 11 Aug 2018/ Suraj Gogoi and Parag Jyoti Saikia
  79. NRC Muddle: vigilante students union and India’s borderlands, Asia Times, 23 Aug 2018/ Suraj Gogoi
  80. NRC and Intellectual Racism, Sabrang, 29 Aug 2018/ Suraj Gogoi and Parag Jyoti Saikia
  81. Re-imagining Assamese identity under the shadow of NRC, Asia Times, 31 Aug 2018/ Suraj Gogoi
  82. A Register most flawed, Fountain ink, 8 Oct 2018/ Parag Jyoti Saikia & Suraj Gogoi
  83. Intellectuals shaping a Narrow Homogenous identity in Assam, Asia Times, 29 Oct 2018/ Suraj Gogoi
  84. Latest Killings put spotlight on Assamese nationalism, Asia Times, 13 Nov 2018/ Suraj Gogoi

This list is non-exhaustive and will be continuously updated.

Featured image: Tombstone in memory of Ananta Biswas, Abhinash Biswas, Shyamlal Biswas, Subal Das and Dhananjay Namasudra who were gunned down by unidentified personnels in Kherbari in Sadiya in 2018.

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