SciPost Submission Page
National Borders among Families: Removal and ‘Bare Life’ in India
by Salah Punathil
This Submission thread is now published as
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Salah Punathil |
| Submission information | |
|---|---|
| Preprint Link: | scipost_202401_00012v2 (pdf) |
| Date accepted: | 2024-09-09 |
| Date submitted: | 2024-08-26 21:49 |
| Submitted by: | Punathil, Salah |
| Submitted to: | Migration Politics |
| Ontological classification | |
|---|---|
| Academic field: | Political Science |
| Specialties: |
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Abstract
This paper is about the state-driven process of ‘migrant ‘illegality’ (Genova 2002) and its impact on the life of Bengali speaking residents in the Assam state of India. While the movement of people across borders between India and present-day Bangladesh has been historical and complex, this ethnographic work explores how the state-driven process of migrant illegality and the production of ‘bare life’ have disrupted intimate relations and family life among this population in Assam. While the recent NRC (National Register of Citizens) update in Assam identified 1.9 million people as illegal migrants, there has been bureaucratic enactment of ‘migrant illegality’ by Assam Border Police for the last several years. The institutional procedures, court documents and narratives of the select cases of ‘detected’ as well as ‘detained’ migrants from ethnographic fieldwork reveal how the absence of formal papers and errors in the family records, kinship relations and property inheritance among the poor migrant families transforms actual citizens to ‘illegal migrants’ in the bureaucratic manoeuvring and reduces them to their ‘bare life’. The paper also shows how prejudice, arbitrariness, and contradictions feed into the bureaucratic process and lead to intense crises among family units, as several families have both Indians and alleged ‘Bangladeshis’ in their homes today. The paper argues that the major consequence of this state-driven ‘migrant illegality’ in the last two decades has been the creation of national borders among families, unsettling intimate relations and shared spaces.
Author comments upon resubmission
I have made minor revisions suggested by the reviewers and summarised by the editor.
Thanks and Regards,
Salah Punathil
List of changes
1. I have added references to all Supreme Court orders
2. I have given a clarification in footnote 2 and 3 on the confusing use of migrants and citizens and the differentiation- I have used 'Bengali speaking residents in Assam' in most of the places to avoid the binary and neat distinction. There are more footnotes in the paper now.
3. Regarding the clarification on 'bare life' in the context of India and moving beyond Agamben, I have provided elaboration in page 9, 11 and in the conclusion apart from the existing clarifications in the paper.
4. In conclusion, I have added a note on Hindu-Muslim differences in the newer context as this theme has to be addressed separately
5. I have added acknowledgments
Published as Mig. Pol. 3, 005 (2024)