We are shaken and frozen. Is this the last sky? We can hardly gather words to write this. Assembling them to describe the heinousness of the crime we saw is both painful and difficult. On Thursday, a body, a Muslim body was not only gunned down in cold blood from a close range, but a government photographer, masked his[Read More…]
Assamese nationalism is a cultural project of the caste Assamese middle class. They have remained true to their conviction of the ‘anti-foreigner’ consciousness. The psychology of hate for the ‘outsider’ manufactured by this middle class became a norm in the public sphere in Assam. Any deviation from this norm turns one into an anti-cultural actor and destroyer of culture. Any[Read More…]
by Niranta Gohain, KK Chattradhara, Manash Jyoti Chutia, Suraj Gogoi & Parag Jyoti Saikia OIL were given environmental clearance to drill for hydrocarbons in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park recently. On 27th of May a major explosion took place in one of its drilling wells causing havoc. This is a preliminary report on the event ‘The obligation to endure gives us[Read More…]
Co-Written by Angshuman Choudhury & Suraj Gogoi Dear Professor Chomsky, Hope you are well. Please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are two young academics from the Northeast Indian state of Assam. [Angshuman is a researcher at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (New Delhi) while Suraj is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the National University of Singapore.][Read More…]
There is a difference between a victim and a martyr. My effort in this piece is to relocate the victim in contemporary Assam and critique the amnesia built around the victim. What is a victim? A victim is someone who is allows us to identify the experiences of evil. Evil, writes historian Wendy Doniger, is not what we do. In[Read More…]
Cultural worlds are fluid, and so are humans. Assimilation and migration are intrinsic to any society. Thus Assam is not an aberration. Anyone studying Assam knows how complex and layered its history is. So it is obvious that the articulation of Assamese identity has also undergone multiple changes. The Assam Movement was primarily a cultural movement. It defined the measurements of the “son[Read More…]
Society cannot escape human influences, wrote philosopher and revolutionary Frantz Fanon. Student unions have played a significant role in shaping the contours of regional politics in Northeast India. The All Assam Students’ Union, All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union, and Khasi Students’ Union, among others, have often defined the measurements and boundaries of all spheres of life in the region. As expected,[Read More…]
The NRC exercise seems to have links to the border police and Foreigners’ Tribunal, despite official denials. Co-Written by Parag Jyoti Saikia and Suraj Gogoi As soon as the draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released, an image went viral across media platforms in Assam. It was that of the All Assam Student Union (AASU) members[Read More…]
Co-Written by Parag Jyoti Saikia and Suraj Gogoi In Assam, a certain section of people desire intellectuals who do not question human rights issues, authority or policy. The current social and political milieu in Assam is replete with claims and counterclaims over citizenship and measurements of being an Assamese. Assam has always been a site of such claims, where[Read More…]
Co-Written by Parag Jyoti Saikia and Suraj Gogoi Suicides, violence, persecution – why is the media not reporting the NRC process responsibly? On June 11, 2018, four Special Rapporteurs of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) submitted a letter to Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj addressing the racial bias and human rights violations resulting from the National[Read More…]
Co-Written By Suraj Gogoi and Prasenjit Biswas Colonialism is a story of exploitation, subjugation and domination. It sought to establish racial supremacy and resorted to an accumulation of wealth. Be it the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) or the British East India Company, in the name of trade and Empire, they carried out heinous crimes and plunder of its colonies. Racism also has a deep[Read More…]
Co-Written By Suraj Gogoi, Gorky Chakraborty and Parag Jyoti Saikia In response to Professor SanjibBaruah‘s article ‘Stateless in Assam‘ which discussed a new focus on detention camps for ‘stateless citizens’, SurajGogoi, Gorky Chakraborty and Parag JyotiSaikia reflect on the implications of reducing people to ‘bare life’. The Concentration camps that came to the fore during the Holocaust, left a deep impact on human history. It showed[Read More…]
Co-Written by Suraj Gogoi and Parag Jyoti Saikia It is rather unfortunate that we have to share these questions and concerns with you, because you have been an epitome of courage and one who held human dignity above all. Marginalised people of Assam and in civil society respects you for those solidarities that emanated from your pen when they needed[Read More…]
Capital is not equally shared; neither is nature. Our everyday life has become precarious, a life without stability. Spaces that we dwell in are increasingly questioned, mostly spaces that are home to the margins of the society. Such margins and spaces that they dwell in were for a long time considered ‘non-economic’ zones, which lacked interest of movements of[Read More…]
I grew up as a sick child, having suffered a chronic cough for over seven years. My parents tried everything to cure my illness. In one of such pursuits, I found myself traveling to Mayong with my father[1]. We travelled in a bus from Sadiya, the easternmost place in Assam, along with many others. Some were known to me and[Read More…]
US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
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Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
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Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
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Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
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On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
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The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 
Zelensky Faces Difficult Time In Washington D.C. 
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Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
