The Making of a ‘Non-citizen’ in India: The Role of Policy, Polity, and Media

Citizenship in Assam was a contested issue even before the country got independence. Binaries were drawn before national boundaries. Assam witnessed multiple waves of migration. Migration in fact shaped the colonial and post colonial politics in Assam. While the spectre of the illegal immigrant minoritising the indigenous is used regularly to polarise society and politics, its impact is beyond electoral results. Media and government policies come together to portray poor Muslims of East Bengal origin as ‘doubtful’ or ‘suspicious’ citizens. This not only justifies the harassment in the form of eviction that these people face but also absolves the government of providing relief and rehabilitation to the people. This chapter tries to understand how the state, the government policies and the media comes together to portray a marginalised community as ‘non’ citizens and turn them into social and political pariahs deprived of any rights.