“A March Is Beginning, a March for Freedom”: Miya Poetry as Decolonial Praxis Toward Justice and Liberation

Citizenship regimes are a core mechanism through which colonial violence operates in post-colonial nation states. The 2019 National Register of Citizens disenfranchised nearly two million people in Assam, Northeast India. The vast majority of those disenfranchised are Miya people engaged in a century-long history of citizenship struggle dating back to the British colonial rule. Here, we present Miya poetry as a form of decolonial praxis through which Miya people are striving toward liberation from the coloniality of citizenship regimes. We co-write this chapter as and in solidarity with Miya communities at the frontlines of these struggles. Centering Miya poetry and testimonies of Miya poets, we show how Miya poetry unmasks mechanisms of structural and cultural violence, shifts the narrative of citizenship crisis from a politico-legal one to an existential one, and embodies a call for liberation from all kinds of oppression. We conclude with possibilities for complicating decolonial resistance.