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Negotiating Climate, Citizenship, and Belonging

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Climate Migration Governance and the Discourse of Citizenship in India

Abstract

The current chapter provides an analysis of the functioning of the state in Assam, it considers how the dynamics between politics, society, and law interplays to provide protection to those who have to migrate due to climate change. By analysing the everyday life of the state and the people who occupy it, the chapter provides insights into how the state apparatus manufactures doubtful-voters, doubtful-citizens, and non-citizens towards whom the state has no obligation. The chapter also considers the lives and social capital of the people that enables them (however slightly) to overcome disasters in a warming world. It is argued that the social and political construction of migrants as ‘others’ and ‘from Bangladesh’ has restricted the space for negotiating not just climate resilience but also the citizenship and belonging in the warming world.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sharma 2012, p. 290.

  2. 2.

    The Constituent Assembly Debate 1949 2014.

  3. 3.

    van Schendel 2005.

  4. 4.

    Section 2, The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 Act, available at https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/1674/1/A1950-10.pdf Accessed 20 July 2022.

  5. 5.

    Section 6, ibid.

  6. 6.

    Pisharoty 2019.

  7. 7.

    Singh 1984, p. 1062.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.; Murshid 2016, p. 595.

  9. 9.

    Wilson 1992, p. 255.

  10. 10.

    Murshid 2016, p. 595.

  11. 11.

    Baruah 2012.

  12. 12.

    Kimura 2013, p. 72.

  13. 13.

    Weiner 1978; 1983, p. 281.

  14. 14.

    Ahmed-Zaman 2014; Siddique 2019; Ahmed 2014; Nath 2016; Gogoi 2016.

  15. 15.

    Jayal 2013.

  16. 16.

    Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1986. Available at https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/4210/1/Citizenship_Act_1955.pdf Accessed 10 August 2022.

  17. 17.

    Article 19(1)(d) Constitution of India, 1950.

  18. 18.

    Interview with Deputy Commissioner Dhubri, 1 March 2016, Dhubri District Office, Assam, India.

  19. 19.

    Group discussions in Bashani Char and Bagdhara, 20 April 2016, Assam, India.

  20. 20.

    Group Discussion in Birsing Char, 20 April 2016, Dhubri, Assam.

  21. 21.

    Group Discussion in Dhobakura, 7 April 2016, Goalpara, Assam.

  22. 22.

    Interview with Revenue Circle officer, 31 March 2016, Dhubri District, Assam.

  23. 23.

    Statement made by the Deputy Commissioner of Dhemaji, telephone conversation, April 2016.

  24. 24.

    Interaction at the office of Deputy Commissioner Bongaigaon, 29 February 2016.

  25. 25.

    Gandhi 1981, p. 1889.

  26. 26.

    Interview with Mr. Rajender Kumar Additional DIG (Retd) 23 January 2016, Gurgaon, India.

  27. 27.

    Interviews with Deputy Commissioner Kamrup Metro 2016, and Project Officer DDMA Chirang February–March 2016, Assam, India.

  28. 28.

    Interview with Deputy Commissioner Dhubri 2016.

  29. 29.

    At the house of Mr. Bishnu Payen in Dhubri, 14 April 2016.

  30. 30.

    Casual conversation with Rajkumar April 2016.

  31. 31.

    Casual conversation with an officer of district Bongaingaon 2016.

  32. 32.

    Follow-up conversation with Deputy Commissioner Kamrup Metro by telephone May 2016.

  33. 33.

    Bose 1989; Dikshit and Dikshit 2014.

  34. 34.

    Interviews with Project Officer DDMA Dhemaji 2016; Project Officer DDMA Morigaon 2016.

  35. 35.

    Casual conversation with Prof. Ranjan Saikia in May 2016, Guwahati University, Assam.

  36. 36.

    Casual conversation with professor Ranjan Saikia, Guwahati, April 2016.

  37. 37.

    The naming convention here is a post-visit reflection and does not mean that the river islands were named Chor or Shore because of the theft, or assumed marginality. As an author this is my interpretation of these margins—readers are free to have their own.

  38. 38.

    Group Discussion Bagdhora Chor, 20 April 2016.

  39. 39.

    Khemani 2003; Wade 1982; Gupta 1995; Jeffrey 2002; Scott and Seth 2013.

  40. 40.

    Notes from the files inspected at the Assam State Archive.

  41. 41.

    Follow-up conversation with Rajendra Kumar, Retd. DIG, State of Assam.

  42. 42.

    Mahanta 2013; Kotwal 2000; Singh 2008; Gogoi and Dutta 2016.

  43. 43.

    Islam 2018.

  44. 44.

    Calculated from the Census Data 2011, Government of India.

  45. 45.

    Interview with Deputy Commissioner Dhemaji 2016.

  46. 46.

    The reference to the road was relational to my long journey of 10 h with a perplexed driver who complained about the roads the moment he saw the DC.

  47. 47.

    Follow-up conversation with Revenue circle officer, Dhubri District, April 2016.

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  1. University College Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Ritumbra Manuvie

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Manuvie, R. (2023). Negotiating Climate, Citizenship, and Belonging. In: Climate Migration Governance and the Discourse of Citizenship in India. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-567-6_4

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