Independence Day In Assam: Four Million People Trying To Prove They Are Indian

ગુજરાતીમાં વાંચો

An artist's journey through Assam in the time of the NRC.

BISWANATH CHARIALI, Assam -- Ji ei likhe, public or hoi likhibo.

"Whatever you write, write with the voice of the public."

This was a parting piece of advice given to me as I wrapped up my reporting at Kumolia village centre near the Biswanath Ghat area. I scrawled it absently along with my other notes on the page, another fragment from my many conversations about the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

But it is only in the course of the last month or so, as I noted the ebb and flow of the currents of public opinion, that the near impossibility of this dictum hit me.

How does one write with the voice of the public about a process that has left 4 million of that very same public in legal limbo?

In Assam in the month of July, if there was a wide consensus on anything, it was that the updating of the NRC was a good thing. I felt this sentiment was expressed across divides of ethnicity, class, religion and ideology—some supported it because they thought the process would finally identify the foreigners in their midst; another section supported it because they felt they would finally be included as Assamese.

As July turned to August, it was clear that the public was speaking in many voices.

It is another Independence Day in Assam—a place where independence has always evoked a complex welter of emotion.

Among the Original Inhabitants

Both Mrs. Gogoi and Shanti fall under the category of "original inhabitants" or "3 by 3s", in NRC parlance. The process has spawned a vocabulary of its own. "3 by 3s" refer to clause 3 (3) of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

This category was introduced to ensure that no original inhabitant was "excluded from NRC due to unavailability of document". Those deemed "original inhabitants" would be allowed into the registry on the "basis of proof to the satisfaction of the Registering Authority", which means that the verification process of documents for people in this category is much less strenuous.

Except no one is quite sure how officials distinguish an "original inhabitant", or OI, from others. Prateek Hajela, the officer in charge of the whole process, says it is an internal category to ensure "bureaucratic ease", but officials insist the government will never publish exactly who is, or isn't, an original inhabitant.

One of the questions in the NRC's FAQ is:

Q: "Who are non-OIs?"

Ans: There is no such category as non-OI.

Shanti is a part of the "tea community"—one of the many people whose ancestors migrated to Assam from central India in the 19^th and 20^th centuries to work in tea plantations. As per a 2015 Supreme Court order, "tea communities" are also original inhabitants.

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