Nation-State, Identity and Struggle for Livelihood: A Case Study of Informal Waste Pickers from Assam, India

Nation formation has often been a bloody process of suppression of ethnic and cultural diversity making people victims of ‘History’. In this process weak and the marginal sections gets displaced not only materially but... [ view full abstract ]

Nation formation has often been a bloody process of suppression of ethnic and cultural diversity making people victims of ‘History’. In this process weak and the marginal sections gets displaced not only materially but also from the frontier of their nationalities. When borders are created then question of legality and illegality arises and with the changed destinations a struggle to prove one’s identity and nationality begins. This problem is more visible in case of migrant communities. It has been four decades now when the boundaries were redefined in the Indian sub-continent and a new nation state Bangladesh came into existence in 1971 resulting in cultural discontinuity for people between the two nations and a new definition of their existing identities emerged. The Bengali Muslim population of East Bengal origin which got divided between Bangladesh and Residual Assam has been living with their transmuted identity and citizenship status till date.The purpose of this paper is to reflect the problem of this section of religious minority which has been struggling to prove their citizenship status in the state of Assam post partition. This paper is based on the field survey conducted in two cities of India i.e Lucknow Uttar Pradesh in (the destination) and Barpeta in Assam (the source). The use of structured questionnaire, interviews,documentaries and folk songs have been used as tools of research methodology to understand their problems and psyche related to livelihood ,migration, culture and identity The nature of the research is action oriented in which problems of this migrant community are identified and suitable need based measures with the help of different stakeholders are adopted as a support system.