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University of Cambridge

Territories of belonging: Citizenship and everyday practices of the state in Bodoland

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

My thesis looks at the construction of citizenship in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD, or Bodoland for short) in Western Assam, India. The BTAD is an autonomous sub- region within the state of Assam, which in turn is part of a cluster of states in Northeast India. I look primarily at the everyday practices of the state in an ethnically diverse region with a history of separatism, armed militant struggle, and violence between different ethnic groups. My understanding of citizenship is developed in the backdrop of Assam’s contemporary exercise of updating its own National Register of Citizens, a process designed to identify illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. I attempt to unpack the role of the state in the shaping of this relationship, looking at routine practices, as well as the ways in which the state represents itself in ordinary settings.

Degree

thesis:*
Name dc:type.qualificationname
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
University of Cambridge
Year dc:date.issued
2019

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Sharma, Saba
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Vira, Bhaskar

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Author Identifier
0000-0002-8695-5902
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/297317

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Cambridge University
Base URL
api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Sharma, Saba. Territories of belonging: Citizenship and everyday practices of the state in Bodoland. Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge, 2019. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.44365