The Invisible Politicized Roles and Religious Disorganization of Bangladeshi and Nepali Migrants in West Bengal and North-east India.

• Main Authors: POONAM SHARMA, 浦南
• Other Authors: Liu, Joyce, C.H.
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7568wa

博士 === 國立交通大學 === 社會與文化研究所 === 107 === Migration, as a phenomenon has become an integral part of modern society throughout the world. This paper focuses the ways, the Nepali and Bangladeshi migrants are included as ‘unauthorized voters’ within the democratic political processes in India. But the same groups of migrants also experience social exclusion as ‘outsiders.’ It attempts to study the migration of Bangladeshi and Nepali migrants (irregular) crossing the Indian borders of North-east region and West Bengal; that has emerged as a critical and debatable issue in the Indian politics and public discourse. Treated as two separate Diasporic communities, both connect to the north-eastern society in diverse manners. This study is a qualitative work conducted to underline the problems faced by not only the migrants but also the native Indians due to the ‘religious disorganization’ prevalent in the region. Importantly, this thesis has underlined the complexities of the government ‘apparatus’ and their impacts within Indian society. These apparatuses in the form of citizenship and immigration laws, border policies, and communal division will throw a reflection on policies under the modern concept of nation-states headed by political giants. Thus, it is argued that the apparatuses in the form of mechanisms further work for the displacement and mistreatment of the migrants' communities. Fragile social aspects like the ‘religion’ and ‘cultural’ differences are manipulated to strike a balance of division between the politics of migrants and social control. It has worked to understand the varying types of ‘political dividends’ shared between the Nepalis and Bangladeshis as two different cases of migrants in north-east and West Bengal. While concluding, I have highlighted the rising of ‘religious intolerance’ and communal provoking in Indian society. With the present nationalist government in power and adaption of extreme measures combined with derogatory terms for the minority groups has given rise to a situation of fear, hatred, and confusion in the contemporary society of north-east and West-Bengal in India.