Territorial Legends: Politics of indigeneity, migration and urban citizenship in pasighat

Abstract

Exploring how the policy of protection of indigenous people works on the ground in Pasighat, a town in Arunachal Pradesh, this chapter brings out the interlinkages between urban politics and indigeneity as an entitlement regime. Once boundaries are operationalised on the basis of territorial belonging, politics revolves around questions of who does or does not belong to a particular place. This has created opportunities for accumulation for the indigenous people through rental activities. The state simultaneously installs and destabilises this politics of indigeneity. The chapter shows how the state and capital are implicated in the structures of enfranchisement that have historically shaped the town.