The Indian Northeast: India’s Shift from Colonised to Coloniser

Abstract

The introduction of The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sparked a collective resistance that has not been witnessed since the fight for Indian Independence. Although Modi is living up to the promises he made in his manifesto(s), and some BJP supporters believe the act ‘fulfils the aspiration of Mahatma Gandhi’, this article considers how his government are using the CAA and NRC as weapons to rid India of its Muslim ‘foreigners’ and this has caused significant communal tensions and rising levels of violence, particularly in the capital (New Delhi). In today’s society issues of racism, discrimination, Islamophobia and even dehumanisation should be horrors of the past, yet they are beginning to take centre stage in a future dominated by Hindu nationalism. This article seeks to explore some of the consequences of this decision, and what the future holds for the Indian Northeast.