In an article published by Scroll, Abhishek Saha, a third-year DPhil student at COMPAS, investigates the protracted legal struggles to prove citizenship in the context of recent deportations and pushbacks by India.
The piece focuses on the decade-long ordeal of Manowara Bewa, a woman from Assam - a northeastern border state - who failed to prove her Indian citizenship and was declared an ‘illegal foreigner’ despite possessing multiple documents that she claimed affirmed her Indian lineage. Through her story, the article critically examines the human cost of bureaucratic and legal mechanisms while illuminating the documentary complexities that shape identity and belonging in contemporary India.
Please find a short excerpt from the original article below:
"Manowara, who is from Dhubri, a district in western Assam bordering Bangladesh, was designated an “illegal foreigner” by a foreigners tribunal in 2016.
"On May 24, amid a renewed crackdown on unauthorised migrants in Assam, Manowara was arrested from her home despite her ongoing appeal against the tribunal ruling in the Supreme Court. Her family and lawyers suspect that she has been secretly “pushed back” into Bangladesh by Indian authorities.
"Manowara’s situation echoes that of several other “declared foreigners”, who have gone missing and are suspected of being forcibly “pushed back”.
To read the full article visit: https://scroll.in/article/1083174/a-missing-woman-in-assam-and-her-long-struggle-to-prove-indian-citizenship
