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Videos by Uddipana Goswami
Books by Uddipana Goswami
Routledge, 2023
This book forwards Assam (and Northeast India) as a specific location for studying operations of ... more This book forwards Assam (and Northeast India) as a specific location for studying operations of gendered power in multi-ethnic, conflict-habituated geopolitical peripheries globally.
In the shifting and relational margins of such peripheral societies, power and agency are constantly negotiated and in flux. Notions of masculinity are redefined in an interlaced environment of militarization, hyper-masculinization, and gendered violence. These interconnections inform victimhood and agency among the most vulnerable marginalized constituencies – namely, women and migrants. By centering the marginalized in its inquiry, the book analyzes obstacles to achieving positive, organic peace based on cooperation and mutual healing. The tools used to perpetuate an endless cycle of violence that makes conflict a habit – a way of life – are identified in order to enable resistance against them from within the margins. Such resistance must be based on reflexivity and strategic, cautious radicalism. This involves critically interrogating the inherent connections between engendered pasts and feminist futures, local changes and global contexts, as well as between small, incremental changes and big shifts impacting entire societies, nations, and global orders.
This book will be of much interest to students of ethnic conflict, conflict resolution, feminist peace, and Asian/South Asian politics.
“Folklore compiled with an ethnographer’s eye”: The Sunday Guardian Folktales retold to showcase... more “Folklore compiled with an ethnographer’s eye”: The Sunday Guardian
Folktales retold to showcase the weltanschauung of 30 indigenous communities in seven states of India.
From India’s leading feminist press. Among 10 best in literary fiction, 2014 (Scroll.in) Twelve ... more From India’s leading feminist press. Among 10 best in literary fiction, 2014 (Scroll.in)
Twelve short stories about everyday life and political realities that narrate how people, especially women, in a conflict zone cope with quotidian violence.
“... this is the kind of poetry that invites solidarity and action”: Kindle Magazine
“...undoubtedly, a must for anyone keen to understand the conflict-ridden society in Assam”: Indi... more “...undoubtedly, a must for anyone keen to understand the conflict-ridden society in Assam”: India Quarterly
Study of interethnic relations in one of South Asia’s most sustained conflict zones, tracing the rise of armed nativist movements, analyzing state responses that instill cultures of violence, and exploring pathways to durable peace
Monographs by Uddipana Goswami
Chapters in Books by Uddipana Goswami
The Himalayas, the tallest and the youngest mountains in the world, spread from Afghanistan and P... more The Himalayas, the tallest and the youngest mountains in the world, spread from Afghanistan and Pakistan through India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar with their northern extrusions - the Ximalaya Shanmai - across the Tibetan plateau in China. Despite border restrictions, the inhabitants of this region continue to share a trans-Himalayan identity, fragile yet enduring. *The Himalayan Arc* focuses on a crucial, enthralling, politically turbulent, yet often underreported part of this Himalayan belt - the 'East of South-east'. With over thirty contributors such as Sanjoy Hazarika, Janice Pariat, Prajwal Parajuly, Thomas Bell, Ma Thida, Salil Tripathi, Catherine Anderson, and Indira Goswami, it attempts to describe the sense of shared lives and cultural connectivity between the denizens of this area. Poetry, fiction, and mysticism are juxtaposed with essays on strategy and diplomacy, espionage and the deep state, photographs, folk tales, and fables. From the unique identity of a Himalayan citizen to the 'geopolitical jigsaw' that is the region; from the hidden spy network in Kathmandu to intimate portraits of Shillong, Gangtok, Darjeeling, and other cities; from the insurgency in Assam to a portrait of Myanmar under military rule, the essays, stories, and poems in this anthology highlight the similarities within the differences of the Himalayan belt. Providing insider and outsider perspectives on this intriguing part of the world, The Himalayan Arc is a travel book with a difference.
The recent post-insurgency years in Assam, one of the seven states of India’s Northeast periphery... more The recent post-insurgency years in Assam, one of the seven states of India’s Northeast periphery, are marked by a strong desire for peace, reconciliation and reconstruction. This paper, however, contends that advances in this direction were already being made during the most violent decades of Assam history. It delves into the transformative impact of violent ethno-nationalist conflicts and argues that they caused, among other changes, a realignment of ethnic relations and re-distribution of political rewards and holdings; attempts by civil society organisations at identity re-formation and redefinition of ethno-nationalist goals; the mainstreaming of ‘ethnic’ and fusion music, jewellery and clothing; and an unprecedented growth of local, successful entrepreneurial ventures.
Violent conflicts are sustained because they are lucrative for everybody: armed forces, insurgent armies and State machinery alike. This paper argues that peace and reconciliation can also be equally rewarding. The need is for an adjustment of approach, a re-framing of the conflict narrative. This might prevent violent conflicts from erupting in future, besides having a salutary effect on the ones ongoing.
Across the Crossfire: Women and Conflict in India , 2013
Forced Migration in North East India: A Media Reader , 2012
Blisters on Their Feet: Tales of Internally Displaced Persons in India’s North East, 2008
Tribes of India: Identity, Culture and Lore [Special Focus on the Karbis of Assam], 2007
Mamoni Raisomor Abha aru Pratibha, 2008
Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife, 2006
Journal Articles by Uddipana Goswami
Seminar, 2023
Stories do not die: they resist oblivion, are resilient, and have many afterlives. One such story... more Stories do not die: they resist oblivion, are resilient, and have many afterlives. One such story is that of Tejimola, a folktale from Assam, about a young girl who resists multiple violent deaths and comes back to life in different forms. This traditional oral narrative of regeneration and rebirth – first frozen in written text in the early 1900s – has resisted the limitations of the written word and taken on multiple forms in literature, music, and the arts. It continues to inspire generation after generation of creative thinkers and practitioners. In its content as well as in its own continued renewal and retelling, the story of Tejimola is also a metaphor for how the Assamese society has reinvented itself through the course of its conflictual postcolonial history. Looking ahead, this essay additionally argues that reflecting on Tejimola (among other folktales) as a metanarrative holds applicable lessons for a society such as Assam’s which has become violence-habituated, fractured, and conflict-ridden.
SOUTH ASIAN REVIEW, 2020
This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both p... more This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both public political and private domestic spaces in Northeast India, one of the most sustained conflict zones in South Asia. It links the violence at home with the political violence generated by the idea of ethnic homelands. While illustrating how domestic and political violences intersect, the paper questions the very idea of home as safe haven, or refuge from the outside world. It also parallelly raises reservations about the ethno-nationalist demand for territorial homelands as the solution to political conflicts between communities. The paper does this by juxtaposing the specters of fear and manifestations of violence in both the public and private domains as depicted in the fiction of Anglophone writer Jahnavi Barua. It analyzes Barua’s characters who are at the center of this violence to understand her depiction of home and homeland. It then relates text to context by drawing on media reports, policy documents, domestic violence handbooks and manuals, field reports and reports of fact-finding missions among other primary sources. The sociology of conflict literature and an attempt to illustrate the value of the witness fiction writers bear to violent conflicts underpins the analysis.
Routledge, 2023
This book forwards Assam (and Northeast India) as a specific location for studying operations of ... more This book forwards Assam (and Northeast India) as a specific location for studying operations of gendered power in multi-ethnic, conflict-habituated geopolitical peripheries globally.
In the shifting and relational margins of such peripheral societies, power and agency are constantly negotiated and in flux. Notions of masculinity are redefined in an interlaced environment of militarization, hyper-masculinization, and gendered violence. These interconnections inform victimhood and agency among the most vulnerable marginalized constituencies – namely, women and migrants. By centering the marginalized in its inquiry, the book analyzes obstacles to achieving positive, organic peace based on cooperation and mutual healing. The tools used to perpetuate an endless cycle of violence that makes conflict a habit – a way of life – are identified in order to enable resistance against them from within the margins. Such resistance must be based on reflexivity and strategic, cautious radicalism. This involves critically interrogating the inherent connections between engendered pasts and feminist futures, local changes and global contexts, as well as between small, incremental changes and big shifts impacting entire societies, nations, and global orders.
This book will be of much interest to students of ethnic conflict, conflict resolution, feminist peace, and Asian/South Asian politics.
“Folklore compiled with an ethnographer’s eye”: The Sunday Guardian Folktales retold to showcase... more “Folklore compiled with an ethnographer’s eye”: The Sunday Guardian
Folktales retold to showcase the weltanschauung of 30 indigenous communities in seven states of India.
From India’s leading feminist press. Among 10 best in literary fiction, 2014 (Scroll.in) Twelve ... more From India’s leading feminist press. Among 10 best in literary fiction, 2014 (Scroll.in)
Twelve short stories about everyday life and political realities that narrate how people, especially women, in a conflict zone cope with quotidian violence.
“... this is the kind of poetry that invites solidarity and action”: Kindle Magazine
“...undoubtedly, a must for anyone keen to understand the conflict-ridden society in Assam”: Indi... more “...undoubtedly, a must for anyone keen to understand the conflict-ridden society in Assam”: India Quarterly
Study of interethnic relations in one of South Asia’s most sustained conflict zones, tracing the rise of armed nativist movements, analyzing state responses that instill cultures of violence, and exploring pathways to durable peace
The Himalayas, the tallest and the youngest mountains in the world, spread from Afghanistan and P... more The Himalayas, the tallest and the youngest mountains in the world, spread from Afghanistan and Pakistan through India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar with their northern extrusions - the Ximalaya Shanmai - across the Tibetan plateau in China. Despite border restrictions, the inhabitants of this region continue to share a trans-Himalayan identity, fragile yet enduring. *The Himalayan Arc* focuses on a crucial, enthralling, politically turbulent, yet often underreported part of this Himalayan belt - the 'East of South-east'. With over thirty contributors such as Sanjoy Hazarika, Janice Pariat, Prajwal Parajuly, Thomas Bell, Ma Thida, Salil Tripathi, Catherine Anderson, and Indira Goswami, it attempts to describe the sense of shared lives and cultural connectivity between the denizens of this area. Poetry, fiction, and mysticism are juxtaposed with essays on strategy and diplomacy, espionage and the deep state, photographs, folk tales, and fables. From the unique identity of a Himalayan citizen to the 'geopolitical jigsaw' that is the region; from the hidden spy network in Kathmandu to intimate portraits of Shillong, Gangtok, Darjeeling, and other cities; from the insurgency in Assam to a portrait of Myanmar under military rule, the essays, stories, and poems in this anthology highlight the similarities within the differences of the Himalayan belt. Providing insider and outsider perspectives on this intriguing part of the world, The Himalayan Arc is a travel book with a difference.
The recent post-insurgency years in Assam, one of the seven states of India’s Northeast periphery... more The recent post-insurgency years in Assam, one of the seven states of India’s Northeast periphery, are marked by a strong desire for peace, reconciliation and reconstruction. This paper, however, contends that advances in this direction were already being made during the most violent decades of Assam history. It delves into the transformative impact of violent ethno-nationalist conflicts and argues that they caused, among other changes, a realignment of ethnic relations and re-distribution of political rewards and holdings; attempts by civil society organisations at identity re-formation and redefinition of ethno-nationalist goals; the mainstreaming of ‘ethnic’ and fusion music, jewellery and clothing; and an unprecedented growth of local, successful entrepreneurial ventures.
Violent conflicts are sustained because they are lucrative for everybody: armed forces, insurgent armies and State machinery alike. This paper argues that peace and reconciliation can also be equally rewarding. The need is for an adjustment of approach, a re-framing of the conflict narrative. This might prevent violent conflicts from erupting in future, besides having a salutary effect on the ones ongoing.
Across the Crossfire: Women and Conflict in India , 2013
Forced Migration in North East India: A Media Reader , 2012
Blisters on Their Feet: Tales of Internally Displaced Persons in India’s North East, 2008
Tribes of India: Identity, Culture and Lore [Special Focus on the Karbis of Assam], 2007
Mamoni Raisomor Abha aru Pratibha, 2008
Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife, 2006
Seminar, 2023
Stories do not die: they resist oblivion, are resilient, and have many afterlives. One such story... more Stories do not die: they resist oblivion, are resilient, and have many afterlives. One such story is that of Tejimola, a folktale from Assam, about a young girl who resists multiple violent deaths and comes back to life in different forms. This traditional oral narrative of regeneration and rebirth – first frozen in written text in the early 1900s – has resisted the limitations of the written word and taken on multiple forms in literature, music, and the arts. It continues to inspire generation after generation of creative thinkers and practitioners. In its content as well as in its own continued renewal and retelling, the story of Tejimola is also a metaphor for how the Assamese society has reinvented itself through the course of its conflictual postcolonial history. Looking ahead, this essay additionally argues that reflecting on Tejimola (among other folktales) as a metanarrative holds applicable lessons for a society such as Assam’s which has become violence-habituated, fractured, and conflict-ridden.
SOUTH ASIAN REVIEW, 2020
This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both p... more This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both public political and private domestic spaces in Northeast India, one of the most sustained conflict zones in South Asia. It links the violence at home with the political violence generated by the idea of ethnic homelands. While illustrating how domestic and political violences intersect, the paper questions the very idea of home as safe haven, or refuge from the outside world. It also parallelly raises reservations about the ethno-nationalist demand for territorial homelands as the solution to political conflicts between communities. The paper does this by juxtaposing the specters of fear and manifestations of violence in both the public and private domains as depicted in the fiction of Anglophone writer Jahnavi Barua. It analyzes Barua’s characters who are at the center of this violence to understand her depiction of home and homeland. It then relates text to context by drawing on media reports, policy documents, domestic violence handbooks and manuals, field reports and reports of fact-finding missions among other primary sources. The sociology of conflict literature and an attempt to illustrate the value of the witness fiction writers bear to violent conflicts underpins the analysis.
Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, 2021
A reflection on the different forms that violence against women takes in militarized societies li... more A reflection on the different forms that violence against women takes in militarized societies like that in Assam in Northeast India. A young girl living with an abusive father is married off to an abusive husband. Like other women living with quotidian violence, she devises coping mechanisms: often the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred. The unbearable burden of a life abused (and its grim ending) can be made bearable only through recourse in the unreal and the magical.
South Asian Review, 2020
This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both p... more This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both public political and private domestic spaces in Northeast India, one of the most sustained conflict zones in South Asia. It links the violence at home with the political violence generated by the idea of ethnic homelands. While illustrating how domestic and political violences intersect, the paper questions the very idea of home as safe haven, or refuge from the outside world. It also parallelly raises reservations about the ethno-nationalist demand for territorial homelands as the solution to political conflicts between communities. The paper does this by juxtaposing the specters of fear and manifestations of violence in both the public and private domains as depicted in the fiction of Anglophone writer Jahnavi Barua. It analyzes Barua’s characters who are at the center of this violence to understand her depiction of home and homeland. It then relates text to context by drawing on media reports, policy documents, domestic violence handbooks and manuals, field reports and reports of fact-finding missions among other primary sources. The sociology of conflict literature and an attempt to illustrate the value of the witness fiction writers bear to violent conflicts underpins the analysis.
Journal of Social and Policy Sciences 1:1, 2011
The Northeast frontier of India situated where South Asia ends and Southeast Asia begins has seen... more The Northeast frontier of India situated where South Asia ends and Southeast Asia begins has seen migrations of populations both from the east -from Southeast Asia, and from the west -from the Indian subcontinent, since time immemorial. As the gateway to the Northeast, Assam -one of the seven states of this frontier -has for long been in the centre of the turbulence caused by such large scale and long term migration -known by various nomenclatures such as Miyâ or Sar-Sâpori Mussalman but in each case referring to the Muslim migrants from East Bengal, later East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. This paper will trace the history of migration since the colonial period and explore the social, economic and political fallout of the population movement that has sustained till the present. Although legally citizens of India now, these early migrants have however become collectively unwelcome in Assam owing to the fact the illegal immigration from Bangladesh continues even today raising fears over land grabbing, demographic swamping, loss of indigenous identity, religious minoritization and loss of political representation. This paper is concerned with the legal settlers alone and the process of assimilation into the Axamiyâ 'mainstream' that they have adopted. The efficacy of this policy of assimilation will be questioned, the fallout of its failure discussed, and possible alternatives explored.
The Peace and Conflict Review Volume 4, Issue 2
Indian Journal of Postcolonial Literatures No 11, 2008
Historical Journal '06, 2007
Refugee Watch: A South Asian Journal on Forced Migration 29, 2007
Refugee Survey Quarterly 25, 2006
The India Forum, 2022
Conversations between writers across India reveal similar processes of marginalisation spanning m... more Conversations between writers across India reveal similar processes of marginalisation spanning multiple communities. These insights offer ways for mutually empathetic relationships between people of the periphery and the mainland.
The India Forum, 2022
Conversations between writers across India reveal similar processes of marginalisation spanning m... more Conversations between writers across India reveal similar processes of marginalisation spanning multiple communities. These insights offer ways for mutually empathetic relationships between people of the periphery and the mainland.
India in Transition, 2020
The current politics of polarization and state-sponsored violence on mainland India is a continua... more The current politics of polarization and state-sponsored violence on mainland India is a continuation of the state’s policy approach towards the marginalized communities in its northeastern periphery.
The Globe Post, 2020
For the small indigenous and autochthonous communities of India's Northeast periphery, the Citize... more For the small indigenous and autochthonous communities of India's Northeast periphery, the Citizenship Amendment Act is not just anti-secular; it is a threat to their very survival
On my writing process, the influences and the impact of the Fulbright fellowship in the 'Hindu Bu... more On my writing process, the influences and the impact of the Fulbright fellowship in the 'Hindu Business Line'
'Selected Poems by Northeast Poets'
The North-East Blog, CNN-IBN, 2012
The Free Speech Hub, 2010
Women's Features Services, 2009
The Northeast frontier of India situated where South Asia ends and Southeast Asia begins has seen... more The Northeast frontier of India situated where South Asia ends and Southeast Asia begins has seen migrations of populations both from the east -from Southeast Asia, and from the west -from the Indian subcontinent, since time immemorial. As the gateway to the Northeast, Assam -one of the seven states of this frontier -has for long been in the centre of the turbulence caused by such large scale and long term migration -known by various nomenclatures such as Miyâ or Sar-Sâpori Mussalman but in each case referring to the Muslim migrants from East Bengal, later East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. This paper will trace the history of migration since the colonial period and explore the social, economic and political fallout of the population movement that has sustained till the present. Although legally citizens of India now, these early migrants have however become collectively unwelcome in Assam owing to the fact the illegal immigration from Bangladesh continues even today raising fears over land grabbing, demographic swamping, loss of indigenous identity, religious minoritization and loss of political representation. This paper is concerned with the legal settlers alone and the process of assimilation into the Axamiyâ 'mainstream' that they have adopted. The efficacy of this policy of assimilation will be questioned, the fallout of its failure discussed, and possible alternatives explored.
Routledge eBooks, May 19, 2023
Routledge eBooks, Aug 12, 2022
Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries
Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries
Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries
Journal of International Women's Studies, 2022
This article draws on critical feminist methodologies and approaches to focus on hypermasculinist... more This article draws on critical feminist methodologies and approaches to focus on hypermasculinist violence against marginalized populations—specifically women—in the geopolitical peripheries of modern nation-states. It treats Assam, one of the eight states of Northeast India, as a textbook case, lending itself to a gendered study of hierarchical, hypermasculinized structures in hegemonic postcolonial nation-states. Basing its analysis on the portrayal of women’s bodies in Parag Das’s Sanglot Fenla—one of the most iconic Axamiyā novels written against the backdrop of insurgency and independentist violence in Assam—it discusses themes of postcolonial masculinities, relational marginalization, and the mutation of gendered relations in the context of ethnonationalist conflicts. At the same time, it also examines how the novel shows a way forward toward resistance and reclamation of power by marginalized entities, particularly women. Underscoring the article’s critical analysis of the role of women (and other marginalized constituencies) in violent conflicts are the theoretical assumptions of literature as witness and the writer as chronicler.
Gendering Peace in Violent Peripheries
Indira Goswami, May 3, 2022
Conflict and Reconciliation, 2014
Meridians, 2021
A reflection on the different forms that violence against women takes in militarized societies li... more A reflection on the different forms that violence against women takes in militarized societies like that in Assam in Northeast India. A young girl living with an abusive father is married off to an abusive husband. Like other women living with quotidian violence, she devises coping mechanisms: often the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred. The unbearable burden of a life abused (and its grim ending) can be made bearable only through recourse in the unreal and the magical.
Reconciliation in Conflict-Affected Communities, 2017
South Asian Review, 2020
This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both p... more This paper is a gendered analysis of structures and cultures of violence that characterize both public political and private domestic spaces in Northeast India, one of the most sustained conflict zones in South Asia. It links the violence at home with the political violence generated by the idea of ethnic homelands. While illustrating how domestic and political violences intersect, the paper questions the very idea of home as safe haven, or refuge from the outside world. It also parallelly raises reservations about the ethno-nationalist demand for territorial homelands as the solution to political conflicts between communities. The paper does this by juxtaposing the specters of fear and manifestations of violence in both the public and private domains as depicted in the fiction of Anglophone writer Jahnavi Barua. It analyzes Barua’s characters who are at the center of this violence to understand her depiction of home and homeland. It then relates text to context by drawing on media ...
List of Maps. List of Abbreviations. Glossary. Preface. Author's Note. Acknowledgments. Intro... more List of Maps. List of Abbreviations. Glossary. Preface. Author's Note. Acknowledgments. Introduction: Assam, Conflicts Part I 1. Conflicts Within, Conflicts Without: Communities and Concepts 2. What is AxamiyA: Understanding an Interethnic Identity 3. Identity, Interrupted: Nation-Building and the Break with Interethnicity 4. Ethnic Fragmentation and Divided Communities 5. State Policy, Ethnicity and Conflict Part II 6. Addressing Conflicts: Militarisation and the Culture of Violence 7. Addressing Conflicts: Negotiating, Power Sharing, Co-Opting 8. Resolving Issues, Transforming Conflicts, Restoring Relations 9. Back to the Future: Tradition and Transformation. Bibliography. About the Author. Index
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) forms the core of the Indian Government’s rela... more The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) forms the core of the Indian Government’s relationship with the Northeast region. Fifty years after its inception violence in the region is increasing rather than decreasing. While the AFSPA is central to the ways the state relates to citizens in the region and has been a major catalyst for increasing violence, this paper will not treat the AFSPA as the sole instance of the Indian state’s skewed security regime in the Northeast region, but will instead argue that the act is only a symptom of a larger malaise characterised by alienation, militarisation, and a dangerous counter-insurgency strategy. The fallout has been not merely a brutalisation of the security forces, but a legitimisation of violence. A vicious cycle has been set in motion punctuated by three main dynamics: violence giving birth to more violence, brutalisation eroding ideologies, and state-sanctioned terror engendering a disregard for peaceful alternatives. It is arg...
South Asian Review, 2009
Red lost her memory after an automobile accident. Then she remembers being a member of Colors, a ... more Red lost her memory after an automobile accident. Then she remembers being a member of Colors, a three-person burglary team (along with Blue and Purple) that raided a bar located close to an international border. What will happen to the person who breaks the rule that " it is forbidden for Colors members to reveal their unmasked faces to each other " ?
... _____. 2009b. “Redistributive Effect of Personal Income Taxation in Pakistan.” Pakistan Econo... more ... _____. 2009b. “Redistributive Effect of Personal Income Taxation in Pakistan.” Pakistan Economic and Social Review, 47(1, Summer): 1-17. Ahmad, N., Z. Hussain, MH Sial, I. Hussain, and W. Akram. 2008. ... 166. Arif, GM and M. Irfan. 1997. ...