Aditi Mukherjee | Gitam University,Visakhapatnam,India (original) (raw)

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Papers by Aditi Mukherjee

Dialectical Anthropology, 2023

A Bengali Dalit religion called Matua emerged in the nineteenth century in East Bengal. It counts... more A Bengali Dalit religion called Matua emerged in the nineteenth century in East Bengal. It counts tens of millions of followers across the Bay of Bengal and the Indo-Bangladesh border. With the COVID-19 pandemic, Matua religious gatherings were shifted online. This paper asks what happened to multisensory and sonichaptic religious engagements of the Matua community once ritual gatherings were transported to the cyberspace of digital media. Using data collected through remote ethnography and digital ethnography with the Matua community in 2020 and 2021, we suggest that the increased online visibility of the Matua community (1) contributed to reshaping Matua identity narratives as a global diasporic network, downplaying previous self-definitions of untouchability and displacement; (2) exacerbated inequalities along class and gender lines; and (3) shifted the sensoryscape of Matua ritual experiences, with important repercussions in the domains of embodiment, ritual authority and authenticity. As Matua experiences of increased online visibility clashed with their traditional aesthetics of resistance through shared sonic commingling, we argue, more broadly, that understandings of visibility must take into consideration culturally informed articulations of the senses and sense hierarchies, and how sensory ideology can manifest following the affordances of different media.

The 1947 Partition in The East Trends and Trajectories Edited by Subhasri Ghosh, 2022

My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half... more My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half of divided Bengal in reflecting opinion, shaping attitude and tenors of debate on issues of displacement and rehabilitation following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. I argue that West Bengal's mainstream vernacular press actively participated in communal and sectarian discourses. It pitted the demands of the incoming Hindu refugees from East Bengal against the Muslim minorities inside the state, and also incentivized a kind of linguistic and cultural 'othering' of the inhabitants of West Bengal's neighbouring states, particularly of Bihar and Orissa. While ardent nationalist posturing proved dominant in the press deliberations on partition, migration and refugee rehabilitation, over time opinion gradually turned against accommodating the ever increasing number of poorer sections of refugees. The influential vernacular press failed to provide a critical debating space, which could accommodate marginal voices and hold the state accountable on the crucial issue of redistribution of land and resources in favour of the East Bengali migrants along with other socially disadvantaged groups.

Contemporary South Asia, 2019

South Asia is a site of myriad forms of dispossession and displacement. I draw on ethnographic re... more South Asia is a site of myriad forms of dispossession and displacement. I draw on ethnographic research at an East Bengali dalit refugee campsite in the suburbs of Calcutta, exploring how past displacements have mediated the refugees' present and how they negotiate continued dislocations engendered by the Indian state. In this article, I pose the following questions: how do mechanisms of prolonged displacement affect lower caste and class groups in the postcolony and how do the displaced groups negotiate it from below? What is the nature of transformation they experience in the patterns of their citizenship/subject position? In exploring conditions of protracted displacement, the article foregrounds the role of strategies of informalisation and grey-spacing through which urban governance functions. While this study identifies dalit refugees to be active agents negotiating myriad forms of dispossession, a point of emphasis remains that they are placed in unequal power relations vis-à-vis the insidious mechanisms of post-colonial governmentality. The continually displaced inhabitants of spaces of 'permanent-temporariness' carry on struggles that are discreet, low-key and non-heroic in nature. The paper further highlights that the sense of belonging of such dwellers of peripheral grey-spaces often strikes a discordant note.

Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 2015

Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 2016

Other Publications by Aditi Mukherjee

Policies and Practices, 2020

been made at updating the NRC. In 2005, a pilot project for updating the NRC was initiated in Bar... more been made at updating the NRC. In 2005, a pilot project for updating the NRC was initiated in Barpeta and Chaygaon Revenue Circles in Barpeta and Kamrup (R) districts respectively. However, a large number of people protested against the anomalies in the process. At least four persons were killed and more than 50 injured in clashes between the activists of the All-Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) and the police as well as the residents in Barpeta on 21 July 2018 (Das 2010). The process was ultimately scrapped in 2010. The issue found a new lease of life when a one-man fact finding commission with Upamanyu Hazarika-a senior advocate-was appointed by the Supreme Court of India in May 2015 to report on the state of the problem on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam. The commission submitted its report in October 2015 in which it was pointed out that the problem had acquired a serious magnitude and posed a threat to the state's indigenous population. The 'indigenous population' (in the sense of merely referring to the citizens living in Assam) could be reduced to a minority by 2047. In one of its judgments, the apex court ordered that the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) be published by January 2016. The Supreme Court put out a list of 'admissible' documents issued up to the midnight of 24 March 1971 that one must be in 'possession' of, in order that one is rendered eligible for being included in the updated NRC. The date, as we know, marks the beginning of the genocide perpetrated by the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan till Bangladesh was liberated in December 1971. The NRC of 1951 itself remained the basis, while Electoral Rolls up to 1971 and, in their absence certain other documents issued up to the midnight of 24 March, 1971 were listed as admissible. While these are described as 'legacy documents', the apex court also released another set of documents which would be considered 'admissible' if one is to prove one's 'linkage' with the person/s in possession of the legacy documents (a) in case one is born after that date and (b) in case one is required to substantiate ones claim to citizenship in India. The second set of documents is labeled as 'linkage documents'. Updating of NRC was indeed a humongous exercise. More than 50,000 people have been employed for the updating process. Over Rs 1500 crores 2 of public money has already been spent on the exercise. The entire administration was inducted into the exercise with the effect that the normal administration of the state is reported to have come almost to a standstill. The NRC authority released the names of eligible or ineligible persons in at least three phases. The first draft contained the names of only 1.90 crores out of 3.29 crore applicants. Names of 1.39 crores did not figure at all in the first draft. The final draft was published on 30 July, 2018 in which names of 2.89 crore out of the 3.29 crore people were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the final draft. Of these, 37,59,630 names had been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 were kept on hold, although all of them were given the right to file their claims and objections within a stipulated date. Prateek Hajela-the state coordinator of NRC-said that a total of 3,11,21,004 people have been found eligible for inclusion in the final version of the NRC. This leaves out a total of 19,06,657 people in the final version released on 31 August 2019. The figure includes those who did not submit their claims at all.