‘Untrustworthy and Unbelievable’

Women and the Quest for Citizenship in Assam

Abstract

Non-male people experience citizenship in ways that are not at par with those who are identified by the state as male. This gendered experience is replicated when it comes to establishing the existence of one’s citizenship before a hostile state that is invested in propagating statelessness among certain communities. This paper uses the Indian State of Assam and the surrounding legal-bureaucratic endeavour to identify ‘genuine’ citizens as a case to explore how the experience of becoming stateless is inherently disadvantageous to women. Using the tools of feminist methodology, the specific challenges of women have been highlighted through a combination of case law discourse analysis and fieldwork.