Gender and the Contours of Political Movement in Assam: Critical Appraisal of Ethnic Groups in Assam

Abstract

Student activism is an important carrier of ideas and is influential in contributing to debates around politics, environment, economy and social justice. They however, are not primary harbingers of social change. The claim of monopoly over the moral and cultural life of the people made by the student organisations of the region is reflected by the moral and cultural codes often sought to be imposed by such organisation on particular communities.  Focussing on the student organisation, this  paper points to those non-state legal actors in Assam that reiterate dominant notions of what is good and bad and in the process regulate sexuality, more often, acting as the self- asserted guardian of society. Student organisation is regarded to be an active agent of social change but the approach in this paper differs as, there exist an exclusivist notion of identity in Assam, where all sense of solidarity between different oppressed groups has given away to a sense of suspect and distrust. Sexual power is organised through the process and discourse of regulation. The central problem is that women seen as an emblematic bearer of ethnic, class, caste identity are always victimised and are oppressed by moralistic controls on their sexuality which reflects the everydayness of sexual violence. This paper is a gender-based critique of the student organisations in Assam. Hence an endeavour to look at how the agencies of the state such as the police regulate sexuality in the name of culture, nation or morality, through legal and illegal means will be attempted, which will be juxtaposed with mapping the techniques of humiliation adopted by non-state legal actors , specifically in Assam. It is an attempt to posit how hegemonic and normalising codes of gender and sexuality are imposed on the women by the student organisations and thereby regulating the gender paradigm using the techniques of humiliation such as moral policing.