Spatio-political Interpretations of Ethnic Conflict in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts

Abstract

The Bodo problem ofWestern Assam has long been looked through a communal prism. The genocide of Muslims and the targeted killings ofSanthals who are a tea tribe in Assam and are also called Adivasis, have in the eyes of law enforcement agencies, media persons, and civic administration been given a communal tinge. The present paper is an attempt to analyse the ethnic issue of Bodo movement through an academic perspective, and to find out whether this phenomenon is just another attempt at ethnic cleansing to rid the area of all non-Bodo communities ('other' communities), or has it got a more subtle meaning that could be brought out by an intellectual debate on ethnic clashes in Bodo dominated area. The intellectual debate in this paper has been simulated blj a series of spatio-political interpretations involving the causes and effects of these ethnic clashes. The interpretations will range from the most gross estimation of seeing ethnic clashes as a form of communal riot, to the most subtle explanation of understanding ethnic clashes as a clash between the mental maps of warring communities.