Cultural essence, cultural nationalism and the figure of the "Miya:" The frontiers of anti-Muslim hate in India
The figure of the "Miya" forms the infrastructure of the anti-Muslim hate in Assam, the Northeast frontier of India. In this essay, I will argue that the genocidal hate reflected in anti-Muslim violence and anti-Muslim public policies in Assam is mirrored in the ongoing production of the "Muslim other" in the infrastructure of the fascist National Register for Citizens (NRC) carried out by the Hindutva regime. The rhetorical trope of the "Miya" depicts the power of cultural discourse in organizing violence through the turn to a monolithic cultural essence based on exclusion. The construction of the "Miya" as the Muslim other lies at the core of the cultural chauvinism that has historically mobilized the middle-class, upper-caste cultural nationalist movement in Assam. Elsewhere, I have described the communicative tools that actively produce "the other" to organize cultural nationalism , constructing the nation on the basis of a monol...