Growing up Miya in Assam: How the NRC weaponised my identity against me

It has been more than a year since my three-year-old son started attending preschool. Like many other parents, I was nervous on his first day—I was worried that he might not be able to get along with his classmates—but as he spent more time without us, I slowly felt pride, and then happiness. That first day, when he came out through the preschool’s narrow gate, his eyes were teary and he looked frightened. I hugged him. His tears disappeared soon, and he began telling me about his day.

He has settled down now. He has many friends. Every day, he has a new story to tell. In the living room of our rented house he often plays with our landlord’s young daughter. They sometimes sing together: “bilote halise dhunia podumi phool”—In the pond a lotus sways. I never had the flawless Assamese pronunciation that he has already acquired in the first three years of his life. Listening to him, I feel immensely proud.

But when I look at him, I also feel immense fear.

I am reminded of my own childhood. My father never told me that the world outside his warmth and protection would be hostile to me. This only became apparent to me when I first visited Guwahati. It was here that I first realised that I have another identity, a subordinate identity—I was a miya, a Bengali-origin Muslim, seen in Assam as an outsider, a suspected Bangladeshi.