Two highly sensitive developments have put the North-Eastern state of Assam in the spotlight by reviving the ‘insider-outsider’ debate. These developments – the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and the NRC (National Register of Citizens) – are proving controversial as they are once again stoking the sensitive subject of immigrants in the state.

Over the last hundred years, different political powers have played the ‘immigrant’ card in Assam for economic and political gain, and with the issue being revived once more, it is important to view the controversy in its historical context.

Assam’s immigrant Muslim population from then East Bengal had been leveraged as an argument in favour of giving away the Assam region to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during Partition. And if it wasn’t for Gopinath Bordoloi, the map of India would have looked quite different.