[Asia_news] South Asia seminar Friday 19 October

[Barbara Nelson]

ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
South Asia Seminar*

Friday 19 October, 10--11.30am, Seminar Room 1.13, Coombs Extension 
Building (8), Fellows Rd, ANU*

Nationalist Discourse and the 'Other': How Delhi's Elites View 
Bangladeshi Migrants in India

Dr Rizwana Shamshad, Monash Asia Institute (MAI), Monash University

This paper investigates the perceptions of Bangladeshis as articulated 
within the paradigm of Indian nationalist discourse. Unofficial 
estimates of Bangladeshis in India range from 2 million to 35 million 
"illegal" migrants, although the Bangladesh government denies the 
existence of any "illegal" migrants in India. In the early 1990s 
Bangladeshi migrants in India became a major political issue in the 
aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Mosque. The Hindu nationalist 
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the issue of Bangladeshi migrants as 
one of its major election campaigns in the 1990s. Since then the 
presence of Bangladeshi migrants has been a persistent election platform 
for the BJP and its associated sectarian political parties. Based on 
interviews with key political party and civil society actors in Delhi, I 
argue that there is a link between the negative perceptions of 
Bangladeshis in India and the mistrust of Indian Muslims, who are seen 
as the threatening 'Other' and whose loyalty to the Indian nation is 
questioned by Hindu nationalist parties in India.

Biography

Dr Rizwana Shamshad has recently been awarded a PhD from Monash 
University. For her doctoral research she investigated Indian 
nationalist discourses and Bangladeshi migrants in three states in 
Assam, West Bengal and Delhi. She has previously worked with the 
Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a key policy focused research 
institute in Delhi on India-Bangladesh Security Dialogue. She also 
worked with the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), a major policy 
think-tank in Bangladesh. Her research interests includeethnicity and 
nationalism, migration and identity politics, India-Bangladesh 
relations, and climate refugees in South Asia.


-- 
Dr Barbara Nelson
College of Asia and the Pacific | Australian National University | Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
T: + 61 2 61250283 | F: + 61 2 61255525 | CRICOS Provider #00120C

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