#Inde. Quatre millions d’habitants de l’#Assam considérés comme #apatrides
Dans cet État du nord-est de l’Inde, 12,5 % de la population sont menacés de perdre leur #citoyenneté indienne au motif que leurs racines sont supposées être au #Bangladesh, l’ancien #Bengale-Oriental.
Is India Creating Its Own Rohingya ?
Echoes of the majoritarian rhetoric preceding the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya can be heard in India as four million, mostly Bengali-origin Muslims, have been effectively turned stateless.
On July 30, four million residents of the Indian state of Assam were effectively stripped of their nationality after their names were excluded from the recently formed National Register of Citizens.
Indian authorities claim to have initiated and executed the process to identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which shares several hundred miles of its border with Assam, but it has exacerbated fears of a witch hunt against the Bengali-origin Muslim minority in the state.
Assam is the most populous of India’s northeastern states. As part of a labyrinthine bureaucratic exercise, 32.9 million people and 65 million documents were screened over five years at a cost of $178 million to ascertain which residents of Assam are citizens. The bureaucrats running the National Register of Citizens accepted 28.9 million claims to Indian citizenship and rejected four million.
The idea of such screening to determine citizenship goes back to the aftermath of the 1947 Partition of British India into India and Pakistan. A register of citizens set up in Assam in 1951 was never effectively implemented. Twenty-four years after the Partition, the mostly Bengali Eastern Pakistan seceded from Western Pakistan with Indian military help, and Bangladesh was formed on March 24, 1971. The brutal war that accompanied the formation of Bangladesh had sent millions of refugees into the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal.
Politics over illegal migration from Bangladesh into Assam has been a potent force in the politics of the state for decades. In 2008, an Assam-based NGO approached the Supreme Court of India claiming that 4.1 million illegal immigrants had been registered as voters in the state. In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to update the National Register of Citizens.
The updated list defines as Indian citizens the residents of Assam who were present in the state before March 25, 1971, and their direct descendants. In keeping with this criterion, the N.R.C. asked for certain legal documents to be submitted as proof of citizenship — including the voter lists for all Indian elections up to 1971.
People born after 1971 could submit documents that link them to parents or grandparents who possessed the primary documents. So each person going through the process had to show a link to a name on the 1951 register and the only two voter lists — those of 1965-66 and 1970-71 — that were ever made public.
Such criteria, applied across India, left a good percentage of its citizens stateless. Front pages of Indian newspapers have been carrying accounts detailing the absurdities in the list — a 6-year-old who has been left out even though his twin is on the list, a 72-year-old woman who is the only one in her family to be left off, a 13-year-old boy whose parents and sisters are on the list but he is not.
The Supreme Court, which had ordered the process underlying the National Register of Citizens, has now directed that no action should be initiated against those left out and that a procedure should be set up for dealing with claims and objections. A final list is expected at the end of an appeal process. And it is not clear what transpires at the end of that process, which is expected to be long and harrowing. So far six overcrowded jails doubling as detention centers in Assam house 1,000 “foreigners,” and the Indian government has approved building of a new detention center that can house 3,000 more.
The N.R.C. may well have set in motion a process that has uncanny parallels with what took place in Myanmar, which also shares a border with Bangladesh. In 1982, a Burmese citizenship law stripped a million Rohingya of the rights they had had since the country’s independence in 1948.
The Rohingya, like a huge number of those affected by the N.R.C. in Assam, are Muslims of Bengali ethnicity. The denial of citizenship, loss of rights and continued hostility against the Rohingya in Myanmar eventually led to the brutal violence and ethnic cleansing of the past few years. The excuses that majoritarian nationalists made in the context of the Rohingya in Myanmar — that outsiders don’t understand the complexity of the problem and don’t appreciate the anxieties and fears of the ethnic majority — are being repeated in Assam.
Throughout the 20th century, the fear of being reduced to a minority has repeatedly been invoked to consolidate an ethnic Assamese identity. If at one time it focuses on the number of Bengalis in the state, at another time it focuses on the number of Muslims in the state, ignoring the fact that the majority of the Muslims are Assamese rather than Bengali.
Ethnic hostilities were most exaggerated when they provided a path to power. Between 1979 and 1985, Assamese ethnonationalist student politicians led a fierce campaign to remove “foreigners” from the state and have their names deleted from voter lists. They contested elections in 1985 and formed the state government in Assam. In the 1980s, the targets were Bengali-origin Muslims and Hindus.
This began to change with the rise of the Hindu nationalists in India, who worked to frame the Bengali-origin immigrants as two distinct categories: the Bengali-origin Hindus, whom they described as seeking refuge in India from Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and the Bengali-origin Muslims, whom they see as dangerous foreigners who have illegally infiltrated Indian Territory.
The N.R.C. embodies both the ethnic prejudices of the Assamese majority against those of Bengali origin and the widespread hostility toward Muslims in India. India’s governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has been quick to seize on the political opportunity provided by the release of the list. The B.J.P. sees India as the natural home of the Hindus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a long history of using rhetoric about Pakistan and Bangladesh to allude to Muslims as a threat. In keeping with the same rhetoric, Mr. Modi’s confidante and the president of the B.J.P., Amit Shah, has insisted that his party is committed to implementing the N.R.C. because it is about the “national security, the security of borders and the citizens of this country.”
India has nowhere to keep the four million people declared stateless if it does not let them continue living their lives. The Indian government has already assured Bangladesh, which is already struggling with the influx of 750,000 Rohingya from Myanmar, that there will be no deportations as a result of the N.R.C. process.
Most of people declared stateless are likely to be barred from voting as well. While the Indian election commission has declared that their removal from the voter’s list will not be automatic, in effect once their citizenship comes into question, they lose their right to vote.
Apart from removing a huge number of voters who were likely to vote against the B.J.P., the party has already shown that as Mr. Modi struggles on the economic front, the N.R.C. will be a handy tool to consolidate Hindu voters in Assam — the majority of the people rendered stateless are Muslims — and the rest of the country going into the general elections in the summer of 2019.
s’en remettre à des avantages obtenus par la démographie confessionelle ne représente pas un suplément éthique , c’est peu dire en restant correct . dans le cas Ismael faruqui verdict la remise en question de la cour suprème en est la caricature pesante . C’est totalement inique de dénier aux protestataires montrés sur la photo du nyt le droit de contester ce qu’ils contestent , c’est terriblement biasé !
Forest Landscape Restoration in Hilly and Mountainous Regions: Special Issue - Forests, Trees and Agroforestry
▻http://foreststreesagroforestry.org/forest-landscape-restoration-in-hilly-and-mountainous-regi
Sommaire :
Studies on forest landscape restoration in hilly and mountainous regions of Asia and Africa – an introduction to the Special Issue
How do property rights reforms provide incentives for forest landscape restoration? Comparing evidence from Nepal, China and Ethiopia
The ‘#Conversion_of_Cropland_to_Forest_Program’ (#CCFP) as a national ‘#Payment_for_Ecosystem_Services’ (#PES) scheme in China: Institutional structure and roles, ensuring voluntarism and conditionality of subsidy payments
Exclosures as forest and landscape restoration tools: lessons from #Tigray Region, Ethiopia
Shared strengths and limitations of participatory forest management and area exclosure: two major state led landscape rehabilitation mechanisms in Ethiopia
Can forest stand alone? Barriers to the restoration of the last remaining rainforest in Assam, India
From denuded to green mountains: process and motivating factors of forest landscape restoration in #Phewa_Lake watershed, Nepal
Change in land use and ecosystem services delivery from community-based forest landscape restoration in the Phewa Lake watershed, Nepal
Smallholders and forest landscape restoration in upland northern Thailand
A segregated assessment of total carbon stocks by the mode of origin and ecological functions of forests: implication on restoration potential
#revue #Ethiopie #Assam #Inde #Népal #Thaïlande #restauration #Asie #Afrique #Chine
Two killed in clashes over evictions near wildlife park in eastern India | PLACE
▻http://place.trust.org/i/?id=29b8f4d6-887f-46da-b71e-fcec249da07c
“We have been residing in this area for decades, and all of a sudden the government told us to vacate,” said Rafiq Ali, a community leader in Banderdubi village, one of the three villages that was ordered to be cleared.
“The security forces fired at us,” he said.
Assam police chief Mukesh Sahay said two protesters, including a woman, were killed. About 20 policemen and villagers were injured in the clash, he said.
Scarcity of land has brought the competing needs of wildlife and humans into conflict across India, where land is increasingly sought for development and industrial projects.
Complete sealing of #Bangladesh border by June next year
The BJP-led NDA government yesterday ordered complete sealing of north-eastern Indian state of Assam’s border with Bangladesh by June next year.
▻http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/complete-sealing-bangladesh-border-june-next-year-1233838
#Inde #frontières #fermeture_des_frontières
cc @marty @albertocampiphoto @daphne via @ville_en
#Ville et #fleuve en #Asie_du_Sud
L’Asie du Sud, qui dispose de deux des plus grands bassins hydrographiques de la planète, est l’héritière d’une longue #histoire urbaine. De nombreuses #villes_saintes, considérées comme les demeures de forces divines, se sont développées sur des rives également propices à l’installation de capitales et à l’essor de centres de commerce.
À travers l’analyse de sept couples villes/fleuves, des plaines du moyen #Indus au #Pakistan (#Sehwan_Sharif) à celle du #Brahmapoutre en #Assam (#Guwahati), de la vallée du #Gange et de la #Yamuna (#Bénarès et #Delhi), à celle de la #Vaigai en #Inde du Sud (#Madurai) en passant par le bassin de la #Narmada, en Inde centrale (#Amarkantaka et #Omkareshwar), l’ouvrage explore la multiplicité des visions et des émotions qui continuent de susciter des pratiques et des aménagements spécifiques sur les berges urbaines.
Ce volume collectif propose une réflexion pluridisciplinaire sur cet héritage singulier, aujourd’hui menacé par l’explosion démographique et par la pollution, et sur les perceptions contemporaines contradictoires des dévots et des touristes, des populations locales et des décideurs nationaux, des habitants de bidonvilles et des citadins des classes moyennes.
▻http://books.openedition.org/pressesinalco/127
#livre #urban_matter
via @ville_en
The bitter story behind the UK’s national drink - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34173532
Several of Britain’s biggest tea brands, including PG Tips, Tetleys and Twinings, have said they will work to improve the tea estates they buy from in India after a BBC investigation found dangerous and degrading living and working conditions.
Harrods has stopped selling some tea products in response, and Rainforest Alliance, the ethical certification organisation, has conceded the investigation has revealed flaws in its audit process.
The joint investigation by Radio 4’s File on Four and BBC News in Assam, north-east India, found workers living in broken houses with terrible sanitation. Many families have no toilets and say they have no choice but to defecate amongst the tea bushes.
Living and working conditions are so bad, and wages so low, that tea workers and their families are left malnourished and vulnerable to fatal illnesses.
There was also a disregard for health and safety, with workers spraying chemicals without protection, and on some estates, child labour being used.
Toilets overflowing
Plantation owners in India are obliged by law to provide and maintain “adequate” houses, and sanitary toilets for workers.
Yet homes on the tea estates were in terrible disrepair, with leaking roofs and damp and cracked walls. Many toilets are blocked or broken.
Workers said their homes were not repaired despite repeated requests to management, often over many years.
Tourism at the border: The #Dawki-#Tamabil border and #Mawlynnong Village: India-Bangladesh
The rolling #Khasi_Hills, described by the British as ‘the Scotland of the East’, was the natural connect between the floodplains of Assam and Bengal, before the British ruled Indian subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan in 1947. It was the land border and an important point of commerce between Assam and Bengal, through the Dawki Bridge built by the British over the Umngot River in 1932, connecting the Khasi-Jaintia Hills and South Assam in present day Northeast India with Sylhet district of present day Bangladesh. On the Indian side is border town Dawki in the Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya, 80 kilometres from the state capital of Shillong, and on the Bangladesh side is the border town of Tamabil, 55 kilometres from the province headquarters of Sylhet, Bangladesh.
India’s dam building bonanza
By Kieran Cooke
India is in the midst of a massive hydro electric dam building programme, necessary, it says, to fuel the energy needs of its fast growing economy. Kieran Cooke, one of the editors of the Climate News Network, has been in India and reports on the country’s energy plans.
Assam, northeastern India, March 16 – This region, east of Bangladesh and bordering China to the north, is an area described by politicians as India’s ‘future powerhouse’ and is a key focus point of the country’s dam building programme.
The ambition of planners in New Delhi is not in doubt. So far plans for more than 160 dams – both big and small – have been announced in the northeast, the majority of them to be built in the remote, mountainous state of Arunachal Pradesh and harnessing the waters of the mighty Brahmaputra river and its tributaries.
It’s planned that in total more than 60,000 MW of electricity will be generated from the planned dams. More projects are likely to follow.
Not to be outdone, China, which borders Arunachal Pradesh, is involved in a major dam building programme on its side of the border, also using the waters of the Brahmaputra – which it calls the Yarlung Tsangpo.
Controversy
The dam building programme is highly controversial: critics say it not only ignores geological and ecological factors – it also fails to take into account the impact of climate change in the region.
The Brahmaputra, 10 kilometres wide in places, is one of the world’s major rivers, winding for nearly 3,000 kilometres from the Tibetan Plateau through China, India and Bangladesh before joining with the Ganges and flowing out into the Bay of Bengal.
It is an extremely volatile, tempestuous river system: the Brahmaputra’s waters rise dramatically during monsoon season, causing widespread flooding, erosion and misery for many thousands of mostly subsistence farmers.
Ashwini Saikia is a farmer on the banks of the Brahmaputra river, in the small settlement of Rohomoria in northern Assam. Even now, in pre monsoon season when the river is low, there is the “plop, plop” sound of land falling into the waters.
Erosion fears
“Each year the river has eaten away more and more of my land. Then in 2010 the waters rose so much I lost my house for the fifth time in the last 15 years” says Ashwini.
Ashwini has given up farming and is now being forced to move with his family and livestock - to where he’s not entirely sure.
Dr Partha Das is an Assamese academic who has been studying the Brahmaputra for several years. He also runs Aaranyak, a locally based environmental NGO.
“The dam building programme has many question marks hanging over it including the fact that the northeast is a highly seismic region, with an earthquake in 1950 completely altering the geological structure of the Brahmaputra river basin.
Climate change impacts
“Then there is the whole question of climate change, which has scarcely been mentioned by the planners. Already we’re seeing an increase in intense rainfall events that are accelerating the high rate of soil erosion and landslides in mountainous regions. And as temperatures rise and glaciers melt on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas, river flow levels - at least in the short term - are likely to increase.”
The Indian government defends its dam building programme, saying the power generated will mean that the country will be able to wean itself off its dependence on coal for energy, most of it low quality and extremely polluting.
But many in the northeast, who have long felt cut off from the rest of India and neglected by central government, are unconvinced by New Delhi’s arguments.
There are accusations that the mostly privately backed dam building projects are money making exercises for the wealthy: most of the power produced will be exported to other parts of India and not used to build up local industries.
Tribal concerns
The northeast is a tribal area: indigenous peoples say the influx of labourers from elsewhere in India is threatening local culture. They say the dams will also lead to more deforestation – and threaten some of India’s most important wildlife habitats.
Opponents of the dam building say no proper overall plan has been put in place: though India and China recently reached agreement on sharing various river resources, there is no specific deal on managing the Brahmaputra’s waters.
Protests about the dams has been growing, with work on what is India’s biggest dam construction project to date – the 2,000MW Lower Subansiri dam on one of the Brahmaputra’s tributaries - repeatedly held up. – Climate News Network
Imagine a World With One Universal Time Zone… - Facts So Romantic
▻http://nautil.us/blog/imagine-a-world-with-one-universal-time-zone
A warped photo of Big Ben. Alan Cleaver via FlickrEarlier this month, the chief minister of the Indian state of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, started something of a brouhaha with a bold pronouncement on the generally sleepy topic of time zones. “We need a local time for Assam and the other northeastern states which will be ahead of Indian Standard Time by at least an hour to 90 minutes,” he said. “People will be more energetic, and we will save on energy consumption.”Gogoi’s suggestion is unlikely to come to fruition soon—he would need support from many states and agencies that haven’t been consulted at all—but he does have a point. In The New York Times, Max Bearak reported that “In Mumbai, where Jahnu Barua makes documentary films, a normal Indian lunchtime of 2 p.m. more or less corresponds to (...)
Violences intercommunautaires dans le nord-est de l’Inde : les réfugiés sont dans un « état de panique » | The Observers
►http://observers.france24.com/fr/content/20120731-inde-assam-bodos-musulmans-violences-ethnies-deplaces-c
31/07/2012
Les affrontements interethniques entre hindous et musulmans qui secouent l’État de l’Assam, dans le nord-est de l’Inde, ont déjà fait 50 morts et près de 400 000 déplacés. La plupart d’entre eux ont trouvé refuge dans des écoles où ils vivent entassés, grâce à l’aide humanitaire. Témoignage d’un directeur de lycée qui accueille 2 000 réfugiés.
L’origine du conflit entre les Bodos, une ethnie hindoue autochtone de l’État de l’Assam, et les musulmans originaires du Bangladesh voisin arrivés dans les années 1970 reste difficile à déterminer, même pour ses propres acteurs. Les affrontements, qui éclatent régulièrement depuis plusieurs décennies entre ces communautés culturellement et linguistiquement différentes, sont souvent liés à des différends territoriaux. En 2008, 70 personnes avaient déjà été tuées à Kokrajhar dans des violences entre Bodos et musulmans.