Assam

An Abduction That Changed Assamese Literature

Aruni Kashyap

Writer Indira Goswami made a significant literary contribution to Assam’s peace process. It was through her efforts that writing by militants, initially shunned by the people, gained a central place in the Assamese imagination

If It’s Size That Matters

Raul Irani

Thirty dwarves in Assam dream big with their theatre group

The Illiteracy of Influx Theorists

Anil Bhatia

Those who blame Assam’s troubles on mass migration from Bangladesh don’t see that it defies simple economic logic

This Was No ‘Riot’

arindam

A week of madness in Assam

Method in the Massacre

Rahul Pandita

A week of madness in Assam

The Long and Winding Road

Ankur Rahman

Ankur Rahman, along with his brother Rodin and their friend, Akhup Khom, push the idea of slow travel to its limit and decide to walk from Tezpur in Assam to Sela Pass in Arunachal Pradesh—a good 340 km away. Asked why, Ankur’s answer is “Why not?”

Bhupen Hazarika

Aastha Atray Banan

When Hazarika turned 80, he offered to marry partner Kalpana Lajmi

Balladeer of the Masses

Tanmoy Sharma

In a region ridden with ethnic conflicts, Bhupen Hazarika’s music spun dreams of a unified ‘Golden Assam’

The Poacher Who Cared

Joynal Abedin

Joynal Abedin was a hunter and poacher. But two accidents changed his life: an unborn buffalo calf’s untimely death and a forest officer’s squashing by a rogue elephant. He has now dedicated his life to wildlife conservation in Assam’s Dibru Saikhowa forest

Where the Forests Have No Trees

Jay Mazoomdaar

Of the total 60,000 claims filed under the Forest Rights Act in Assam, nearly 30,000 came from a single district. Little wonder, then, that the administration controls less than a third of Sonitpur’s forests. While no political party minds legalising this mass encroachment in the Bodo heartland, the fate of the wilderness hangs by a 2009 High Court order.