A ‘missing’ woman in Assam and her long struggle to prove Indian citizenship

Manowara Bewa, a barely literate Muslim widow in her fifties, is “missing”.

Manowara, who is from Dhubri, a district in western Assam bordering Bangladesh, was designated an “illegal foreigner” by a foreigners tribunal in 2016.

Unique to Assam, foreigners tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that assess citizenship based on lineage and a 1971 cut-off date. These bodies rely primarily on documents submitted by individuals to establish their family’s residence in Assam (or India) before 1971.

On May 24, amid a renewed crackdown on unauthorised migrants in Assam, Manowara was arrested from her home despite her ongoing appeal against the tribunal ruling in the Supreme Court. Her family and lawyers suspect that she has been secretly “pushed back” into Bangladesh by Indian authorities.

“Push-back” is the term the Indian authorities use when they force people suspected of being undocumented migrants across the border into Bangladesh.

Manowara’s situation echoes that of several other “declared foreigners”, who have gone missing and are suspected of being forcibly “pushed back”.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard a habeas corpus plea filed by her son and issued notice to the Assam government.

It is not the first time that Manowara has unwittingly become central to issues that profoundly affect the citizenship of India’s marginalised. Having followed her case initially as...

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