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Civil Society’s Engagement with ULFA in Assam: A Historical Exploration

The armed struggle launched by United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) since the late 1970s for Swadhin Asom (independent Assam) and its reaction, appreciation, endorsement and critique in the civil society is an interesting case for investigation on how civil society works in India’s Northeast. Historically, civil society in Assam has been a domain of manifestations of grievances against the state, particularly, against the Government of India (GoI). As a result, the civil society in Assam has almost been overtaken by the passion of the ULFA, which steered armed struggle for Assam’s independence. Although the civil society did not endorse the path of violence pursued by ULFA for its proclaimed goal of Assam’s independence, a comprehensive critical voice against the militancy and violence pursued by it, has been almost absent. Only a few individuals consistently maintained a critique on ULFA from its inception. In more than three decades of ULFA–GoI conflict, the civil society has undergone through different experiences—from being overtaken by collective passion for the cause raised by ULFA to complete subjugation and marginalization under coercion both by the Indian state and the ULFA, and to that of gradual revival as a critical domain to question both the state and ULFA. The present article is an attempt to examine this trajectory of the civil society in Assam vis-à-vis ULFA.