Sanjib Baruah

The writer is professor of political studies, Bard College, New York

The dangerous intellectual fad of ‘civilisationism’

Sat, Jun 04, 2022

Sanjib Baruah writes: It is an effort to expand or narrow an imagined ‘us’ against an equally imagined ‘them’.

Time to bid goodbye to AFSPA

Mon, Apr 04, 2022

It’s only prudent to repeal this Act now. Study its record to strengthen the foundation of Indian democracy

UN’s Ukraine vote shows the racial subtext of global politics

Sun, Mar 27, 2022

Sanjib Baruah writes: The ambivalence of many countries in condemning Russia has made the fault line between Europe and non-Europe visible

Why the nature of the Capitol attack is hotly contested in US

Wed, Jan 05, 2022

🔴 Sanjib Baruah writes: A year later, the ideas and values that underpinned the attack on their nation’s democracy continue to have purchase among many white Americans.

What the 1971 refugees have to do with Indian politics today

Wed, Dec 15, 2021

🔴 Sanjib Baruah writes: Even if half a century later, the civil war that split Pakistan has had a decisive impact on the ideological battle over India’s national identity.

There is more to the evictions in Assam than the demands of ‘development’

Sat, Oct 09, 2021

Sanjib Baruah writes: Evictions have long been an explosive subject due to the region’s demographic and political history, as well as the displacement and dispossession caused by riverbank erosion.

How ideologies of national parties are domesticated by Northeast India’s grassroots politics

Fri, Aug 27, 2021

Sanjib Baruah writes: Election victories under these conditions don’t guarantee political peace and stability as seen recently in Meghalaya and Assam-Mizoram border clash

The predicament of Ashraf Ghani

Mon, Aug 02, 2021

Sanjib Baruah writes: If Afghanistan were to descend into civil war, he will have to share part of the blame, but only for his failure to master politics despite being dealt a bad hand

BJP’s Assam triumph has one caveat: Akhil Gogoi

Sat, May 08, 2021

Sanjib Baruah writes: Despite the electoral failure of the anti-CAA platform, Gogoi’s victory might prove to be politically consequential in coming months.

Despite ruling party’s silence, immigration from Bangladesh remains a theme in Assam politics

Fri, Apr 09, 2021

It will continue to animate and shape the state’s politics in profound and unpredictable ways in the foreseeable future.

Assault on US Capitol was based on white supremacist beliefs that has marked Trump’s politics

Mon, Jan 18, 2021

If Trump’s 2016 election victory was partly the result of a racial backlash against the Obama presidency, Biden’s public embrace of diversity and inclusion is sure to reinforce white resentment and disaffection.

Appointment of a Native American as Interior Secretary is a step in accepting America’s colonial past

Mon, Dec 28, 2020

It has become commonplace to talk of slavery as America’s original sin. But this narrative elides the story of the US as a settler colony — native Americans were forcibly removed before white settlers could use slave labour to cultivate those lands.

US has viewed democracy promotion as a foreign policy concern. It’s time it rebuilds democracy at home

Mon, Nov 09, 2020

The pandemic forced states to adopt new rules to enable early and absentee or postal voting and to suspend some of the more onerous rules.

Can Americans count on a peaceful transition of political power?

Wed, Oct 28, 2020

The fears about the possibility of a peaceful presidential transition point towards a crisis of liberal democracy that has uniquely American characteristics.

Question about stakeholders in the Naga conflict still needs a satisfactory answer

Sat, Aug 22, 2020

The fundamental question about who all the stakeholders in the Naga conflict are, still needs a satisfactory answer, one that is based on an in-depth mapping of the conflict.

Peace accords in Northeast require more decoding than we have been inclined to do

Fri, Jul 24, 2020

Sanjib Baruah writes: Armed groups in Northeast India have a long track record of successfully claiming a share of development funds — with the complicity of elected and appointed public officials — both before and after signing “peace accords”. Nagaland may be the leader in this regard, but not an exception.

Not a nation of immigrants: Behind politics of immigration in Trump’s America

Fri, Jul 03, 2020

Anxiety about unintended consequences of a 1965 law lies behind politics of immigration in Trump's America.

George Floyd protests draw attention to how little has changed on race and justice

Wed, Jun 17, 2020

In India, critics have legitimately called out the hypocrisy of elites who express digital solidarity with American protesters but ignore police violence and racial prejudice at home.

Society needs to regain moral compass

Thu, May 28, 2020

Society needs to regain moral compass, address plight of people in cities whose precarious livelihoods keep them steps away from destitution.

South Korea holds lessons for leaders trying to use crisis to consolidate power

Mon, May 04, 2020

President Moon Jae-in’s left-leaning Democratic Party won a landslide victory in South Korea’s parliamentary elections last month, signalling strong public approval of the government’s handling of the crisi

CAA-led narrative on religious persecution ignores political specificity, nuance in neighbourhood

Wed, Jan 22, 2020

India’s new official narrative is, at complete variance with the understanding that has informed Indian foreign policy so far. If Hindus were equally persecuted in East Pakistan/Bangladesh both before and after it broke away from Pakistan, why did India even bother to intervene in the war of liberation?

Protesters’ fears about CAA founded on history, accumulated experience

Tue, Dec 17, 2019

This is not the first time that a major country has adopted an ideology-driven refugee policy. There are lessons to be drawn from the experience of countries that had adopted similar policies before.

Defining thousands as non-citizens will create a new form of precarious citizenship — people with fewer rights, entitlements

Sat, Aug 31, 2019

India is unlikely to deport to Bangladesh people who fail NRC test. But the millions who will become non-citizens will have fewer rights

The fire in Assam

Tue, Jan 15, 2019

Many view the citizenship amendment bill as a betrayal of BJP’s poll promise

Winning the neighbourhood

Fri, Nov 02, 2018

India has displayed an ample supply of national self-confidence and pride in recent years. But the self-confidence has not translated into good public policy.

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