Bangladeshi Migrants in India

The politicization of migration of Bangladeshis into India operates at the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and discourses on nationalism in India. For the Hindu nationalists operating at the All-India level Muslims are 'infiltrators' and Hindus are 'refugees', for the Assamese ethnic nationalists both Hindu and Muslim Bengalis are 'foreigners'. For the Bengalis in West Bengal the ethnicity 'Bengaliness' comes to the fore. This book argues that the perception ofBangladeshi migrants in Assam, West Bengal, and Delhi varies greatly due to the historical, ethnic and religious affinities of the people in each of the three states.