Reconstructing Mising Identity: Elite Mobility, Community Organisation, and the Politics of Recognition in Post-Assam Accord Period in Assam

The identity movement of the mising is not a post-colonial development. However, it gained momentum during the post-Assam Accord period, which marked the end of the six-year-long anti-foreigner movement in Assam. The current study investigates the evolution and complexities of the mising identity movement since 1985. There is a significant research gap in understanding the socio-political contexts that have shaped the identity formation and mobilisations of the mising tribe in Assam. The paper argues that the post-Assam Accord period has contributed to the rejuvenation of organised elite among missing, who have become instrumental in mobilising the mising community and pursuing its aspirations beforethe state. The paper mainly aims to understand the changing dynamics of elite mobility and their role in the mising Identity movement through various community organisations. To achieve this objective, the paper employs a qualitative methodology based on archival analysis. The paper highlights that the movement’s success in preserving identity, political representation, and extended autonomy was possible only because of changing patterns of elite mobility and strategic shifts in their capacity to regulate and lead the community’s interests through community organisations. This research contributes a new and ethnic-specific perspective to the existing body of literature on tribal elite mobility and identity in Northeast India by discussing the role of mising elite mobility and mising national organisations in mising identity in the post-Assam Accord period. The study finds that the post-Assam Accord period witnessed the emergence of an educated and organisationally mobile Mising elite that played a decisive role in reconstructing and articulating Mising ethnic identity.