Resisting the Resistance: Civilian Protests against ULFA Insurgency in Assam, India

Abstract

As demonstrated by the case of the Indian state of Assam, in this paper I argue that ethnic insurgencies that generally present themselves as expressions of ‘people’s power’ can, paradoxically, at times find themselves challenged by expressions of ‘counter people’s power’ by the very same people they claim to be liberating. I then go on to show that civilian resistance against the prominent United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) insurgents in Assam has taken on multiple forms, and is particularly separated by a rural-urban divide. The aim of civilian resistance in rural areas is tactical: it is aimed not necessarily at ending insurgency but simply at reducing abuse and insecurity in people’s everyday lives; sometimes this takes a violent turn, even ending in the deaths of insurgents in the hands of civilian protesters. In Assam’s urban areas, civilian resistance is generally more ideological, and has a longer history than its rural counter-part. It primarily takes the form of non-violent civil-society initiatives – protest meetings, peace rallies, media interventions, public denouncements, candlelight vigils, newspaper and Internet petitions against violence, etc. Typically, these are aimed at ending the insurgency and reaching a sustainable peace settlement. While such acts of civilian resistance might not necessarily herald a new breakthrough in Assam’s insurgency scenario, they do hold the potential to force both insurgents and security forces to observe restraint, to reduce the insurgents’ social legitimacy, to get compensated by the government for army atrocities against civilians, and to restore the Assamese people’s genuine aspirations into the peace process – just as counterinsurgency forces are gaining strength and pushing the insurgents towards the negotiating table.