Description
The paper contends that the universalized conceptualization of Eurocentric idea of democracy does not fit the Indian reality. In contemporary politics, democratization and identity formation are the biggest challenges in a country like India. With a long adjoining land borders in South Asia, India has accommodated millions of refugees that has led to formation of many identities and has impacted the working of Indian democracy. The paper looks at the North Eastern Region of India where many issues related to illegal immigration have become a multipronged problem due to its porous borders and lack of proper border demarcation. The spike in the demography of the Kuki-Zo community due to the heavy influx of illegal immigrants from the neighbouring Myanmar and the unlawful inclusion of the voter list and Aadhaar Card for the vote bank by the greedy political parties in India has been common practice for the last two decades. The paper contents that the peculiarity of Indian democracy does not - and should not be forced to – align with the Eurocentric idea of democracy. The newly formed identities regroup with transnational ethnicity, which forces them to camouflage with indigenous ethnicity and demand a separate state. False narratives are formed to appropriate the Western democratic right, playing the victim card for being excluded. This process indicates the enforcement of a false imagined identity leading to massive internal displacement and death of people in the small state of Manipur, India. This paper analyses how the democratization process needs a critical overview to decolonize the process of false homogenized identity formation in North East India.
