Professor Sanjib Baruah’s ‘In the Name of the Nation’ wins the prestigious ICAS Book Prize

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• Sep 22, 2021 | moderator

New York: A proud moment for the people of Assam, Professor Sanjib Baruah of Bard College - A Liberal Arts College in New York State, has won the biennial International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) Book Prize for his book titled ‘In the Name of the Nation’.

Professor Baruah has won the ICAS Book Prize for the Most Accessible and Captivating Work for the Non-Specialist Reader Accolade.

“Controversies around new Indian laws on citizenship for migrants and refugees from neighbouring countries are embedded in the complicated colonial and post-/neo-colonial history of the Northeast region. In this relevant book, Baruah successfully ‘translates’ this complex political history of ethnic, religious and linguistic identity conflicts in accessible terms for non-specialists,” writes ICAS.

Sanjib Baruah is a professor of politics at the prestigious Bard College, New York, who has authored several books such as 'Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India', 'Beyond Counter-Insurgency', etc.

In the Name of the Nation offers a critical and historical account of the country's troubled relations with this borderland region. Its modern history is shaped by the dynamics of a "frontier" in its multiple references: migration and settlement, resource extraction, and regional geopolitics. Partly as a result of this, the political trajectory of the region has been different from the rest of the country. Ethnic militias and armed groups have flourished for decades, but they coexist comfortably with functioning electoral institutions.