Displacement matters : an explorative study on the effects of agency, time and space on the sense of belonging for internally displaced people in Bodoland, India

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Displacement Matters

An explorative study on the effects of agency, time and space on the

sense of belonging for internally displaced people in Bodoland, India

Manipur Relief Camp, photo taken by the researcher

Ruth Hooiveld 6054498 26-06-2015 18904 words

Master thesis Political science – International relations Supervisor: Polly Pallister-Wilkins Second reader: Nel Vandekerckhove

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Abstract: The lives and fate of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has received increasing

attention since the late 1990s. This research adds to the existing knowledge on the daily lives of IDPs living in relief camps. In Assam, a state in Northeast India, Bodo, Adivasi and Muslim IDPs have been living in relief camps since the onset of the conflict for a separate Bodo state started late 1980s. This thesis presents findings regarding the research question: ‘How does sense of belonging play a role in the day-to-day lives of IDPs in relief camps in BTC (Bodoland Territorial Council)?’ The concept of sense of belonging is broken down into three theoretical concepts of agency, space and time. These concepts all interact with each other and affect the sense of belonging for IDPs. Through semi-structural interviews with 25 people in four relief camps in Western Assam, data was collected and analysed to answer the main question. The findings of this research suggest that sense of belonging is an important part of the daily lives of these IDPs. Feelings of belonging take place in two spaces at the same time: the feeling of belonging to the original place that people were displaced from; and the feeling of not-belonging to the current space of the camp and the space surrounding the camp. The connection between agency and sense of belonging for internally displaced people is not clear in existing literature yet. This study has made a first step towards this end, and pleads for more research on this relationship.

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‘At the heart of the experience of displacement is the sense that one is without a

place to be’

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Internally displaced people

One rainy Sunday morning I was walking along one of Amsterdam’s canals. When I was unlocking my bike it struck me. This is my hometown, this is where I belong. I love to go abroad on holidays or traveling. But always, when I return to Schiphol Airport, I am overcome with a feeling of warmth. This is home. I realized that I take this feeling of belonging for granted, since I always have the possibility to go home. During my travels I have come to realize that there are many people in the world that are not as fortunate as I am. Many people are chased away from their homes, for example because of war or violence. That got me thinking. Will displaced people ever be able to find a new home? Will they grow a sense of belonging towards a new place? And how does that work for people who are finding shelter in refugee camps? This thesis entails my search for answers on some of these questions.

As of 2014, a total number of 38 million people are internally displaced worldwide due to armed conflict, generalized violence and human rights violations (IDMC, 2015: 7). This is an increase of 15 percent since 2013, and is the highest figure of internally displaced that was ever measured. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are refugees that involuntarily move away from their homes, but stay within their national borders. For a long time this group has not received any attention, because they were not recognized as a separate group of people in need. Since the late 1990s this has started to change. Increasingly, scholars have concentrated on the fate of internally displaced persons as opposed to refugees, whom have received growing scholarly and political attention since the end of World War II. IDPs are different from the concept of refugee because refugees have, by definition, crossed a national border. This study focuses on IDPs that are living in relief camps1_{in Western Assam, India. The section below discusses the main} question this thesis poses and the relevance of this study for the academic field and society. The second section focuses on IDPs, who they are and what they do. Finally, section 1.3 touches upon the laws and regulations that exist worldwide to accommodate this specific group.

1.1 The relevance of this research

The purpose of this thesis is to add to the already existing knowledge on the lives and fate of IDPs. It connects literature from different social sciences to create a better understanding of the lives of internally displaced people in relief camps. The study focuses on a specific area where many relatively unknown internally displaced live. In the state of Assam in the North East of

1_{In this study, relief camps and refugee camps are used interchangeably. They both refer to the camps that displaced}

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India, IDPs have been living in relief camps since the 1990s, with no prospects of returning to their homes. Torn away from family, social and cultural ties, and labour activities, these people had to flee their homes because of violent armed groups and have been living in relief camps ever since. By asking how the lives of these people are structured and what the realities of everyday life look like for them, this research aims to create a better understanding of the meaning of space, agency, time and sense of belonging for IDPs in refugee camps. The main question this thesis poses is: ‘How does sense of belonging play a role in the day-to-day lives of IDPs in relief camps in BTC (Bodoland Territorial Council)?’ Sense of belonging in this study means that one feels himself or herself to be an integral part of a certain environment (Hagerty et al., 1992: 73). Theoretically, the concepts of agency, space and time are connected to sense of belonging. Chapter two will elaborate on these concepts and explain how they are important for the feeling of belonging. In order to improve our understanding of how these concepts are important for the day-to-day lives of IDPs and how they interact with the concept of sense of belonging, three sub questions are posed. These questions focus on the concepts of agency, time and space. They are:

- How do IDPs in BTC use their agency in day-to-day activities in and around the relief camps?

- What role does time, and agency in waiting as a specific notion of time, play in the daily lives of IDPs in the relief camps?

- How does space play a role in the day-to-day lives of IDPs in the relief camps?

By answering these sub questions separately, an answer to the main question will be formed. In order to answer these questions, interviews have been conducted in relief camps in Western Assam.

On a practical level it is important to understand how IDPs live, what they need and how they can be helped in order to increase their quality of life. This is important to allow those who most need it to enjoy the international human rights every person is entitled to, rights that are acknowledged by almost every country in this world. On a theoretical level, knowledge about IDPs and lives in camps is still limited and thus far mainly focused on African and Middle Eastern refugee camps (see for example Agier, 2011; Hyndman, 2000; Feldman, 2014). Knowledge on India will thus be an addition here. On a smaller scale, the violence in BTC (hereafter Bodoland), the case study for this research, has still not come to an end and more IDPs arrived in camps as late as December 2014. Knowledge on the current situation is important in order to understand the tensions that are at play there and to possibly assist the people in the camps where they need it.

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1.2 Who are they?

Formally, internally displaced persons are: ‘persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border’ (OCHA, 1998). This means IDPs include people who have had to flee their homes because of natural disasters, but also war or violence, and forced displacement because of development projects (Mooney, 2005: 13). In this research the focus will be on internally displaced people who have had to flee their homes because of (armed) violence. When the term IDP is mentioned in the remainder of this study, this is the group that is referred to.

Official numbers of internally displaced persons are hard to establish. Refugee flows are more visible, because the crossing of an international border is (often) registered, while the internal movements of IDPs stay unnoticed (Phuong, 2001: 11)2_{. Since the 1990s counts of IDPs} have become more consistent and improved. Displaced people were found to exceed the number of refugees since then (Geissler, 1999). The first count of IDPs in 1982 estimated 1.2 million people in eleven countries. By the 1990s, 20-25 million IDPs were counted in more than 40 countries (Cohen, 2006: 89). As of 2012, this number increased to almost 30 million (IDMC, 2013: 8), while the latest estimations count 38 million people worldwide (IDMC, 2015: 7). The causes mentioned for the need to flee are always a violation of basic human rights (Chakma, 2000). IDPs that are fleeing as a result of war are vulnerable to acts of violence such as armed attacks, torture, disappearance or rape, while social and cultural ties are disconnected (Geissler, 1999). Displaced persons find themselves cut off from their land, traditional livelihood and possessions (Mooney, 2005).

Refugees and internally displaced people are mostly accommodated in camps. These camps are designed for people that go through a temporary situation of refuge (Agier, 2011: 182). They are always meant to be short-term solutions, to offer shelter to displaced people and find a durable solution afterwards (Ramadan, 2013). Often, minimum standards are available in these shelters, where the emphasis is on survival, security and personal safety. These shelters offer people survival, but they are not transformed into homes because no one is expecting to stay (Brun, 2015a). Refugee camps are the fourth solution for the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), after repatriation, integration and resettlement in a third

2_{For this thesis it is important to identify the difference between a refugee and an internally displaced person. As}

was mentioned above, the two groups differ in definition, legal terms and in who will protect them. They are only similar in the sense that they are both displaced from their original homes.

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country (Agier, 2011). They are presumably also the most shameful one; in no official document are permanent refugee camps mentioned (ibid.). History has taught us that often these temporary shelters turn in to permanent settlements. It is well known that many refugee camps have existed for decades (see for example Feldman, 2014, Palmgren, 2011). Children are born, people get married, and the elderly find their final resting place in refugee camps. The existence of these new settlements has caused scholars to increasingly focus their attention towards this field of research. How people create a livelihood in these new settlements and how they interact within the camps is a growing topic in social science (see amongst others Agier, 2011; Hynmdan, 2001; Bulley; 2014).

Also, it is important when doing research on this group to look at what rights these people are entitled to. The section below will touch upon this subject. It is not the main focus of this thesis to look at the political or legal status of IDPs. However, it is necessary to shortly discuss this topic in order to understand why they are regarded as different from refugees in a legal perspective.

1.3 Law and regulations

One important question when discussing the lives and fate of IDPs is, who has the mandate? Who is supposed to shelter and take care of them? The definition of an internally displaced person is a descriptive, rather than legal one (Mooney, 2005: 17). It describes the actual situation a person is in, without referring to a certain legal status, which is the case with the concept of refugee. In 1998 the United Nations formulated the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The internally displaced persons were seen to fall in the gap where the national guarantees of human rights are absent and international refugee law does not apply (Luopajärvi, 2003: 4). The Guiding Principles were meant to fill this gap on the short term. Prior to this, the protection and assistance of IDPs were supposed to be covered by domestic laws (Abebe, 2011). However, more than once the very state that is supposed to protect the IDPs is either unable or unwilling to protect them, or is even the reason that people became displaced (Chakma, 2000: 228). Banerjee et al. (2005: 140) argue that it is important to treat the displaced person as a legal person. If national governments do not grant displaced people the right to legal recognition, the displacement causes not only spatial displacement but also displacement of identity. If this is true, it can be argued that IDPs will often feel displacement of identity if they are uprooted or not assisted by the government the way that they feel they are supposed to be.

The importance of the Guiding principles was twofold: first of all it was the immense increase of IDPs since the second count in the 1990s. Secondly, the conditions under which

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IDPs lived became clear and compelled an international response. The mortality rates among IDPs appeared to be the highest ever recorded in humanitarian emergencies (Salama, Spiegel & Brennan, 2001). Health problems appeared to be a big problem amongst IDPs (Rae, 2011). Furthermore, the need for international standards for IDPs became clear after relief organizations in the 1980s and 1990s tried to help these people and found that there were no clear rules for doing so (Cohen, 2006). While the principles are not binding, they have become widely accepted by governments and NGOs alike (Orchard, 2010). At the end of 2004, 5.4 million displaced persons were under the protection of the UNHCR, which protected 19 million persons in total. Nevertheless, this is only a minority of the total amount of IDPs in the world, and internally displaced persons still do not fall under the official mandate of the UNHCR, whose priority remains to be the refugee (Hazra, 2010).

After reviewing the factual knowledge on IDPs, the remainder of this thesis will focus on the following: the next chapter contains the theoretical background for this research. It will focus on the theoretical concepts of agency, space, time, and finally sense of belonging. Each of these theoretical concepts will be discussed in separate sections and their importance for this research will be explained. Chapter three then defines the research setting. The first section is on background information about the conflict in Assam that this research is based on, while the second section focuses on the IDPs that are living in relief camps in the area. Chapter four discusses the research design, methodology, limitations and respondents. Chapter five and six are the analysis chapters of this thesis. Here, the data is analysed by answering the sub-questions consecutively. The thesis will end with a conclusion in chapter seven in which the main question is answered. Here it is discussed how sense affects the lives of IDPs in relief camps.

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2 Displacement and agency, space, time, and sense of

belonging

The tendency of long lasting relief camps and the formation of new settlements in these camps as discussed in section 1.2 makes this topic an interesting area for scholarly research. Different disciplines have looked into these camps and asked questions about how the people live there, what these people experience, and who is in control there. This chapter lays the theoretical foundation for this research. The sections below discuss the scientific debate about relief camps and life in these camps. The main concept in this research is sense of belonging, which will be explained more in depth in section 2.5. To know what sense of belonging is about, it is first broken down into three concepts. The meaning of these concepts for the lives of displaced people will be discussed below. To begin with, a definition of agency will be given. To talk about life in the camps and choices displaced people make is to focus on their agency. Following this definition, the ‘why and how’ of agency will be of concern in the second section. Do displaced people have agency and in what way are they able to use it? Thirdly, the meaning of space and place is discussed. Space is, as will be shown, an ambiguous concept. It is also essential for displaced, because they are taken away from everything that they knew and are now in a strange environment. Fourth, the notion of time is discussed. Time plays an important role for the displaced, as they are often waiting to go home or to a new place after the relief camp. In the final section of the chapter the four sections come together to explain the notion of sense of belonging, and how this concept is important for displaced people.

The different concepts are separated in the sections to explain them as clear as possible. However, as will be shown, they interact in different ways. On several occasions the concepts will thus be treated together.

2.1 Displaced people and agency

To start the theoretical discussion on life in camps for displaced people, a definition of agency is important. Agency partially defines who does what and why, and therefore influences the lives of displaced people. One useful definition comes from psychology: ‘Broadly speaking, agency is the freedom of individual human beings to make choices and to act on these choices in ways that make a difference in their lives’ (Martin et al., 2003:1). In this sense, every person would have agency, because everyone can make choices and act on these choices, even if it is to decide to take a walk or go shopping. A second definition that adds to the first comes from the sociologist Anthony Giddens (1984), who argued that agency is about the actual capability of people to do

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things, instead of only referring to the intentions people have. Therefore agency implies power. Additionally, agency is always connected to social structure. Structure refers to the rules and resources that ‘lead’ human agents. It involves the ‘structuring properties which make it possible for similar social practices to exist across varying spans of time and space and which lend them ‘systemic’ form’ (ibid., 17). Structure can be seen as a set of social guidelines that forms habits and norms. Hochschild (1979: 563) refers to these social guidelines as ‘a set of socially shared rules’. She argues that these social guidelines direct how people feel. Social structure thus influences emotions and agency of people.

The structural properties of social systems are at once the medium and the outcome of the practices they organize (Giddens, 1984: 25). This means that structure influences agency and emotions, and that agency and emotions at the same time influence structure, as can be seen in figure 1. Agency, emotions and structures are thereby inextricably intertwined. Structure is, because of its function as both a medium and a result of human practices, both constraining and enabling. It simultaneously limits and determines the capability of an individual to make a difference, and is therefore dependent upon and at the same time implicates the other (Held & Thompson, 1989: 25). In the remainder of this thesis, when referred to agency, this also encompasses structure and emotions.

Figure 1: Agency, structure and emotions influence each other and are thereby connected.

In this second definition of agency one can assume that people do not always have the possibility to use their agency. They might have the intention, but if the social structure does not allow them to act or feel in certain ways, they may not to act at all. The way people feel and act is influenced by the social structure they live in, while the social structure is influenced by the way people feel and act.

Now that an understanding of agency is established, the theoretical discussion on agency and displaced people in relief camps can be laid out. In the following section the debate on whether displaced people have agency and how they use their agency within camp settings is outlined.

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2.2 Subjected to bare life or agents with power?

Refugees are said to exchange the rights and entitlements of citizenship for safety in camps, which Hyndman refers to as ‘safe spaces’ (Hyndman, 2000: 87). Refugee camps can be seen as the humanitarian space, since they are a space away from crisis and enable assistance to people in need (Feldman, 2014). They are the spaces of security for individuals at their most vulnerable (Bulley, 2014). Agamben, an important scholar in the mid- 1990s, first theorized this idea of people having no rights and entitlements in camps. In his widely influential book ‘Homo Sacer’ (1995) Agamben set out the idea of the concentration camp as a space of exception. The camp, according to him, can be seen as a space in which the normal order is non-existent, and the space of exception becomes the rule (Alsayyad & Roy, 2006: 13). In the no-law zone of the camp, individuals become subjects that are depicted as ‘bare life’. It is a site of biopolitical space, where the subjects are governed through their bodies and the rules of the camp. According to Agamben this theory could be expanded to different camps.

Despite the importance of Agambens’ idea for the study of camps, scholars have questioned his theory of the non-agency of camp inhabitants. Ramadan (2013) has argued that Agambens’ notion of ‘space of exception’ is useful, but that his theory can be criticized because he does not take into account the agency of, in his case, refugees. In order to understand how, why and by whom law in the camp is suspended requires ‘a nuanced and empirically informed approach, sensitive to the particular characteristics of the real camps, the politics, people, relations and practices that constitute camps on an everyday basis’ (ibid., 69-70). He argues that the camp is more than a void of law and political life: it is about the people within it and the relations between them, which he calls the ‘camp-society’ (ibid.). Ramadan finds that in Palestinian camps refugees regularly use their agency to control conditions in the camp by defining and shaping them.

Secondly, Ramadan argues that camps experience power and governance by different actors, institutions and organizations, including the displaced themselves. Dunn & Cons (2013) make a similar argument opposing Agamben. They proposed the notion of ‘burdened agency’ that displaced people have in relief camps. Within the constraints that these people face, they try to recreate a sense of normal life, ‘some semblance of a regular existence’ (ibid., 99). Camps are spaces in which a relatively stable life is aspired (Agier, 2011: 179). People in sensitive spaces do not passively wait, but actively appropriate the world around them to make their lives meaningful under difficult circumstances. These circumstances include living in camps, sleeping in tents, and not having running water or enough food. Dunn & Cons (2013) continue arguing that the concept of burdened agency always combines opportunity and constraint. Being a mixture of

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choice and coercion, these choices are always between bad and worse, for example trying to find food in a dangerous neighbourhood outside the camp or staying inside and not having enough. This idea reflects the notion of the social structure of the camp and the agency the people in the camp exercise. As argued before, the social structure is always both enabling and constraining, as is the concept of burdened agency. Rosenfeld (2002) has found this to be true for a Palestinian refugee camp, where social agency is used amongst family members to get jobs and receive education; they are trying to make something of their lives while being uprooted. Malhotra (2007) has also found refugees using agency to improve their lives. He argues that people that are living in refugee camps in Kashmir, India have been actively participating in the society and by doing so they have given new meaning to their lives. This refers back to the notion that displaced people appropriate the world around them to make their lives meaningful.

The idea of agency as described in the previous section is thus useful for the concept of displaced people in camps. The structure of the camp can be seen as both constraining and enabling at the same time, while displaced people with their burdened agency try to create some sense of normalcy in their lives, and make their lives meaningful. The following section will combine this idea of agency with a second important aspect for displaced people living in relief camps: the concept of space.

2.3 Agency and space

Considering the meaning of agency and structure, the meaning of space3_{for displaced people} becomes an important aspect. The notion of space is threefold here. Firstly, there is the actual camp space; the geographical location of the camp that is demarcated by the boundaries of the camp. This space is important for displaced people because it is their new place of residence. Furthermore, Brun (2001) has done research on the relationship between people and place in refugee settings. She argues there are two ways of looking at space, a view she borrows from Massey (1994). The first, essentialist notion of space suggest that all people have a natural place in the world, to which identity and culture are linked (Brun, 2001). Identity in this sense refers to the concept of space identity, which means that place is incorporated into identity, and that people build memories and a relationship with the space they grow up in (Fullilove, 1996).

Concerning displaced people this notion of space refers to the geographical location of the original village, city or community. For those who have experienced enforced displacement the relationship between place and identity becomes problematic (Cox & Connell, 2003: 331). Since refugees are taken away from their place, they are also taken away from their identity. In

3_{In this research, space and place are used interchangeably. Following Brun (2001: 1516), both concepts are}

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this sense, for the internally displaced a relief camp is slightly different than for refugees. Refugees find themselves in a double exclusion from locality: they are excluded from their place of origin, and from the new space of the local population. If they do manage to create new relationships with locals, they are always subaltern, since the refugee is not at home and destitute (Agier, 2011: 180). In some cases the internally displaced take shelter in camps that are only miles away from their homes, therefore they are not strangers to the neighbourhood and the people. They are however displaced, and stuck to the camp and camp life. The camp is always the place of the victim, with the village the place of the individual (ibid.).

A second conception of space separates space from identity. Here, space is constructed from the ‘multiplicity of social relations across all spatial scales … place is a particular articulation of those relations, a particular moment in those networks of social relations and understandings’ (Brun, 2001: 15). Space in this second sense can be defined as a fundamental dimension of all social processes. It is about the total amount of resources and human relationships in a given location (Fullilove, 1996: 1516). Space is created and recreated through the people that inhabit and are active in these places. Brun (2001: 18) calls this reterritorialization. This second definition of space refers to the refugee camp where the displaced people are present. Here, displaced people in camps are not passive victims in an abnormal state of being, but active agents who are able to develop strategies and function on a social basis. For displaced people this means the way displaced and local people establish new networks and cultural practices to control their own life, that at the same time define new spaces for this life.

The first sense of space can be related to the Agambian meaning of the camp, where people have neither agency nor identity. When people are taken away from their original place, their identity is left behind as well. In their new situation in the camp they are surrendered to bare life and have no power to change things. This would mean that they lack agency the moment they are displaced. In the second definition of space, the inhabitants of the camp create and recreate the space and social structure in their current place. Here, space and agency, emotions and structure are related (figure 2). The displaced persons use their (burdened) agency and through their relationships, emotions, and actions they create and recreate the camp space and structure that they find themselves present in.

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Figure 2: Agency and space are related because space is created and recreated through the people that inhabit and are active in this space

Now that the connection between space and agency is clear, a third and final theoretical step, before coming to the importance of ‘sense of belonging’ is made in the next section: here, the notion of time is included in space and agency.

2.4 Temporality and time

A third important aspect of life in camps that becomes apparent in research is the felt temporality of these camp spaces. Feldman (2014) has argued that refugees are regularly confronted with the relationship they have with the camp; their temporary home that is not wholly their own (often government owned land) and intended to be impermanent. During protracted displacement hopes of returning to the original place remain strong and shape people’s lives. However, over time these hopes change (Brun, 2015b). In a camp in Lebanon, Ramadan (2013) has found refugees to be talking about camps as temporary spaces as well. Home and a truly meaningful life are located elsewhere both in space and time. The camp in this way represents a contradiction of displacement and assistance at once, which Hyndman (2000: 183) has called ‘displaced assistance’.

Brun (2015b) focuses on the aspect of time for protracted displacement, and has argued that this form of displacement is often characterized as waiting, because displaced people dream about a future that lies in the past and is located in another place that they were forced to leave. She defines this waiting as ‘agency-in-waiting’, which denotes the ‘capacity to act in the present, based on the experience of displacement from the subject’s history and a critical reflection of the future possibilities framed as waiting and hope’ (ibid., 25). According to her, this understanding of agency-in-waiting helps to understand how people are able to move on during this period of uncertainty, while at the same time showing there is a limit to the ability of IDPs to challenge their status and control their future. The time aspect that is added to the agency of displaced people (figure 3) gives a focus to the uncertainty these people live in. They ‘live with a status that is not supposed to last, often in dwellings that are temporary: they do not know how long they

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will stay, when they will move on, and what will happen when the causes of the displacement change’ (ibid., 33). Upreti & Müller-Böker (2010) find this to be true for internally displaced in Nepal. They argue that elderly displaced in a refugee camp see life as a means of subsistence until the time comes to return. Because of the perceived impermanence of their stay in the camp, its inhabitants use resources in a different manner. They do not plan for the future but only survive here and now. The displaced they talked to had small plots of land in the camps but never planted seasonal vegetables because they kept arguing they would return home soon.

Figure 3: Agency and time are related in the concept of agency-in-waiting

Additionally, the here and now – the present – of the camp space becomes important. Even though displaced people long for a different life in both space and time, they have a life in the here and now where they need to survive and create a livelihood. By surviving and living in the camp, they construct the place where they are physically present (Brun, 2001: 19). Here, the notion of agency and space returns again. Because the time that people long for and the time that they find themselves in, space, agency and time become connected. The three theoretical concepts are thus inextricably interconnected in the life of displaced people (figure 4).

Figure 4: agency/space and time are all connected in different manners

Now that the concepts of agency, space and time are explained and is shown how they relate to each other, the final section of this chapter will concentrate on the most important

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concept: sense of belonging. First a definition of sense of belonging will be given. After that, the relationship between respectively agency, space, time, and sense of belonging will be discussed.

2.5 Sense of belonging

Hagerty et al. (1992: 173) defined sense of belonging as ‘the experience of personal involvement in a system or environment so that persons feel themselves to be an integral part of that system or environment’. Fullilove (1996), a psychiatrist who focused on the psychological processes that are affected by geographical displacement, argues that sense of belonging works through three psychological processes: familiarity, attachment, and identity. When people are displaced, these emotional connections to a certain place are disrupted and instead create disorientation, nostalgia and alienation, which undermine the sense of belonging. Familiarity entails the intimate knowledge of the environment that is essential to survival; being uprooted can bring disorientation in the new place. About attachment and nostalgia Fullilove argues: ‘Sadness and longing are predictable when the object of attachment is lost. Those feelings, associated with loss of home, are referred to as nostalgia’ (ibid., 1519). The third process, from identity to alienation, is about place identity. This refers to the idea that place is a core element of the self in identity formation. One important idea of place identity is that one must have a place and know that others hold this place in esteem. When identity is betrayed in either of these ways, alienation may result.

A sense of belonging for individuals and groups is developed within social boundaries (Keyes & Kane, 2004). Place attachment thus also defines group boundaries and facilitates a sense of security (Gieryn, 2000). This means that the social structure of a place, as described earlier, shapes the sense of belonging. Together with the emotional attachment and actions people exercise, agency is therefore an important part of sense of belonging. The concept of burdened agency can be connected to the process of familiarity and disorientation that displaced people experience. People need to know how to survive in a certain place by making a livelihood and knowing where in the place they can get food and living items. When they are displaced, they are disoriented and do not know how to create this livelihood anymore, which means they cannot use their agency within this social structure. When they do know the new place, they can use their agency to create a sense of belonging there. As Keyes & Kane (2004: 816) found in their research on Bosnian refugees and their feelings of belonging to their new place in the United States, refugees tried to ‘belong in their new homes’ by finding a new job, fitting into the new culture and regaining a sense of normalcy. This sense of normalcy was found to be important to these refugees. The respondents mostly referred to feeling normal when they talked

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about making friends and, for example, going to the mall. Even though the setting of the research is very different, the sense of normalcy is similar in the research of Dunn & Cons (2013), who focused on life in a refugee camp and introduced the notion of burdened agency (see section 2.2). In both cases, the displaced people are found to try to create a sense of belonging – a sense of a ‘normal life’, as far as possible – in their new places.

The relationship between space and sense of belonging was already exposed earlier. A sense of belonging can, as mentioned in the examples above, be related to a certain geographical space. People feel they belong to a place because of the community they grew up in or the place they were born. This can be related to the process from identity to alienation that displaced people experience. The essentialist notion of space, which was treated in section 2.3, contains that people are attached to a certain space and that, when taken away from this space they are taken away from their identity. This reflects the argument made by Fullilove (1996) about place identity being an integral part of ones’ self in identity formation and the argument made by Hagerty (1992), who defined sense of belonging as being an integral part of an environment. When one is taken away from this part of his identity, one is alienated from himself and the environment. The second theoretical notion of space also relates to sense of belonging. When people create and recreate the space around them by their social relations and actions, they start to create a sense of belonging there. This is about adapting to the new space. Be it the relief camp or the new country where displaced people reside, they try to create some sense of normalcy into their lives (Keyes & Kane, 2004).

The relationship between time and sense of belonging has already been revealed as well. As was mentioned in section 2.4, many of the displaced people in refugee camps deal with the feeling of temporality of their living space. Additionally, the notion of agency-in-waiting is about a sense of belonging somewhere else in space. They have to act in the present to make a livelihood, while they think about their past where life was better, and long for a future that resembles the past. As Brun (2015b) argued, during protracted displacement the nature of hopes of returning to the original place tend to change over time. The importance of time for sense of belonging can be related to the process of attachment and nostalgia. Longing for a different place in time that occurs when an object of attachment is lost, in this case the original place, results in sadness and nostalgic feelings.

The final part of this chapter has shown how agency, space and time all relate to the sense of belonging for displaced people (figure 5). All these concepts play a role in the daily lives of IDPs in relief camps. As was argued before, the emphasis of shelters for displaced people is

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on survival. These shelters represent the ‘interstices in displaced people’s lives’ (Brun, 2015a: 45). No one is expecting to stay there for a long time, but they want to move on or return home.

Figure 5: agency/space and time are all important for the sense of belonging for displaced people.

After having reviewed the factual and theoretical concepts that are important for this research, the next chapter will take a closer look at the case study of this research, the situation in Bodoland. First, the conflict that has caused the displacement in Western Assam will be discussed. In the second section the IDPs as a result of this conflict will receive attention.

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3. Research setting: the situation in Bodoland

3.1 The Bodo conflict

North East India exists of 7 states with over 225 communities and more than 150 different languages (NESRC, 2008). The Bodos belong to the Tibeto-Burman speaking Indo-Mongoloid ethnic group who migrated from China through Tibet and Bhutan centuries ago (Dikshit & Dikshit, 2014: 534). This group also inhabits Bangladesh, lower regions of Nepal and other states of India in the Northwest, but are mainly resided in Kokrajhar, Darrang, Goalpara and Kamprup districts of Western Assam (George, 1994). The Bodos have been sharing their homeland with Assamese and other tribal groups in the state. They are the largest ethnic group of the plains tribes of Assam and the single largest tribal community in the state (Hussain, 2000). Even though they constitute only about six percent of the total population of Assam, in the North Western part of Assam the Bodos embody about 40 percent of the population.

The movement for a separate Bodo state, which is the cause of the large displacement in the area, had its origins in the economic and sociocultural aspirations of the Bodo people, who first raised the demand for a separate Bodoland under British rule. From the 1930s on they started to organize themselves, after the Indian government reorganized the state of Assam and called Nagaland into existence, a separate homeland for the ethnic group of the Nagas (George, 2004: 879). After the creation of Nagaland, a Plains Tribal Council of Assam (PTCA) and an All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) were set up in 1967, to fight for a better status for the plains tribals in the region (Vandekerckhove & Suykens, 2008). Initially the students and the PTCA worked together. However, as the PTCA could not fulfil the aspiration of the Bodos for an autonomous region, the ABSU withdrew its support in 1979 (George, 1994:). In 1974 the Bodos launched a movement for the recognition of Bodo language and the adoption of Roman script for their language. This movement was at first suppressed by the state government and the police. After a long struggle, the Bodo language was allowed to be used at primary and secondary school levels, besides the formally acknowledged Assamese language (Das, 1994).

The struggle for a separate Bodoland took violent form in 1987. The violence has always been either between Adivasi and Bodos, or between Muslims and Bodos. Adivasi is a collective noun for the original people of India, which includes different ethnic and tribal groups. The Muslims in North East India are mostly migrants from the former Bengal states. During the 20th annual conference of the ABSU, the organization called for the formation of a separate Bodo state. The movement’s goals hereby shifted from wanting an autonomous unit to the formation of a separate state within India, where they could establish a regional government (Saika, 2011:

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9). Their first idea was to divide Assam ’fifty-fifty’ for Bodos and non-Bodos. Violence against non-Bodo communities, including Adivasi, Nepalis and Bangladeshis, started. On April 12, 1990, 15 people were killed and 50 others injured in two bomb explosions on railway tracks. In 1993, after a few years of violence, the first Bodo Accord was signed. In the form of an Autonomous District, the Bodos were granted power to regulate the Bodo state (Vandekerckhove, 2009). However, the accord had one major issue left unresolved: there was no clear demarcation of Bodoland. The accord stated that all towns and villages with at least 50 percent Bodos as their inhabitants would belong to the Bodo Autonomous District. What had to happen to the 500 villages that were in the middle of the district but did not have a majority of Bodos, remained unclear. Insurgents of the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) argued that if they really wanted a homeland that protected and included all Bodos, the region had to be cleared from intruders (ibid., 538). In June and July of 1993, Bengali Muslims became prime targets of Bodo attacks in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon. 18 to 20 thousand people were affected, with their houses being destroyed and a large number of people severely injured. Then, in July 1994 a second wave of violence against Bengali Muslims occurred. Nearly 65 thousand people were internally displaced (Basu, 2009), and an estimated 1.000 people, mostly women and children, were killed. In May 1996, Bodo militants attacked Adivasi villages in various parts of Western Assam where about 200 people were murdered and more than 250.000 people had to seek shelter in relief camps (Vandekerckhove, 2009).

In 2003, a new accord was signed, this time as a Memorandum of Settlement between the Bodo Liberation Tigers and the Government. The new deal of autonomy was based on increased power of governance. The Bodoland Territorial Council was established to provide self-limited rule for the Bodo area (Cline, 2006). Hereby, the Bodo Liberation Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with the government. However, the violence still has not stopped. A violent faction of the Bodos, the NDFB-S, is continuing its violence against non-Bodo communities. The most recent known attack took place in December of 2014, where Bodo insurgent groups killed at least 48 Adivasi, and retaliation attacks happened shortly after that (the Telegraph, 2014). Another estimated 300.000 people were internally displaced during this period (IDMC, 2015: 51).

3.2 IDPs in Bodoland

A 2008 report of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council states that as of August 2004, an estimated 230.000 people were staying in IDP camps in North Eastern India (IDMC, 2008: 3). New camps have been built since the latest

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attacks in December of 2014, while some have dissolved when people returned to their homes. The Indian Government does not allow many international organizations into the area, making these figures estimations rather than actual numbers (Turner & Nepam, 2004). Furthermore, the fact that violence is still taking place makes it difficult to keep up with the official numbers. During July and August of 2012 another estimated 500.000 people were forced to flee as a result of violence between Bodos and Bengali Muslims (IDMC, 2012: 66), while December 2014 saw an additional 300.000 people becoming internally displaced. Additionally, the Government of India has given the responsibility of the IDPs to the North Eastern state governments, which has caused inconsistencies in conditions for the displaced people in different areas (ibid.). The Indian government is one of the few governments that has not ratified the 1951 Convention of Refugees, and does not allow UNHCR access to most refugee groups (Lama, 2000). This is marked by their inaction towards IDPs. IDPs have approached the administration for reclaiming their voting rights, and have been told they could reclaim them by returning to the places they were displaced from (Goswami, 2006: 66). This has not been possible due to the ongoing insecurity for these people.

Life inside the relief camps is often badly organized. Subrash Barman (2008: 173) has even made the comparison to concentration camps. A United States Committee for Refugees (USCR) visit to Assam in 1998 found that in most camps there was little medical care and education, and the food supplies were insufficient and inconsistent (Turner & Nepam, 2004). This has remained to be the case until at least 2007 (IDMC, 2008: 2-5). In 2007, IDP camps in Kokrajhar were found to lack sanitation services nearby, and tents were poorly structured (ibid., 4). Goswami (2006: 62) who has done research in Assam on IDP livelihoods, saw how the usual cycle of state response to induced displacement ran:

‘Immediately after the violence, temporary relief camps are set up in local educational institutions and government office buildings. Subsequently makeshift cramped shelters are built on government land. While there is a security outpost near the camp to provide protection to the camp inhabitants, field interviews have revealed that security personnel also sometimes cause insecurity inside the camps. The government provides Gratuitous Relief (GR) in the form of rice, lentils and oil regularly for a few years till the makeshift camps take on the nature of permanent settlements. When the GR stops and the people are forced to vacate the camps and to look for rehabilitation, they are provided only with a small rehabilitation grant (RG). The RG is usually a pittance of a few thousand rupees, most of which is more often than not swindled by middlemen and government employees’.

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Additionally, there have been instances of Bodo militants gunning down people in the camps and there have been cases where the security personnel have been exploiting the inhabitants (Barman, 2008: 173). Not many NGOs are active in the area. However, different agencies have given occasional relief and periodic gifts, especially around elections and festivals (Goswami, 2006: 65).

As is shown in this chapter, the violence in the area has not stopped, and people are in need of help. The situation of the IDPs in Assam warrants more research. Little is known on the current status of these people, besides a few (very important) studies such as the 2008 IDMC report, and the work of Goswami on the livelihoods of these IDPs. As Goswami has argued, since NGOs and the government are lacking proper ways to help the IDPs in Assam, it would seem the only option for the displaced people to ‘develop their own livelihood strategies rather than await governmental or non-governmental assistance’ (Goswami, 2006: 67). Whether this is the case will be of concern in this study. The next chapter will describe the research process and methodology that were used to execute this research.

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4. Methodology and design, repetitiveness, and respondents

This chapter focuses on the methodological choices that were made during this research. Section 4.1 will focus on the research design and methodology of this thesis. Secondly, the repetitiveness and limitations of this research will be discussed. Section 4.3 will shortly explain the respondents and the differences between the relief camps to give some background information on the people that participated in this research.

4.1 Research method and design

Ontologically, I believe that the realities of the world are best understood from a constructivist view. This means that social phenomena and categories are produced through social action and are in a constant state of revision (Bryman, 2008). This belief leads to an interest in qualitative research methods (ibid.). This research is based on a case study. Grounded theory was applied: theory and data were linked at different stages and the theory has been adjusted according to what has been found in the data (ibid.). This further means that an iterative approach was followed, indicating that data and theory were repeatedly connected and reflected upon. A combination of semi structured interviews and ethnographic research were used to obtain data. Due to the time limit of the data collection period, the type of ethnographic research that was done might be referred to, as Bryman (2008) argues, as ‘micro-ethnography’. It involves focussing on a particular aspect of a topic as a research subject. The ethnographic data was used mostly as an addition to the data that was collected from the interviews, to get a full image of the way people act in their environment. Fieldwork was conducted from the 1st_{of April until the} 23rd of April 2015 in Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam, India.

Through contacts with a local NGO (North Eastern Research & Social Work Networking, NERSWN) six different refugee camps in Kokrajhar and Gossaigaon districts were visited. In total, three Bodo camps were visited, as well as one Adivasi camp and two Muslim camps. The Adivasi camp and one of the Bodo camps were visited without conducting interviews. These two camps have not been included in this study. The Adivasi camp was not included because the employees of the NGO that guided me to the camps were mostly Bodo people. The tensions between Bodos and Adivasi were very high at the moment of the visit (and most likely still now) since the last attack on Adivasi happened late December of last year. The Adivasi people in the camp did not seem very eager to talk, and there was no one from the NGO there who could speak proper Adivasi. The first Bodo camp that was visited was also not used for this research. These Bodo’s were waiting until after the elections to go home. They had fled

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their village because of fear of retaliation attacks by the Adivasi last December, but they had not experienced any attacks and their homes were not damaged. Now they felt safe to go home.

The research has thus been carried out in four relief camps; two Bodo and two Muslim camps. More details on the camps given in section 4.3. An overview of the respondents can be found in attachment 1. Field notes were taken throughout the fieldtrip; during the interviews, and through the day. I met a PhD researcher during my first days in the field who told me it was not wise to record interviews, since people were sometimes hesitant to talk. Considering the timeframe of the research period was very limited I chose not to record any of the interviews, and only took notes. The people from the NGO always guided me to the camps and came along to translate. 25 interviews were conducted in total, plus an additional four group talks with people from the camp. I found out that people were hesitant to talk in private at first, so I decided to do a group talk with everyone who wanted to participate. Here I asked general questions about life in the camp, how many people lived there, what people did for work and so on. There were generally around 20-25 people that joined these talks and they lasted for about an hour. Mostly, three or four men did the actual talking. After these general talks the people were more willing to talk in private. Interviews took around 45 minutes each. Three of them were shorter, twice because they were Muslim men that had to go to Friday prayer, and once because the lady in question had just given birth to a baby two months earlier and was not feeling well. The topic list that was used during the interviews can be found in attachment 2.

All the data was transcribed and coded according to concepts found in the literature. The coding procedure was done through selective coding (Bryman, 2008 : 543), where a core category was selected and related to other categories. The core category, in this case ‘sense of belonging’, is the central focus around which all other categories are integrated. This is done in the theoretical chapter. The analysis of the data supports this theory.

4.2 Repetitiveness and limitations

One aspect that has to be mentioned here is that during the time of the fieldtrip local elections were held throughout Bodoland for the new BTC government. Every five years elections are held, and this was the first time since the existence of Bodoland that there was serious opposition. Around the election days between the 8th_{and the 11}th_{of April it was not possible to} obtain data due to fear of violence. Also, a local Bodo festival called Beshagu, which celebrates the new harvesting year, was celebrated from the 13th_{of April until the 16}th_{. Adivasi and Muslims} do not celebrate this festival. During these days visits to the relief camps were limited because the NGO was not working. The timeframe in which this research was conducted has brought

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interesting additional data. The elections brought some interesting findings, which will be discussed in section 6.2.1, while the Beshagu celebration (section 6.2.3) was interesting for the analysis of space. However, it is also a very specific timeframe, which makes replication of this research difficult. A second important limitation to the repetitiveness of this research is the fact that it is concentrated on a case study. The aim of this study has been to gain deeper knowledge on the topic of sense of belonging in this particular case. It has not been the aim to make generalizable claims.

Even though many anthropologists would argue that being in the field for only three weeks would not enable a researcher to obtain qualitatively substantive ethnographic data, I believe that being in the field, even for a short time, walking around in the places people spoke about and seeing the actual environment, was very useful for my understanding of the situation. Also, it has not been my intention to become incorporated with the cultures of the people from the relief camps (Johnson, 2007). I had a clear position as a researcher. One ethical consideration that has to be taken into account is the fact that I had never been to India before. I had no idea what to expect; what it looked like and what the people would be like. I learned that getting to know the research setting before starting research is important. I had to get to know the people from the NGO, my way around the research setting and how to interact with people from the different cultures, which proved to be difficult and delayed my data collection at times. Additionally, because I looked different and was seen as a researcher by my respondents, they might have altered their answers to what they deemed appropriate.

Because of the time limit of the data collection and the fact that the research has been performed abroad, the iterative process has not been as intense as I would have liked, meaning that there has not been a possibility to collect additional data after that field visit. Theoretical saturation, which is desired when using grounded theory (ibid.), was hard to establish in this research because the iterative approach has not been processed fully. More time in the field after additional theory collection would have been very useful here. However, the reflection between the data and theory has provided interesting insights into the theoretical knowledge of IDPs for this study.

Another consideration that is important for the outcomes of this study is my background as an interdisciplinary researcher. The theory section of this study comes from a broad range of social science schools. My career as an interdisciplinary social science student has made my search and openness for theory very broad. It has proven to be effective for this particular research, because it has been found useful to incorporate literature from different social sciences

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and combine them to form the right theoretical foundation. It has however been a challenge, as it always is, at sometimes as well.

I was reliant on the NERSWN NGO, who served as a gatekeeper (Berg, 2001) for me and was so kind to guide me to the different relief camps they were working in and translate for me. People seemed interested in talking to me and received me kindly. The NGO had worked in the two Muslim camps and two Bodo camps previously, and held good contacts with the people there. They were at the time of my visit still active in one Bodo camp (Jiagury) where they were going to build a toilet. In the other camps they were mainly keeping in touch with the people to see if they needed anything. Having them as a gatekeeper in these camps thus seemed to be a positive thing, because people were willing to talk to them and seemed happy that we were there.

A final problem that I encountered was the language barrier. Translation is an important part of qualitative research, especially when interviews are used. As Hyndman (2001) rightly recognizes, language is culturally bounded, and a lot can go missing in translation. There were four people from the NGO that came along with me on different occasions, depending on who had time (Roshmi, Dipanker, Nerswn and Sibram). They were all Bodo. With the interviews in the Bodo camps the translation was therefore the least problematic. However, sometimes my translators did not exactly know how to translate my question. Here, some information probably got lost. In the Muslim camps translation was a problem as well. The first Muslim camp (Bangaldoba) required a translator from my English question into Bodo with Roshmi, and then to another lady from the NGO who spoke Bengali. There were thus two women in between me asking the question and the respondent replying to that question. The second Muslim camp that I visited was with Dipanker the first time and with Nerswn the second time. Furthermore, the people from the NGO spoke English properly, but sometimes my questions were not clear to them so I had to rephrase them. Some information might have gone lost here as well.

The need of a translator has affected the way that data is presented in the analysis chapters as well. Because a translator was always necessary, the quotes will often start with ‘he’ or ‘she’. This is done because the translator told me what the respondents were saying. The words of my translator are used as precise as possible, to avoid any misinterpretation by the reader or by myself as a researcher. Below, a description of the different relief camps is given, with detailed information on the respondents.

4.3 The Respondents

The 25 semi structured interviews were conducted in four relief camps, which were geographically dispersed over a large area. Two of the camps were in Kokrajhar district, and two

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in Gossaigaon district. There were large differences between the actual camps, in terms of space, location and people. Only adults between 29 and 70 years old participated in this study. All the respondents were old enough to memorize the period of displacement. This was necessary to be able to ask questions about the difference between life in the original village and life in the relief camps. Below a description of the different camps is given.

Bangaldoba Relief camp. Kokrajhar district. Muslim camp

150 families lived in Bangaldoba relief camp, with more than 700 people (the exact number was not known). 7 people were interviewed: 4 women and 3 men, between 45 and 70 years old. These people have been displaced since 1993, and lived in this camp since 2000. Because of lack of space and work they moved from the former to the current camp. These people do not officially come from Bodoland, but from just outside. Their village is far away from the camp. How far it was they could not tell me, as they did not understand my question. I have not been able to find it afterwards. People from three villages live here: Jumunaguri, Goneshpur and Malibita, all near the Bhutan border. All their villages were burnt to the ground when they were attacked. All they could take were the clothes they were wearing. The camp is built on a sandy underground, away from any villages. The closest village is 4 kilometres further down the road. All the people in the camp were cultivators before. Now they live in small hutments made of straw or mud. The mud houses were the better houses, were people had been able to do some home improvements. People had small front ‘gardens’ (pieces of land, 2 m2_{) in front of their}

houses where they could cook. There was one newly built primary school next to the camp where the smaller children went, which was built by NGOs. Several families had members of the family working in Bhutan and sending remittances home. Since their former village was nearby the Bhutanese border, this was no different from before. Furthermore people worked in daily jobs where that was available. There used to be a ‘relief committee’ from within the camp, but this was dissolved because of internal disagreements. NERSWN NGO has started a new relief committee, which consists of seven elderly men and women.

No 1 Joyma Relief camp, near Kathalguri. Gossaigaon district. Muslim camp.

650 people lived in No 1 Joyma relief camp (hereafter: Joyma) since 23 July 2012. 7 people were interviewed: 3 women and 4 men, between 29 and 65 years old. Their former village, Ramphal Bill, was 30 kilometres away. The camp is positioned next to a newly built highway. It is situated on a grass field that is owned by other landowners. Next to the camp is one lower school, provided for by an Indian NGO: Rehab India foundation. There are two small open shops in the

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camp with some food items. Most houses in the camp are made of tin and braided wood. There are no more toilets in the camps, since they have sunk away in the mud due to storms last summer. The people go outside in the field now. The water pump that is present in the camp has been provided for by NERSWN, and an Islamic NGO had built some of the houses. All the men were businessmen before, and owned shops. Everything was destroyed during the clash, they only brought the clothing that they were wearing. Several men were now selling items on different markets, travelling from market to market every day. This was their replacement of having a shop before. There was no official camp management.

Jiaguri Forest Village Relief Camp. Gossaigaon district. Bodo camp.

47 households lived in Jiagury Forest Village relief camp (from now on Jiagury), with a total of 238 people. 5 people were interviewed: 3 men and 2 women, between 29 and 45 years old. These people have been displaced three times since 1996. They have lived in this camp since the last clash between Adivasi and Bodo’s, in December 2014. People came from one village: Kathalguri. This village is about 5 kilometres away from the camp. The camp is situated somewhat inland. The underground is mostly sandy. The camp consists of one large tent/house made of braided wood. Inside are small separated rooms. The rooms are not totally closed though, the walls do not reach the ceiling. People thus live in one large space where everyone can hear everything. There are two toilets present, and NERSWN is building a third one since the two do not work properly. Outside the large tent are two small open huts where people cook. All inhabitants were cultivators before. There was no official camp management present.

Manipur Relief camp. Kokrajhar district. Bodo camp.

80 families lived in Manipur relief camp, with a total of 395 people. 6 people were interviewed: 3 men and 3 women, between 27 and 42 years old. There was no official name for this camp, but for convenience purposes of referring to the camp I named it after one of the villages that people came from. The camp is situated in the middle of three nearby Bodo villages that all live in the camp now: Manipur, Dimapur & Mainaophur. These people have been displaced since December 2014. All their houses are destroyed. Their villages were only one or two kilometres away from the camp. The tents were about 1 meter high, made of plastic sheet and bamboo sticks. Each tent was about 4 m2_{. There were no separate kitchens, some people had to sleep}

and cook in the same space. There were a few ‘kitchens’: small open hutments for cooking purposes. There was a river that runs through the camp, about 2 meters wide. People had to walk through the river to get to the tents on the other side. The landowners on the other side of

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the river had told the people that they will use their land when planting season starts, after the rainy season. They will thus have to move soon. Whereto is not entirely clear. Most of the houses in their original villages are fully damaged, some only partially. All inhabitants were cultivators before. There was no official camp management.

After discussing the main question and importance of this research, the theoretical background, the research setting, and methodology, the next two chapters will focus on the analysis. In the following two chapters, the data is analysed according to the different sub-questions that were posed in section 1.1. Chapter 5 will focus on the data that is important for the questions on agency and time, while chapter six will discuss the question on space.

Displacement matters : an explorative study on the effects of agency, time and space on the sense of belonging for internally displaced people in Bodoland, India