The Bengali migrant and the (un)happy object: a study of select Bengali texts from Assam

Assam has witnessed Bengali migration in large numbers, often leading to native-migrant conflicts. This paper examines how emotions like hate and love reinforce and disrupt the ‘Us-Other’ binary, revealing the fluidity of identity in Assam’s conflict-ridden context. It further explores how culturally significant artifacts as well as seemingly mundane objects embody migrant experiences of melancholia and displacement, gaining agency in shaping alienated migrant subjectivities. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s theories of emotion and Maurizia Boscagli’s work on materiality, the paper analyses literary representations that contribute to critical estimations on affect and migration within Assam’s unique cultural and historical landscape.