‘Assamese identity has historically been secular,’ says Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty

As Assam hurtles from the National Register of Citizens to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and an ongoing Supreme Court hearing on provisions facilitating the 1985 Accord, author and journalist Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty tackles the fundamental question of what defines its people in her second book, The Assamese: A Portrait of a Community. Edited excerpts from an interview.

Fishermen anchor their boats on the banks of the Brahmaputra following a cyclone warning in Guwahati. (Source: Ritu Raj Konwar)

Just who is an Assamese is a question that has evaded political consensus for decades. Do you see an expansive administrative definition ultimately or one that excludes several communities that comprise your portrait?