Professor Jay Ramasubramanyam

LA&PS Professor Jay Ramasubramanyam writes about the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur, India for The Conversation, and discusses the deafening silence of India’s political elite. Professor Ramasubramanyam contends that the current government in India has been clear and consistent in its apathy towards marginalized and minority communities.

While explaining why Manipur has been ignored, Professor Ramasubramanyam explains that the states of northeastern India have long been seen as developmentally and geographically peripheral by the Indian government. States like Manipur have not benefited from social, political or economic development because they are often viewed as “amorphous shadowlands” within India. People in the region have often been neglected and positioned as outsiders by the rest of India. Successive central governments have often viewed those in the northeast as objects to be militarized, policed and disciplined. This militarization has contributed to perpetual violence in the region. The full article can be found on The Conversation.   

Professor Ramasubramanyam is a Global South migration researcher. His research expertise includes refugee and forced migration studies, third world approaches to international law, human rights, race and racialization, and South Asian studies. His research explores the asymmetries of power, knowledge production and the ostensible legitimacy of norms in the field of refugee studies. Prior to his academic career, he was employed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a Refugee Status Determination Associate and in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as a Protection Field Officer.  Professor Ramasubramanyam can be contacted at jayram@yorku.ca.