In northeast India, the politics of citizenship flares anew

Tens of thousands of people left off a draft list of Indian citizens have begun picking up forms to file appeals across the northeastern state of Assam, wading into a byzantine legal and bureaucratic process that many fear could lead to detention, expulsion or years in limbo.

A draft list of citizens in Assam, released in July, put nearly 4 million people on edge to prove their Indian nationality.

Just across the border from Bangladesh, Assam has a population of roughly 33 million, with a little over one-third of them Muslims.

Many say the state is overrun with illegal migrants. The politics of citizenship — overlaid with questions of religion, ethnicity and illegal immigration — now swirls in a state where such questions have a long and bloody past.