Of Homeland and Belonging

Harsha Vadlamani Photojournalist, Documentary Photographer and Filmmaker in India

Worried by rumours of attacks on Assamese working in other parts of India, many headed back to their hometowns in Assam. On board the Falaknuma Express heading to Kolkata from Hyderabad, many travelled unreserved in crowded coaches, even if it meant standing throughtout the 30-hour journey.

The road from Dotma to Kokrajhar, Assam.

A Bodo boy with wild rabbits caught during a hunt at Geolong Bazar in Kokrajhar, Assam.

A burnt house that belonged to a Bodo family at Tulshibil in Kokrajhar, Assam.

A Bodo villager at Bhawraguri in Kokrajhar, Assam.

Residents of the Dotma Relief Camp offer their afternoon prayers at a makeshift mosque inside the camp.

A National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Progressive) militant at the peace camp in Serfanguri.

A child plays with a wooden gun in Aminkhata, Kokrajhar, Assam.

A poster put up on the doors of a shop in Bazaar Road, Kokrajhar, Assam warns locals against buying from or engaging Bangladeshi migrants in any kind of work.

Ehfaz Ali and Zarin Bibi at the site where their house once stood in Nothunpara, Kokrajhar, Assam.

Mohammed Ghiasuddin goes fishing in the Guruphela near Kurashakati, Kokrajhar, Assam while his son watches on.

A red flag outside a house serves as a sign of presence of Bodo families in a Bodo-majority neighbourhood in Bhowraguri, Kokrajhar, Assam.

A Bodo woman outside her house in Tulshibil, Kokrajhar, Assam.

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Tulshibil, Kokrajhar, Assam. Delayed intervention by the central forces is thought to be one of the reasons for large scale violence during the riots.

A young Bengali Muslim fetches firewood at the Dotma relief camp in Kokrajhar, Assam.

Bodyonath Mushahary in a grove owned by his family in Tulshibil, Kokrajhar, Assam. Fleeing the village while under attack by Bengali Muslims, Bodyonath forgot to take his mother along. He returned eight days later with police escort, only to find her a part of her badly mutilated body lying in the fields.

Locals cross a wooden bridge across the Guruphela river between Bhawraguri and Tulshibil in Kokrajhar, Assam.

Munni from Kurshakati, Kokrajhar, Assam warms herself in the afternoon sun at the small potatao farm owned by her family.

A Bodo woman in her house at Malgaon, Dhubri, Assam.

A Bengali Muslim girl inside a temporary shelter at Kurshakati in Kokrajhar, Assam.

Assamese translations for Assimilated and Assimilation. Half-burnt diary from a destroyed Bodo house, Bhowarguri, Kokrajhar, Assam.

A Bengali Muslim woman herds her cattle back across the Guruphela near Kurshakati, Kokrajhar, Assam.

Ranu Basumatary inside her newly reconstructed house at Tulshibil, Kokrajhar, Assam.

Zuram Ali gathers materials needed to rebuild his destroyed house in Kurshakati, Kokrajhar, Assam.