What the study found
The article finds that courts in Assam, India, can help produce majoritarian domination through routine judicial practices. It argues that judges do this in two ways: by actively creating suspicion about minority identities and by withdrawing judicial attention so that minorities become legally invisible.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors conclude that this helps explain how courts can routinise hierarchy and make authoritarianism durable and legally sanctioned. The study suggests this is especially relevant in Assam, where denationalisation policies threaten many people, particularly Bengali-origin Muslims.
What the researchers tested
The researchers examined more than 1,200 rulings from the Assam High Court since 2009. They used the idea of "legal work," meaning the judicial labour judges perform or withhold, to study how courts encode majoritarian domination.
What worked and what didn't
According to the article, exercised judicial labour appeared in doctrines about evidence, reliability, and juridical truth that treated minority identities as presumptively fraudulent and foreign. Withdrawn judicial labour appeared when courts refused to record, engage with, or reason through minority claims, which the authors describe as rendering minorities legally invisible.
What to keep in mind
The summary provided does not describe specific case examples, statistical measures, or countervailing findings. The article’s claims are based on Assam High Court rulings and are presented through a theoretical and empirical framework focused on that setting.
Key points
- The article argues that majoritarian domination is produced through everyday judicial practices.
- It analyzes more than 1,200 Assam High Court rulings from 2009 onward.
- Judicial labour is described as either exercised, creating suspicion, or withdrawn, creating silence.
- Minority identities are said to be constructed as presumptively fraudulent and foreign in some rulings.
- Court silence is described as leaving minorities legally invisible.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Assam courts encode majoritarian suspicion and silence
- Authors:
- M. Mohsin Alam Bhat, Arushi Gupta
- Institutions:
- Columbia University, Queen Mary University of London
- Publication date:
- 2026-03-23
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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