Paper short abstract:

The paper is about the possibility of understanding miyas by using the lens of dress. Given their East-Bengal (now Bangladesh) origin, miyas are always seen as an outsider within the wider Assamese community of India. The acts of the miya othering plays out greatly through the miya sartorial tastes.

Paper long abstract:

Dress communicates a list of possible meaning. The dress may be a statement of gender, class, age, religion etc. Possibly because in most social encounters dress is seen before the conversation is initiated, and thereby have a certain priority over establishing of identity (Stone, 1962).

The paper is about the possibility of understanding miyas by using the material lens of dress and dressing. The miyas, East-Bengal origin Muslim migrants, has always been seen as the outsider in the post-colonial Assam. In this process of othering the miyas dress forms an integral part. The way the miyas typically dress is a reminder of their East-Bengal origin. The colourful cotton sarees of the women and the brightly stripped lungis of the miya men become the site of their exclusion. The aestheticization of bright and colourfulness, builds a sense of taste for attire, which delineates from the popular dress and adornment of the 'native' Assamese population. Dress explicitly makes a miyas easily distinguishable from the khilonjia oxomiyas (native Assamese). It defines the miyas. The paper is based on fieldwork in the Kira Kara char of Darrang district in Assam. It stands as prefatory but important attempt to locate dress as a lens to comprehend the lived experiences of the miyas, given that dress is usually seen as something inconsequential element and beyond the need of serious scholarly attention while talking about the contested identity of the miyas of Assam.