The Semiotics of Belonging: A Sociological Reading of Identity and Exclusion in Classrooms of Northeast India

Abstract

This article engages with the sociology of education to interrogate how identities (caste, tribe, race and ethnicity) are read, constructed and contested within the classroom spaces of Northeast India. Through analysis of everyday acts of ‘reading identity’, I argue that the classroom is a microcosm of the sociopolitical realities and ongoing text to be decoded. Categories created by the British and Indian governments (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, etc.) emerge throughout classroom conversations, teachers’ expectations, peer interactions and relationships, and in ‘hidden curriculum’, which reinforce symbolic boundaries between ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ or between ‘tribal’ and ‘caste’ bodies. The study concludes that educational institutions in Northeast India are socially embedded sites where colonial and historical legacies of missionaries and modern-day nation-building converge. It advocates a shift in emphasis in developing curriculum content, teacher training programmes and institutional policies to promote critical and reflective pedagogies and support inclusive learning environments.