What the study found
The study finds that everyday judicial practices in Assam can help produce and entrench majoritarian domination. It argues that judges do this through both active judicial labour and the withdrawal of judicial labour, which can generate suspicion and silence toward minorities.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors say this matters because the study suggests courts can routinise hierarchy and make authoritarianism durable and legally sanctioned. They present this as relevant to understanding democratic decline and the treatment of Bengali-origin Muslims in Assam.
What the researchers tested
The researchers examined how majoritarian domination is produced through judicial practices in Assam, India. They drew on an empirical study of more than 1,200 rulings of Assam’s High Court since 2009 and used the idea of legal work as their theoretical framework.
What worked and what didn't
The article says exercised judicial labour produces suspicion through doctrines of evidence, reliability, and juridical truth that cast minority identities as presumptively fraudulent and foreign. It also says withdrawn judicial labour produces silence when courts refuse to record, engage, or reason, making minorities legally invisible.
What to keep in mind
The abstract does not provide specific limitations beyond the study’s focus on Assam and on High Court rulings since 2009. The claims are presented as the authors’ theoretical and empirical interpretation of those rulings.
Key points
- The article argues that majoritarian domination in Assam is produced through everyday judicial practices.
- It analyzes more than 1,200 Assam High Court rulings issued since 2009.
- The authors describe two mechanisms: exercised judicial labour, which produces suspicion, and withdrawn judicial labour, which produces silence.
- The study says minority identities are treated as presumptively fraudulent and foreign through doctrines of evidence, reliability, and juridical truth.
- The authors conclude that courts can routinise hierarchy and help make authoritarianism durable and legally sanctioned.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Assam courts may encode majoritarian domination through judicial practice
- Authors:
- M. Mohsin Alam Bhat, Arushi Gupta
- Institutions:
- Queen Mary University of London, Columbia University
- Publication date:
- 2026-03-23
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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