Assam has witnessed much hostility, sometimes violent, between its Assamese-speaking natives and migrants. In recent years, Assam’s Muslim population has grown faster than the national average, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has been accused of stoking and supporting anti-Muslim sentiment.

The publication of the list follows a three-month long exercise to validate the identities of 33 million citizens, conducted under the oversight of the Supreme Court. The list can also target Muslims who migrated to Assam from other Indian states but who have not been able to produce acceptable evidence, such as a birth certificate. Many of those whose names did not make it on the official registry are poor and illiterate; they lack identification papers to certify the duration of their residence in Assam. What’s more, Bangladesh has repeatedly expressed that it will not accept their return.

The BJP government, meanwhile, has said that the actions will protect the Assamese and limit illegal migration.

What to watch: India's registrar general defended the action at a press conference, stating that there was no need for panic and that nothing would be confirmed until everyone left off the list had a chance to appeal between August and the end of September. It is unclear what will become of those who lose the appeal.

Tanvi Nagpal is the director of the International Development Program at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies.