This paper tries to weave together the different historical genealogies of student collectives which work with migrant students hailing from different ethnolinguistic communities from the distinct states of what is problematically known as Northeast India in Delhi. Echoing the work of Lal Dena (1998), Darliensung (2013), Songate (1956), Varte (2014), Pachuau (2014), Hminga (1987) and L Sangkima (2006), my paper tries to understand how historical collective bodies were at the forefront of redefining belongingness back home in their respective states of Manipur and Mizoram. It draws theoretical inspiration from Neihsial (1984) and Ngaihte and Paulianding (2022) and suggests that associational bodies which work closely with communities, reflect their beliefs and are also expressive of their agency and how they themselves wish to identify themselves (Suan, 2011). Following the footsteps of scholars like Zehol (1989) and Puia (2018) it tries to understand the different processes through which distinct socioreligious bodies and associational spaces work together to re-entrench their ethnolinguistic identities in relation to other communities with whom they had formerly shared clan relationships, however post- independence perceive themselves as different. More specifically I try to understand how young migrant students remembered and commemorated their community founders and how it impacts intergenerational relationships within their respective communities in Delhi today. How do these spaces then impinge on the subjectivities of migrant students from states like Manipur and Mizoram in Delhi who choose to be a part of their specific communities which represent them here in Delhi? By understanding these historical genealogies through a mix of archival as well as ethnographic work, as a privileged outsider, I engage with narratives fermenting from within communities to open up possibilities of understanding hierarchical relationalities, positionalities and practices which (re)define community and collective life as they unfold in different ways for migrant students in Delhi.
