Assam: Ethnic Communal Divides to the Fore

Ram Puniyani

The recent (May 01, 2014) violence in Kokrajhar, Baska killing 32 Bengali speaking Muslims is one more reminder of the seeping Bodo-Muslim tension in the region. This violence is being attributed to Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), whose legislator Pramila Rani Brahma allegedly stated that her party candidate and Assam minister may not win in the present elections as according to her knowledge Muslims had not voted for him and have voted for a non-Bodo candidate. This is what seems to have provoked the violence, but surely this is tip of the iceberg as the problems between two communities are much deeper and are in a way continuation of the same reasons which led to the violence in the region in July 2012. This is also related to the subtle threat for the forthcoming Assembly elections of 2015.

Kokrajhar District (marked in red)

The fear being expressed by the party of Bodos is that a defeat of their candidate will spell the doom for their demand for the state of Bodoland, which is high on their agenda. While the dissatisfaction amongst Bodos and the travails of Bengali speaking Muslims have been simmering for a long time, they got painful expression in the form of the violence in July 2012 in the Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) Kokrajhar, Chirang, which are governed by Bodo Territorial Council and part of Dhumri. This violence led to killing of sixty people and displacement of nearly four lakh people.

The region is gripped by the problem, due to the misconception that the Bengali speaking Muslims in the region are infiltrators from Bangala Desh. While the BJP, Modi, are projecting that the present elections are being fought on the issue of development, at every conceivable moment there is the propping up of the communal issue. In his speeches in eastern part of the country, Modi has been accusing Bengal Chief minister that she has more time to look after the Bangla Deshi infiltrators than the people of Bengal. In Assam, he went on to suggest that rhinos were being killed in Kaziranga National Park to find room for infiltrators. He also gave a threat that the infiltrators should pack themselves up as they will have to leave on 16^th May, the day election results will come out and he is sure to become the Prime minister of the country.

The problem in the Assam region is a festering wound on the body politic of India. In Assam under the pressure of problems related to jobs and other livelihood issues have been given a communal tilt by the parochial forces which gave the slogan ‘Assam for Assamese’ quite on the line of Maharashtra for Marathis by the sectarian Shiv Sena in Mumbai. The first casualty of this propaganda and the attitude which was generated due to this; was the Nellie massacre (1983), in which nearly three thousand people, mainly Bengali speaking Muslims, were butchered by Luhang tribe. The massacre occurred in the midst of Assam agitation, which was demanding cleansing of the electoral rolls of ‘illegal immigrants from Bangla Desh’. A Tribhuban Prasad Tiwary Commission was instituted in the wake of massacre, but its report was never made public. Agitation of Bodo’s led to creation of Bodo Territorial Council (BTC), giving most powers to Bodos in the four districts, Khokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalgiri; three of which have undergone the massive violence in July 2012. The claim that Bodos are majority and need to preserve their ethnic identity and interests in the area, does not hold any water since the estimate of percentage of Bodos in this area varies from 22 to 29% only. With full powers given to them under this council they have marginalized other sections of society very badly. The other point of view is that despite the formation of Bodo Territorial Council, the Bodos did not surrender their arms, which was one of the conditions for accepting the demand of this regional council.

The study of population statistics will make it clear that the beginning of coming of Bengalis speaking Muslims in Assam was due to the policy of British. There is a long history of Bengali speaking Muslims in Assam For example there were close to one lakh Muslims in Assam in 1931. In the beginning Bengal was the very populous and politically most aware area. Assam at that time was sparsely populated. British undertook a ‘Human Plantation policy’ in the beginning of twentieth century. The basic idea of British policy was three fold. One was to ensure the shifting of people from the overpopulated Bengal to Assam. Two, it aimed to reduce the incidence of famine and unrest in Bengal, and three British wanted to habitat Assam and collect revenue from that area.

Irrespective of the propaganda about Bangla Deshi infiltrators, research based on population statistics of last century shows that Muslims in the region are settlers from pre partition Bengal to begin with. Later there was some migration at the time of partition in 1947 and still later in the after math of 1971 war with Pakistan, leading to formation of Bangla Desh. Shivam Viz in Myth of Bangla Deshi and Violence in Assam (http://kafila.org/2012/08/16/the-myth-of-the-bangladeshi-and-violence-in-assam-nilim-dutta/) shows that the migration has taken place over a period of time and the increase of population stops after 1971.

The Assam accord of 1985 granted citizenship rights to all these who had settled in Assam till then. This accord recognizes all those living in this area as the legal setters and so most of the Muslim fall in that category. Not to deny that that some small number of illegal immigrants, the ones’ forced to migrate for economic reasons may also be there.

Despite these facts, the issue has become a big fodder for communal politics, which keeps harping on ‘Bangal Deshi infiltrators’. Here also they go on to say Hindu migrants from Bangla Desh are refugees while the Muslims are infiltrators. Even the 2012 violence was labeled by communal forces as strife between Bodos (Nationalists) and Muslims (foreigners!). The plight of the Muslims who speak Bengali is pathetic as not only they are marginalized and looked down upon, many of them do not even have the voting rights and some of them are put in the category of D voters, i.e. doubtful voters and so are not allowed to vote. There is an active hate industry blaming that the ruling party is encouraging infiltration for the sake of votes while in reality the economic migrations which are associated with the regional disparities like Nepali’s coming to India have also come down heavily with Bangla Desh economy looking up in last few decades.

The present violence is definitely and outcome of the communal venom spread through the election speeches and unresolved issues of the two communities. The Bodos not surrendering arms, after formation of BTC, as promised by them has been the major ground for violence. It is here that we need to concentrate. The demand for giving licenses to minorities for self protection has been in the air but probably better option is to disarm the Bodos, as per the accord which led to the formation of Bodo Regional Council. The human tragedy of such proportions needs and urgent response and long term measures from the state and central Government. The reconciliation between two communities must be given top priority, adequate rehabilitation along with the development of the region, the lack of which is given the direction of ‘Hate other’ by the tendencies demanding separate Bodo land.

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Assam Violence: A Wake up call

Ram Puniyani

The raging violence in Assam’s Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts, Khokrajhar and Chirang (July 2012) has shaken the conscience of the nation. The Prime Minister has rushed to the area and called it as a Kalank, a shame for the nation. He also reprimanded the Chief Minister from his own party for the violence. There was some inexcusable delay in deploying the army in the area, which resulted in worsening of the issue. In this case of violence while on one side there is a great loss to the lives of people, still the larger tragedy is that lakhs of people have been displaced from their areas, home and hearth, just around the sowing season. The refugee camps housing them are grossly inadequate and not having enough facilities so far. Still at another level this violence has been presented to be one between Bodos and ‘illegal Bangala Deshi infiltrators’ majority of whom happen to be Muslims.

Courtesy: India Today

While this is not the first time that such violence has hit Assam, impact wise, this violence is one of the major tragedies of the area. The strife between ethnic groups and Muslim minority, that are labeled as ‘Bangala Deshi Infiltrators’ has been going on from last many decades.  The local issues have been given the color as if the problems are due to the illegal migrations. It is propagated that the time bomb is ticking. Such a propaganda is accompanied by the slogan ‘Assam for Assamese’, this is very similar to the one floated by the parochial Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, which has been doing violence on the slogan of ‘Maharashtra for Marathis’. The roots of this Assam conflict have been in the society, which have been ignored by the state and central governments.

The first major catastrophe in this direction occurred when All Assam Students Union started the agitation on the issue of electoral rolls, to exclude the ‘Bangla Deshi infiltrators’ from the lists. This was backed up by BJP through and through. During this time a massive violence was unleashed against the minorities, the Nellie massacre, when over three thousand Muslims were done to death within a matter of few hours. In the wake of these; two things happened. One, All Assam Students Union AASU, now Assam Gana Parishad, came to power, and two and inquiry commission in to Nellie massacre, Tribhuban Das Tiwary Commission was instituted. AGP, after coming to power dropped all the criminal cases against the culprits of Nellie massacre and the report of Tiwary Commission was not made public. 

A decade later, series of violence took place, the victims of which are still living a pathetic life in the refugee camps. During early part of first decade of this century, the demand of Bodos was met with the formation of Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts after the treaty with Bodos. The districts covered in this territory are Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalgiri. As per agreement the Bodo militants were to surrender their arms which they did not do, with the result many of them continued intimidating others. The percentage of Bodos in these districts varies from 22 to 29% according to different estimates. The others are the Santhals, Rajbangshis, Adibashis and Muslims. Despite being in the minority, with full powers in the region, the Bodos initiated policies where by non Bodos have been neglected in different aspects of their lives. The condition of these groups is very bad and they are against the formation of Bodo Territorial Council. In this area, the present carnage was preceded by the rumor that people from Bangla Desh have come with large number of armaments. This got triggered into violence leading to the present tragedy. The Chief Minister of Assam has denied any such ‘foreign hand’. The real issue has been the pressure on land and jobs due to the natural rise in population over a period of time. This pressure has been deflected by saying that it’s all due to the Bangla Deshi infiltrators, a phrase very popular all over the country and more so in Assam. True, the overall lopsided development has caused the pressures on employment all over the country. In a place like Mumbai, this got presented as being due to immigration of non Marathis into Maharashtra. While in Assam the added part of parallel politics is that the problem is projected on to the foreigners. Is that true?

Courtesy: Wikipedia

The Bengali speaking people in Assam are a sizeable part of the population. Amongst these also the majority are Muslims. Have they come recently or have they come to infiltrate for political motive? Have they come during last few decades? The myth of Bangla deshi immigrants has been the major plank of communalists all the time. It has become a sort of ‘social common sense’ all over the country. This pet theme of Bangla Deshi immigrant is quite a myth to a large extent. While some immigration of Bengalis into Assam began in last quarter of 19th century, the seeds of this issue were sown by the British in the first decade of twentieth century. That was the time when neighboring Bengal was over populated and politically a very aware state. Famines were one of the symptoms of overpopulation of Bengal. Assam was grossly under populated not giving much revenue to British. The British resorted to ‘Human plantation program’, where by the people from Bengal were encouraged to migrate to Assam, with lots of incentives. British also wanted to pursue their core policy of Divide and rule here’ so they allowed this migration with a ‘line system’, where by the immigrants and the natives were kept in separate areas. This migration of Bengali speaking Muslims went on for quite some time and by 1930s a good chunk of Assamese population was constituted by these Muslims. In post independence India the Muslim population of Assam has shown decadal growths which match with other states of India. (Source: ‘Muslims in India by S.U.Ahmed’, based on analysis of Census data)

One is very clear about the census figures of Assam and the number of Muslims during that period. During the Pakistan army atrocities in East Pakistan many a Bangla Deshi did emigrate. After that also the economic migration might be going on as is the case in most of the regions. The question is how this immigration is looked at. For example the immigration to India by huge number of people from Nepal is never looked down or demonized. Even the Hindus’ coming from Bangla Desh were treated as immigrants, while Muslims coming from Bangla Desh were seen as infiltrators, threat to security of India and what not. In whole of North Eastern states trade is by and large controlled by Marwaris from Rajasthan. There are good numbers of Biharis also in Assam.

The BJP associates’ propaganda about the ‘infiltrators’ is based on political calculations, not on reality. As in other parts of the country they have used medieval history to demonize minorities here they are using the Bangladeshi factor. The worst part of the scenario is that even National Council of Churches in India spokesperson has also been so taken in by this propaganda that he went on to say the Bangal Deshi infiltrators are occupying 10000 square kilometers of land in Assam! From the time of India’s partition Assam had a good deal of Muslim population. Later of course some migration did take place from Bangla Desh for economic reasons, it sounds to be large as after the carving out of other six states from Assam, the majority of Muslims remained in Assam, so percentage wise it sounds larger. 

The propaganda by communal forces about so call infiltration by Bangle Deshis has assumed huge proportions. It has become the part of the mind set in India; it was also at the backdrop of many agitations in Assam. Surely the basic issue of lack of development in Assam has been deflected by political groups including communal groups as being the issue of displacement of locals from their lands by infiltrators. Case of Assam has a mix of Mumbai’s Shiv Sena politics, mixed with ‘communal-foreigner’ tones. The issue has also been the one related to Adibashis, the ethnic component has also been a part of the whole thing. Crucially right from Nellie to the present violence, in which displacement is the most dominant factor, the infiltrator propaganda has prepared the ground for carnage.

What is required today is to disarm those having arms of various types, to rehabilitate the refugees and to ensure that they are able to go back to their own areas to catch up with the sowing season. If this is not met, surely a bigger disaster of food deprivation is baying for all the year. What is also needed is that the myth of infiltrators is to be debunked for good by scholars and activists who have observed the pattern of population profile during last one century. The communal forces have misused this very word of Bangla Deshi infiltrator. And lastly the wounded psyche of communities needs to be healed by a process of dialogue and justice.  

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