Immigration
problem in Assam – Bengali Hindu-- A burning issue / by dibakar
purkayastha
A political comment by heavy
weight minister of ruling Assam Government Mr. Himanta Biswasharma on Bengali
Hindu immigrants from neighbouring country raised so many eyebrows and
controversies in the state. Members of both political as well as intellectuals
of the state are trying hard to storm on the ruling BJP citadel .People from
all section of the society came out with vociferous protest in both print and
electronic media making this hottest topic
of the time. The immigrants and Assam are probably synonyms after
independence of India this is a perennial problem of the state. Bengali Hindu
from bordering country Bangladesh as refugee and Bengali Muslim for better
livelihood made beeline in the state since 1947 and this burning issue was not
doused off till date, although efforts are made by indigenous caste Assamese
through numbers of movements against this. Let us look little deeper and try to
analyse this problem as under:
If we look back to the imperial
era, many communities from adjoining country Nepal, Undivided Bengal and other
parts of India migrated to Assam. These Nepalese were mainly soldiers joined in
the Army. The people from, Jharkhand and Orissa, came to work as labourers in
the tea gardens. The people from Bengal can be broadly classified into Bengali Hindus
and Bengali Muslims. In the colonial era, the Bengali Hindus were mainly from
the elite class, who used to work as clerks in Government administration. Later
on there was another class of Bengali Hindu refugees from East Bengal, who became
victim of inhuman atrocities after the infamous divorce on the basis of
religion by their linguistic counterparts who happened to be majority thereat.
On the contrary, Bengali Muslim
immigrants were mainly cultivators, who migrated expecting better livelihood
after the partition of country. But, before partition they migrated into Assam
valley in accordance with the British policy of ‘Grow more food’, but ultimately
many people felt was also complimentary with the Muslim League’s design to
‘Grow more Muslims’.
To understand the problem of
Bengali population in the present scenario, one has to understand the various
problems to define people as indigenous and immigrants. Again immigrants are
internationally defined as two types, that (i) those who migrated after
becoming victims various inhuman atrocities by majority group in their homeland
and (ii) who migrated from homeland expecting a better economic conditions.
Now, we have to look how after the independence of India in 1947, immigration
rules were flouted to allow unabated illegal migration into the state of Assam.
To know the demo-graphical
contours of Assam, one has to revisit back to the time of colonial raj of
imperial British and analyse the impact of the politics of that time on the
present political and demographic scenario in Assam. It is true that migration
has always been a reality in Assam. Throughout history, we can see people from
various places have migrated to Assam, and Assam has assimilated them since
time immemorial. However, these migrations were during pre-independence period
when the concept of national and international boundary as well as the
citizenship Act was not defined properly. However, after 1947, we have our own
policy of immigration, citizenship and voting rights. Hence, the legal
definition of the word ‘foreigner’ comes into existence after 15th
August 1947.
Ab- Initio, the earliest
conflicts started between Assamese people with the Bengali Hindus. This was
mainly the outcome of imposition of Bengali language in Assam as the medium of
instruction in schools, and the hegemony of Bengali-speaking officials obviously
aroused a sense of contempt amongst Assamese. This can mainly be regarded as a
conflict between the caste Assamese and Bengali Hindu, which ultimately had grave
consequences in the sixties of last century. This movement also widened a gorge
between the districts in Barak Valley, having predominantly Bengali population
and the caste Assamese of the Brahmaputra Valley, when in 1960, Assamese was
declared the official language of Assam. It was therefore more of a cultural issue
and a fight for linguistic hegemony from both sides.
Again after a period of two
decades , the anti-Bengali movement, in the camouflage of ‘anti foreigner’
started in Assam under the banner of All Assam Students’ Union, whose formation
dated back to the days of colonial era.. In the year 1940, a students’ union
named ‘Asom Chattra Sanmilani ‘(Assam Students Association) divided into
the All Assam Student Federation and the All Assam Students’ Congress. A decade
later both wing reunited as the All Assam Student Association, which was later rechristened
as All Assam Students Union (AASU) in January 1967. In August 1967, the union
established itself as a formal organisation and adopted its constitution.
In the last seventies of last century the
conflict came out of the bottle again. AASU began the anti-Bengali agitation
program, and started facilitating the participation of all section of people.
They compelled all sections of normal population living in Assam to take active
part in such movement with strike in different schools and colleges. All
section of students was compelled to join on such activities without their will
also. They blocked roads and street corners with vociferous slogans against
minority Bengali-speaking people. Those Bengali students who did not want to
join movement against their own community, were either beaten black and blue or
they had to leave their study in colleges and universities and had to take
shelter in safe Bengali dominated area like Silchar, Agartala, Karimganj etc.
Girl students in colleges were forcefully ordered by student union to clad
themselves only in ethnic Assamese attire and no other.
In the contrary, unlike Bengali
Hindus, the earliest of the Bengali Muslim immigrants, either out of fear or
compulsion, declared Assamese as their mother tongue. This was evident when the
number of Assamese speakers astonishingly soared from 31.4% in 1931 to 56.7% in
1951, which is in many ways incredible. Simultaneously, the percentage of
Bengali speakers in Assam declined from 26.8% in 1931 to 16.5% in 1951. The
elite Assamese caste Hindu people as well as many intellectuals of that time
were mentally accommodative to Bengali Muslims, who they thought they would
retain Assamese as their mother tongue in days to come also. The ruling Congress
party also looked for a large vote-bank, and created almost favourable
conditions for infiltration from East Pakistan from 1951 to 1971 Thus, the percentage
of meteoric rise in Muslim population in Assam was unchecked. ‘But from the
another angle, if we see , we find that Bengali Muslims had supported caste
Assamese Hindus all along to safeguard their existence in Assam. Muslim
pockets, especially comprising Bengali Muslims in places like Goalpara, Nagaon,
and Barpeta, are settlers but they tried to speak Assamese only. Myron Wiener
writes the following in his book Sons of the Soil (1978):
‘After 1947 the Bengali Muslims
became defacto allies of the Assamese in their conflict with the Bengali
Hindus. Bengali Muslims have been willing to accept Assamese as the medium of
instruction in their schools, and have thrown their votes behind Assamese
candidates for the state Assembly and the national Parliament. They have
declared Assamese as their mother tongue. In return, the state government has
not attempted to eject Bengali Muslims from lands on which they have settled in
the Brahmaputra valley, though earlier leaders had claimed that much of the
settlement had taken place illegally. There is thus an unspoken coalition
between the Assamese and the Bengali Muslims against the Bengali Hindus.
As for the real cause of the conflict between Assamese and
Bengalis, if we go for in-depth study, we will find the root that lies deep
inside started germinating just after the subsequent partition of India after
independence.
In the midst of all these political linguistic battle, the
Bengali Muslim community gradually settled down in the Brahmaputra valley.
Bengali Hindus are peace-loving and mainly working class. They have neither
aspired to gain any political mileage nor have they tried to form any political
party. But Muslims had other ideas. In some period of time, they formed their
own linguistic religious minority party.
Meanwhile through massive
protests by the AASU, and the Assamese voter had finally risen up to the task
of opposing illegal immigration. People in Assam, from 1979–1985 the whole of
Assamese population, including tribal united against illegal immigration and
the anti-foreigner movement ultimately led to the signing of the Assam accord, where
the people agreed to have 1971 as a metric for judging who is a foreigner.’
In the national scenario, Assam was slowly
losing its identity, because the sheer magnitude of this migration is perhaps
unprecedented. ‘The number of illegal immigrants (using the 1971 metric) has
been a contentious issue. The number varies from 0 (claimed by AIUDF and some
Congress politicians) to 50 lakhs (stated by Lal Krishna Advani).
This has added a communal dimension to the
ethnic or economic conflict. People are now living in denial; intellectuals are
not acting impartial because they consider turning a blind eye to this menace
is going to paint them in more secular colour. Assamese speaking Muslims have
by and large resisted these designs and also consider the Bangladeshis as the ones
who are encroaching upon the benefits that minorities get from the state, and
have stressed on their Assamese identity rather than Islamic one. However, the
plans of these elements include radicalisation of this group of population, so
as to receive logistic support for illegal immigration, and ensure that this
conflict reaches a point of full-fledged external aggression.
At the end there is always a
question unanswered by Mr. Himanta Biswasharma that if migrated Hindu
Bangladeshi people are given citizenship, how this will help indigenous caste
Assamese people will prove their safe majority? Is it from the point of religion or from the point
of language?
