19TH MAY AND ISSUE OF BENGALI IN ASSAM

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 15^th 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?