Chapter One
As for the Musalmans who had been taken prisoner in former times and had chosen to marry here, their descendants act exactly in the manner of the Assamese, and have nothing of Islam except the name; their hearts are inclined far more towards mingling with the Assamese than towards association with Muslims…
As chronicled by Shihabuddin, who accompanied Mir Jumla in his invasion of Assam in 1662—quoted in “A History of Assam,” by Sir Edward Gait
A description of Assam and the history of its ever-changing landscape are best introduced—for the purpose of this Occasional Paper—by a western observer, Sir Edward Gait (1863-1950) who served in Assam as a British member of the Indian Civil Service and penned his history of Assam in 1905.
…Assam is in many ways a country of exceptional interest. Hemmed in, as India is, by the sea on the southeast and southwest, and by the lofty chain of the Himalayas in the north, the only routes between it and the rest of Asia, which are practicable for migration on a large scale, lie on its northwest and northeast confines. The so-called Aryans, and many later invaders, such as the Greeks, the Huns, the Pathans, and the Mughals, entered India from the north-west while from the northeast, through Assam, have come successive hordes of immigrants from the great hive of the Mongolian race in Western China……Prior to the advent of the Muhammadans the inhabitants of other parts of India had no idea of history; and our knowledge of them is limited to what can be laboriously pieced together from old inscriptions, the accounts of foreign invaders or travelers, and incidental references in religious writings…
…Another claim to notice is supplied by the circumstances that Assam was one of the few countries in India whose inhabitants beat back the tide of Mughal conquest and maintained their independence in the face of repeated attempts to subvert it… [16]
Historical accounts date the presence of Muslims in Assam to about 1198 AD and thereabouts, [17] when Bakhtiyar Khilji defeated Lakhshmaniya [18] and soon embarked on a “filibustering expedition to the north.” [19] Indeed, historical records are replete with mentions of Muslim invasions of Assam and the “seven and a half century” [20] history in which the legacy of Muslims in Assam is steeped.
Edward Gait seems to regard the Muslims in Assam as unfit for any significant professional qualification. He writes thus:
The Muhammadans who were taken prisoner in this war [April 1532, when Turbak with thirty elephants, one thousand horses, and a large park of artillery, as well as a great number of foot soldiers, invaded Assam] were settled in different parts of the country. Tradition says that they at first were ordered to cut grass for the king’s elephants, but were found quite unfit for this work. They were next employed as cultivators, but their ignorance of agriculture was so great that they carried mud to the paddy seedlings instead of ploughing land and planting the seedlings in it. They were then left to their own devices, and took to working in brass, an occupation that their descendants, who are known as Morias, carry on to this day. [21]
In contrast to Gait’s assertions, the Ahoms who ruled over Assam for over six hundred years [22] and during whose rule most of the Muslim invasions took place, seemed to have invited Muslim professionals from Bengal to undertake architectural and other such projects. [23] According to M. Kar, the Ahoms “encouraged men from other parts of the country to settle in Assam, provided their introduction was of advantage to her. They included artisans, draftsmen, weavers, accountants, scholars and saints, both Hindus and Muslims.” [24] And, although it would seem that Kar’s version [25] is contrary to Gait’s version of the usefulness of the Muslims in their new found home, the documentation is clear about the fact that Muslims in Assam found a place of pride in the Ahom kingdom. Kar writes:
Many Muslims were appointed in the several departments of the state for deciphering and interpreting of Persian documents, carving inscriptions on copper plates and other metals, minting of coins, embroidery work, painting, carpentry, sword and gun making, manufacture of gun powder, tailoring and weaving. As useful members of the community they were recognized by the Ahoms as citizens but of a lower status. No outsider could aspire to rise high in the Ahom court. The Ahoms allowed the Muslims to follow their own faith. Some of the Muslim religious leaders known as Dewans were granted revenue free lands generally called pirpal lands, to settle on. Thus, long before the beginning of the modern history of Assam, Muslims had formed a permanent part of Assam’s society though their number cannot be determined. [26]
Therefore, while it is not a matter of any speculation that the Muslims were an integral part of the Assamese society long before the British began to administer the region, historians seem to have made a distinction between the Muslims who came into Assam during the course of the various invasions and settled in the region—adopting the socio-cultural predominance that the region was heir to—and the “modern Muslim immigrants” who made their way into the Brahmaputra and the Barak Valleys. [27] And, in all fairness, it must be recorded that the indigenous Muslims of Assam have far more in common with her Hindu counterparts than Muslims from elsewhere. Moreover, subterfuges that have had religion as an important factor have not in any manner compromised the age-old bonhomie that continues to exist between the Assamese of all walks of life.
Indeed, it was only during the early twentieth century that movements from districts in Bengal such as Mymensingh, Pabna, Bogra, and Rangpur began to assume the dimensions of large-scale influx that eventually was to become a matter of great socio-economic controversy affecting almost every aspect of Assam’s existence. A British Census Superintendent wrote the following account in 1931:
Probably the most important event in the province during the last twenty five yearsan event, moreover, which seems likely to alter permanently the whole future of Assam and to destroy more sure than did the Burmese invaders of 1829, the whole structure of Assamese culture and civilization—has been the invasion of a vast horde of land hungry Bengali immigrants; mostly Muslims, from the districts of Eastern Bengal sometime before 1911 and the census report of that is the first report which makes mention of the advancing host. But as we now know, the Bengali immigrants censused for the first time on their char islands of Goalpara in 1921 were merely the advance guard—or rather the scouts—of a huge army following closely at their heels. By 1921 the first army corps had passed into Assam and had practically conquered the district of Goalpara…Where there is wasteland thither flock the Mymensinghias. In fact, the way in which they have seized upon the vacant areas in the Assam valley seems almost uncanny. Without fuss, without tumult, without undue trouble to the district revenue staffs, a population which must amount to over half a million has transplanted itself from Bengal into the Assam valley during the last twenty five years. It looks like a marvel of administrative organization on the part of the government but it is nothing of the sort; the only thing I can compare it to is the mass movement of a large body of ants…it is sad but by no means improbable that in another thirty years Sibsagar district will be the only part of Assam in which an Assamese will find himself at home. [28]
According to M. Kar, the total Muslim immigrant
population in 1911 was 258,000 in the plains and 6,000 in the hills.
[29]
The historian has written about the growth
in Muslim population in Assam in the early nineties in a telling manner:
The number of Muslims in Assam, except Sylhet, had risen from 503,670 in 1901 to 1,279,388 in 1931; thus in thirty years, the increase was more than one hundred and fifty percent, which, of course, included natural growth of population. Of the total, about half were women and children. The total number of Muslims in the Brahmaputra Valley in 1941 was 1,696,978 against the total Hindu population of 3,222,377. The bulk of them constituted more than fifty percent of the number of Hindus and were clearly immigrant Muslims. [30]
A plethora of literature exists about the immigration of Muslims into Assam and the demographic changes that the ingress entailed for Assam. Many contemporary writings have even sought to politicize the issue by seeking to blame both the British and the Congress Party for the problem. Whereas some historians [31] have sought to accuse British administrators of the ilk of Sir Charles Elliot, Chief Commissioner of Assam from 1881 to 1885, for first alluding to the availability of large areas of untouched alluvial land into which peasants from Bihar and Bengal could be settled, the Congress Party has been pilloried for encouraging the influx for the political leverage which it purportedly provided the party. Indeed, present day analysis seems to hold that the Congress Party has largely been to blame for the enactment and sustenance of the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal)—IM (DT)—Act of 1983, which certain observers feel is responsible for the continuing influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. This perception is of course also due to the fact that parties that have sought to raise the banner of protest against the illegal influx have been traditional foes of the Congress. Indeed, in the last elections to the Assam Legislative Assembly in 2001, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) [32] allied itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power in New Delhi. This led to a polarization of the communities in Assam, and even the traditional Muslim votes of the AGP shuffled to the Congress Party, which eventually won the 2001 elections. However, one aspect that underwent a metamorphosis of sorts was that the nomenclature “Bengali Muslim” came to be increasingly interchangeably used with “illegal migrant.” Writing about the British policy almost a century later, the noted social scientist Sanjib Baruah writes thus:
Immigration to Assam thus began as a consequence of the colonial conquest. Once Assam became a part of British India, it came to be perceived as a part of the (pre-partition) pan-Indian economic space. Colonial policymakers saw Assam as a land frontier that needed more settlers and actively pursued policies to encourage immigration. [33]
A bit later in his text, Baruah comments:
In retrospect, the way colonial officials addressed the ‘problem’ of Assam’s low population and made the case for Assam as a land frontier makes interesting reading. For it was not as if Assam’s population density was unusually low compared to many other parts of the world. But colonial officials associated a low population with a degree of demographic stability that goes with being at an ‘advanced stage of civilization’—allegedly very unlike the conditions that prevailed in Assam. Yet they had difficulty explaining Assam’s low rate of population increase in terms of Assam’s ‘primitiveness.’ [34]
Whatever the reality, the fact of the matter is that a century of immigration has succeeded in converting Assam and thereabouts into a curious cauldron of ethnic and religious tension, a scenario which found its culmination in 1979 when the students of Assam began their six year long agitation against the inclusion of illegal migrants in the voters list. [35]
The Assam agitation against illegal migrants can be hailed as one of the most important movements in South Asia. Spearheaded by the students of Assam under the leadership of P.K. Mahanta, the agitation—reminiscent of India’s struggle for independence led by Mahatma Gandhi—unified all sections of Assamese society into a mass movement. It was moreover a largely peaceful agitation with an inherent democratic content. Indeed, Udayon Misra has written:
Though reservations have been expressed by social analysts and scholars about the democratic content of the Assam movement, yet given the scale of people’s participation in it, it must be said that there was a great degree of national content in it. Had it not been for its wide popular base, the movement would not have been able to sustain itself against such severe state repression for five long years. The Assamese middle class no doubt played the leading role in the agitation; but its success was ensured because of the strong degree of support it received from the rural masses, both Assamese and tribal. The “civil disobedience” programmes, the “Janata curfews”, the oil blockade and finally, the boycott of the 1983 polls would not have been possible if the rural population of Assam had not overwhelmingly responded ... [36]
If the death on 28 March 1979 of Hiralal Patwari, Member of the Indian Parliament from Mangaldoi, can be said to be the efficient cause of the Assam agitation, then the observation of S.L. Shakdhar, the then Chief Election Commissioner, during a meeting of electoral officers in Ootacamund on 24 October 1978 can be said to be the necessary cause. Indeed, the Chief Election Commissioner had said:
I would like to refer to the alarming situation in some states, especially in the North Eastern region, wherefrom reports are coming regarding large-scale inclusions of foreign nationals in the electoral rolls. In one case, the population in 1971 census recorded increases as high as 34.98% over 1961 census figures and this figure was attributed to the influx of a large number of persons from foreign countries. The influx has become a regular feature. I think it may not be a wrong assessment to make that on the basis of increase of 34.98% between two census, the increase would likely to be recorded in the 1991 census would be more than 100% over the 1961 census. In other words, a stage would be reached when the state may have to reckon with the foreign nationals who may in all probability constitute a sizeable percentage if not the majority of population in the state. [37]
Although Shakdhar’s assessment about foreign nationals constituting a majority is far from becoming a reality, the fact of the matter is that the Census of India, 1991 (Religion) of Assam [38] has shown a majority in Muslim population in four districts of Assam. [39] Furthermore, according to the Census, Muslims constitute 28.43 percent of the population in the state. But what is the number of illegal migrants in the population? [40] Once again, a variety of both numbers and interpretations have come to the fore with scholars and analysts of various hues commenting on the matter from their own stations of bias.
Monirul Hussain has written very poignantly about the number game:
The Assam movement was apparently started in order to stop the participation of foreign nationals in Assam’s electoral process and [to push for] their deportation from Assam. Therefore, the number of foreign nationals is crucial to determine the extent of foreigners’ infiltration to Assam. Though the movement continued for six long years from 1979-85, yet none from the leadership could very precisely ascertain the number of foreign nationals living in Assam illegally. Fantastic and inconsistent figures were cited in the press and various other platforms of the movement. The estimated number of foreign nationals in Assam ranged from 2 lakhs to 77 lakhs…the fantastic numbers provided by the leadership of the movement and their supporters and collaborators in the press served two distinct purposes simultaneously: (1) it deepened sharply the fear of the Asamiyas of losing their numerical dominance in Assam and their identity; and (2) it also made the Bengalis and the neo-Asamiya groups suspicious of the real motives of the leadership of the movement because such inflated figures which they provided must have included many Indians in the category of foreigners. This confusion created by wild estimates sharpened the division between Asamiyas and the Bengalis on the one hand, and between the Asamiyas and the neo-Asamiyas on the other. The fear of the Bengali and the Na-Asamiya Muslims was compounded when the Asamiya bourgeois press repeatedly identified the Bengali and the Na-Asamiya Muslim inhabited areas as the area of Bangladeshi nationals… [41]
Recent reports in the print media have stated that the “unabated infiltration from across the border has hit the economy of Assam, with the Central Government holding the alarming growth of population at the rate of four percent (as against the national average rate of growth of 2.3 percent) as one of the factors responsible for the economic slowdown.” [42] In related reports, the print media has lamented the problem of illegal migration by stating “more than 750 Bighas of land of villages Dumabari, Lathitila, Baraputhiri and Karkhanabuthini of Patharkandi revenue circle of Karimganj district is under the possession of Bangladesh. This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Home Rockybul Hussain in reply to a question by Moni Lal Gowala in the (Assam) State Assembly today” [43] and that “the (Assam) Government has so far spent an amount of Rs 12, 89,28,385 on the tribunals set up under the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act but only 1501 foreigners have been deported from the state under the provisions of the Act.” [44] Indeed, the IM (DT) Act that was enacted by the Indian parliament to detect and deport illegal migrants is a piece of legislation that has a direct bearing on the issue of illegal migration. This Occasional Paper will consequently examine it.
Enacted by the Indian Parliament on 25 December 1983, the
IM (DT) Act “provide[s] for the establishment of Tribunals for the determination,
in a fair manner, of the question whether a person is an illegal migrant
to enable the Central Government to expel illegal migrants “from India and
for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”
[45]
A close reading of the IM (DT) Act—even in the opening paragraph of the Act Objective—reveals that the terms “illegal migrant” and “foreigners” have been used in an almost interchangeable manner. Indeed, in Clause 3 of Chapter 1 of the act (Definitions and Constructions of References) it is stipulated that the term “‘foreigner’ has the same meaning as in the Foreigners Act, 1946;(31 of 1946),” whereas the term “‘illegal migrant’ means a person in respect of whom each of the following conditions is satisfied, namely: (i) he has entered into India on or after the 25th day of March 1971, (ii) he is a foreigner, and (iii) he has entered into India without being in possession of a valid passport or other travel document or any other lawful authority in that behalf.” [46]
In other words, an illegal migrant as envisaged by the IM (DT) Act is a foreigner as defined by the Foreigners Act of 1946, and over and above that is defined to mean what has been stipulated above as (i) and (iii). And, of course, the stipulation in (ii) is ambiguous because even a foreigner who has entered India “without being in possession of a valid passport or other travel document or any other lawful authority in that behalf” will be deemed an illegal entrant (not necessarily a migrant). So, the structure of the definition is such that it is in effect the very first stipulation of “entering India on or after the 25th day of March 1971” that seems to be the issue. And this is important because the act relates primarily to Assam—“having come into force in the state of Assam on the 15th day of October 1983.” Indeed, the IM (DT) Act—for all its other weighty nuances—is essentially a by-law, a metamorphosed version of the Foreigners Act of 1946.
This author encountered popular criticism of the IM (DT) Act during his hosting of a television chat show way back in 1999 for Doordarshan. The chat show brought together D.N. Bezboruah, Editor of The Sentinel, Wasbir Hussain, Consulting Editor of The Sentinel (then the Editor of The North East Daily); and Pradyut Bordoloi, then the Congress Party Spokesman and today the Minister of State (Independent), Forest, Government of Assam. The criticism of the IM (DT) Act came by way of primarily the Editor of The Sentinel. The concerns that are of a serious nature are:
1) The IM (DT) Act facilitates immigration rather than prevents it
2) The IM (DT) Act is a “piece of legislation” which makes it impossible to detect and deport illegal migrants
3) Under the act, the onus of establishing nationality rests not on the illegal migrant, nor even on the Government, but on the private individual who must pay a fee to lodge a complaint and do so under a stipulated jurisdiction
4) Immigration laws of most civilized countries (the number forty was quoted) bear the following characteristics:
a) They are not kind to the immigrant
b) The onus of proving citizenship, etc. rests on the immigrant
c) Deportation is swift. Great Britain was quoted as an example where the deportation process takes only ten days
5) No country in the world has two immigration laws
As for the effectiveness of the IM (DT) Act, the following may be enumerated:
· Cases examined (since 1983): 300,057
· Cases sent to tribunal for detection: 60,000
· Illegal migrants detected: 10,563
· Illegal migrants deported (since 1983): 1,501
Equally emphatic is the following argument in favor of the repeal of the IM (DT) Act: one does not go about perverting the existing act (The Foreigners Act of 1946) in order to protect the minorities, especially with an act that was pushed through behind the backs of the people of Assam (the General Elections of 1983 were boycotted by a majority of the Assamese electorate and consequently Assam “did not have any representation in the Indian Parliament”). But, the political parties who presently speak of the repeal of the IM (DT) Act cannot accept a serious follow-through, as the current arithmetic in the Indian Parliament disallows it, unless a joint sitting of both Houses of the Indian Parliament debates the issue. [47] And this is so despite the fact that the Indian Cabinet approved a draft bill for repealing the act on 6 May 2003, whereby all cases pending in the IM (DT) tribunals may be tried afresh under the Foreigners Act of 1946. The draft bill was tabled in the Indian Parliament on 9 May 2003. While welcoming this move, critics have expressed their skepticism about the intention to repeal. An editorial commented thus:
It appears that the post September 11 developments in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, the December 13 attack on Parliament, [48] the February stand-off between the BSF [the Indian Border Security Force] and Bangladesh Rifles over 213 infiltrators on the Indo Bangla border and the growing belligerence of the Begum Zia government in Bangladesh have all contributed to the NDA [49] decision. Other factors like the pressure of the state BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] unit keeping in view the coming general elections also played a part…The muted reaction of even the All Assam Students’ Union to the BJP-led government’s decision is understandable considering the fact that the proposed Bill to repeal the IM (DT) Act would have to be passed by Parliament. Considering the opposition to the Bill by the Congress, Left parties and other like-minded parties, the Bill may have to be passed like the POTA [Prevention of Terrorist Act] bill by a joint session of Parliament, in view of the majority enjoyed by the Congress in the Rajya Sabha … [50]
The most scathing—and perhaps the only official—attack of the IM (DT) Act and the illegal migration has come from Lt. Gen. (Retd.) S.K. Sinha, PVSM, a former Governor of Assam when he sent a report to the President of India on 8 November 1998 about Illegal Migration into Assam. The report, which was the first comprehensive statement—in recent times—about the danger that faced Assam as a result of the illegal influx, has five chapters and a summary of recommendations. This Occasional Paper will re-produce certain important paragraphs of this unique document.
Enumerating the historical background in the chapter Migration into Assam, the Governor had written:
Failure to get Assam included in East Pakistan in 1947 remained a source of abiding resentment in that country (Pakistan). Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in his book, Myths of Independence wrote, “It would be wrong to think that Kashmir is the only dispute that divides India and Pakistan, though undoubtedly the most significant. One at least is nearly as important as the Kashmir dispute, that of Assam and some districts of India adjacent to East Pakistan. To these Pakistan has very good claims.”
Even a pro-India leader like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his book, Eastern Pakistan: Its Population and Economics, observed, “Because Eastern Pakistan must have sufficient land for its expansion and because Assam has abundant forest and mineral resources, coal, petroleum etc., Eastern Pakistan must include Assam to be financially and economically strong.”
Leading intellectuals in Bangladesh have been making out a case for “lebensraum” (living space) for their country. Mr. Sadeq Khan, a former diplomat wrote in Holiday of October 18, 1991, “All projections, however, clearly indicate that by the next decade, that is to say by the first decade of the 21st century, Bangladesh will face a serious crisis of lebensraum…if consumer benefit is considered to be better served by borderless competitive trade of labour, there is no reason why regional and international cooperation could not be worked out to plan and execute population movements and settlements to avoid critical demographic pressure in pockets of high concentration…A natural overflow of population pressure is there very much on the cards and will not be restrainable by barbed wire or border patrol measures. The natural trend of population over-flow from Bangladesh is towards the sparsely populated lands in the South East in the Arakan side and of the North East in the Seven Sisters side on the Indian subcontinent…”
Pointing out the contributory factors for the illegal migration, the report states:
Illegal migration into Assam has been taking place primarily for economic reasons. Bangladesh is the world’s most densely populated country with a population density of 969 per square per kilometer. The growth rate of population in that country is 2.2 percent and its population is growing at the rate of 2.8 million per year. Each year nearly one third of Bangladesh gets inundated by floods, displacing 19 million people. 70 million people constituting 60 percent of the population live below the poverty line. The per capita income in Bangladesh is 170 dollars per year, which is much lower than the per capita in India…
Holding forth on the consequences of the illegal influx, the Governor enumerates three points:
The dangerous consequences of large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh, both for the people of Assam and more for the nation as a whole, need to be emphatically stressed. No misconceived and mistaken notions of secularism should be allowed to come in the way of doing so.
As a result of population movement from Bangladesh, the spectre looms large of the indigenous people of Assam being reduced to a minority in their home state. Their cultural survival will be in jeopardy, their political control will be weakened and their employment opportunities will be undermined.
This silent and invidious demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of the geo-strategically vital districts of Lower Assam. The influx of illegal migrants is turning these districts into a Muslim majority region. It will then only be a matter of time when a demand for their merger with Bangladesh may be made. The rapid growth of the international Islamic fundamentalism may provide the driving force for this demand. In this context, it is pertinent that Bangladesh has long discarded secularism and chosen to become an Islamic state. Loss of Lower Assam will sever the entire land mass of the North East from the rest of India and the rich natural resources of that region will be lost to the nation.
The problem of immigration and the Assam agitation that it sired have been the subject of a variety of interpretations. While most of the popular ones have sought to decry the illegal migration and have hailed the agitation against illegal migration as a seminal movement in the cause of the indigenous Assamese people, certain observers have interpreted the movement against illegal migrants in a manner that has not portrayed the agitation in a very chivalrous light. Such interpretations have documented the movement as one motivated by Hindu chauvinism and one which was consequently responsible for the alienation of the Muslims. Indeed, in the opinion of the author of this Occasional Paper, the polarization of the populace in Assam is to at least some extent responsible for the growth of militant Islam in the region. And this is so despite the fact that most indigenous Assamese Muslims have remained steadfastly patriotic to Assam and India. This Occasional Paper wishes to record instances by which this alienation is said to have occurred.
H.N. Rafiabadi speaks of the Assam movement as an agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu party. Concluding his work on the Assam movement he writes:
The Assam Movement was initially a mass agitation against the infiltration of foreigners, particularly the Bengalis into the land of Assam. According to the leaders of the Movement they were not only eroding the cultural identity of Assam but also posing a serious threat on both the political and economic fronts. The indigenous tribals and the Muslims of Assam were part of the Agitation. However, during the course of the Agitation an unhealthy development took place which severely affected both the Agitation and the Accord, the intrusion of communal forces like the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad which gave this genuine mass agitation a communal turn. [51]
Indeed, writing about the “RSS policy in Assam,” Rafiabadi writes:
The RSS policy on Assam was spelt out at a meeting of the organisation’s National Council at Nagpur, where it was resolved that the identity of different groups in the State of Assam could be preserved only if Assam remained predominantly Hindu. Voice was raised that the Hindus in Assam were reduced to a minority by both infiltration and proselytization. It was resolved that it was essential that Assam remained a predominantly Hindu majority area as that alone would ensure that the identity of each group was maintained, and they would form a common bond between Assam and the rest of the country. The resolution sympathized with the Assamese and those Hindu refugees whose interests had been harmed by undefined or ill-defined concepts of identity, sub-nation and foreign nationals. The RSS council regretted that Hindu refugees settled in Assam in 1950 had been dubbed as foreigners. [52]
Writing further about the process of alienation, Rafiabadi states:
The anti-Muslim attitude of the Assam movement was evident from the very beginning. But for a long time the hot heads of Assam were deceiving the outside world dubbing the Bengalis as foreigners. In the name of an anti-Bengali agitation, these Assamese upper caste Hindu communal youth attacked Muslims in what came to be known as the “Nellie massacre” in which thousands of Muslims including children by the hundreds were killed. From then onwards this anti-Bengali agitation revealed its true saffron robe; it was nothing but an anti-Muslim agitation and Muslims included were not Bengali Muslims but Assamese Muslims as well. [53]
Whether the Assam agitation is an RSS conspiracy—as has been alleged—is a matter that will have to await further investigation. Indeed, the Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi has—on the occasion of his government’s second year in office—accused the one time student leaders of the agitation by terming the agitation as a ploy to grab power. [54] While the politician’s statement that the Assam agitation—where countless lives were lost—was a mere ploy of the agitation leaders is an issue which cannot be easily accepted, the fact that the anti-foreigners movement in Assam polarized the Hindus and the Muslims to a considerable extent is also not in doubt. The RSS—and the right-wing Hindu agenda that it promotes—in all probability could well be responsible for attempting to turn the movement into an anti-Muslim one. This assessment seems to be supported by a recent statement of the RSS All India Prachar Pramukh, Shrikant Joshi. Speaking during the course of his travel in Assam, the RSS leader reportedly stated that “the Bengali Hindus coming from across Bangladesh should be accorded refugee status and they should be allowed to exercise franchise in India, whereas the Muslims crossing over to India from the neighboring country should be driven out as infiltrators.” [55] Indeed, in the babel of voices, the only organization that seems to have held onto the original problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh is the AASU. And, the premier student body is effectively doing so without communalizing the issue. The statements which were made by its leaders in the wake of the placement of the IM (DT) repeal draft bill, that political parties should not politicize the issue, is testimony to its apolitical veneer—and this is so, despite the fact that few among many in the AASU have used the organization as a springboard for a political career.
An attempt has been made in this section to
describe the history of the problem of illegal migration with which Assam
is faced. This has been done by illustrating the history of the Muslims in
the state, as well as by documenting the various coordinates that make up
the present debate. Indeed, an understanding of the history of the problem
is important not only to situate the problem in space and time but also in
order to arrive at a better comprehension of the problem of Islamic militancy
in the region, the genesis of which is shrouded in the checkered history
of Muslims in the region. But, how exactly did the plan—fuelled by the alienation
as has been seen above—get underway? What became of the militant manifestations
of the Assam agitation as was characterized by the birth of the ULFA?
[16] Sir Edward Gait, A History of Assam, 5th ed. (Guwahati, India: Lawyer’s Book Stall, 1992).
[17] Available history of the Muslims in North East India is restricted primarily to the present geographical boundaries of the state of Assam. Consequently, this Occasional Paper will refer to Assam (unless otherwise specified) in its examination of the subject.
[18] Lakhshmaniya was the last king of the Sen dynasty of Bengal. See Gait, op. cit.
[19] See Gait, 34, especially the footnote that states “the story of Muhammad Bakhtiyar’s invasion of Tibet is told in the Tabaqat-I-Nasiri.”
[20] M. Kar, Muslims in Assam Politics (Delhi: Omsons Publications, 1990). Kar mentions the earliest Muslim attempt to enter Assam forcibly to have occurred in 1205, when Bakhtiyar Khilji led an invading army into Assam.
[21] The ordinary Muslims of Assam—according to Sir Edward Gait—call themselves Garia, an indication of their claim to have come originally from Gaur, the ancient Muhammadan capital of Bengal. The word Moria may be derived etymologically from the way in which they fashioned their wares by beating; mariba means “to beat” in Assamese.
[22] The Ahoms who came to Assam from across the Irrawady River and the Patkoi Mountains in present-day Myanmar ruled Assam from 1228 AD to 1838 AD.
[23] The Talatal Ghar (the royal barracks) at Sibsagar in Assam was built by Ghanashyam, a Muslim convert from Bengal. The exquisite Hastirvidyarnava, the Ahom treatise on elephants, was the product of two Muslims, Dilbar and Dosai.
[24] Kar, Muslims in Assam Politics, 5.
[25] Ibid. Kar quotes S.K. Bhuyan from his Tungkhungia Buranji, or, A History of Assam, 16211826 A.D. (Guwahati: Dept. of Historical and Antiquarian Studies in Assam, 1968).
[26] Kar, Muslims in Assam Politics, 5.
[27] Brahmaputra is the principal river in Assam. Barak is a river in Assam’s Cachar region.
[28]
S.C. Mullan, ICS, Census Superintendent of Assam, quoted
in the Governor of Assam’s report to the President of India on Illegal
Migration into Assam, 8 November 1998.
[29] Kar, 8, cites Kingsley Davis, The Population of India and Pakistan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951), 119.
[30] Kar, Muslims in Assam Politics, 12.
[31] For example, see Kar, Muslims in Assam Politics, 8.
[32] The AGP is the regional party in Assam who rode to victory in 1985 on the anti-foreigner plank and was formed by erstwhile members of the All Assam Students’ Union, and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, who themselves spearheaded the agitation against illegal migration.
[33] Sanjib Baruah, India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1999).
[34] Ibid., 47.
[35] The Assam agitation against illegal migration began on 8 June 8 1979 and concluded on 15 August 1985 when the Assam Accord (Memorandum of Settlement) was signed in New Delhi. The signatories to the Memorandum of Settlement were P.K. Mahanta, President, All Assam Students’ Union (AASU); B.K. Phukan, General Secretary, All Assam Students’ Union; Biraj Sharma, Convenor, All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP); Smt P.P. Trivedi, Chief Secretary, Government of Assam; and R.D. Pradhan, Home Secretary, Government of India. The Memorandum was signed in the presence of Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India.
The Memorandum of Settlement states the clauses relating to the Foreigner’s Issue in the following manner:
5.1 For purpose of detection and deletion of foreigners, 1.1.1966 shall be the base date year
5.2 All persons who came to Assam prior to 1.1.1966, including those amongst them whose names appeared on the electoral rolls used in the 1967 elections, shall be regularized
5.3 Foreigners who came to Assam after 1.1.1966 (inclusive) and up to 24 March 1971 shall be detected in accordance with the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunal) order 1964
5.4 Names of foreigners so detected will be deleted from the electoral rolls in force. Such persons will be required to register themselves before the Registration Officers of the respective districts in accordance with the provisions of the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 and the Registration of Foreigners Rules, 1939
5.5 For this purpose, Government of India will undertake suitable strengthening of the governmental machinery
5.6 On the expiry of a period of ten years following the date of detection, the names of all such persons which have been deleted from the electoral rolls shall be restored
5.7 All persons who were expelled earlier, but have since reentered illegally into Assam, shall be expelled
5.8 Foreigners who came to Assam on or after 25 March 1971 shall continue to be detected, deleted and expelled in accordance with law. Immediate and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners
5.9 The Government will give consideration to certain difficulties expressed by the AASU/AAGSP regarding the implementation of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983
[36] Udayon Misra, The Periphery Strikes Back: Challenges to the Nation-State in Assam and Nagaland (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2000), 132.
[37] Shakhdhar was quoted in Asom Jagriti 1980: 2-3. Cited in Monirul Hussain, The Assam Movement: Class, Ideology and Identity (Delhi: Manak Publications, 1993), 102.
[38] The Census of India (2001) Religion is yet to be declared.
[39] Barpeta, Dhubri, Goalpara, and Hailakandi constitute the four Muslim majority districts in Assam.
[40] The Governor of Assam in his report to the President of India on Illegal Migration into Assam has quoted Indrajit Gupta, a former Indian Home Minister, who stated in the Indian Parliament on 6 May 1997 that there were ten million illegal migrants residing in India. Further, the Governor’s report quotes a Home Ministry/Intelligence Bureau source quoted in the 10 August 1998 issue of India Today and gives the breakdown of illegal migrants in different states as follows:
West Bengal: 5.4 million
Assam: 4 million
Tripura: 8 million
Bihar: 0.5 million
Rajasthan: 0.5 million
Maharashtra: 0.5 million
Delhi: 0.3 million
[41] Hussain, The Assam Movement, 102.
[42] “Influx Hits State’s Economy,” Assam Tribune (Guwahati), 14 March 2003.
[43] “Bangla Occupying over 750 Bighas of Assam Land,” Assam Tribune (Guwahati), 11 March 2003.
[44] “Rs 12 Cr Spent to Deport 1501 Migrants,” Assam Tribune (Guwahati), 12 March 2003.
[45] The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983. Available online, South Asia Terrorism Portal, <http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/assam/documents/actsandordinences/the_illegal_migrants_act.htm> (accessed on 10 March 2003).
[46] Ibid.
[47] The BJP-led ruling coalition does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) and would consequently need to convene a joint session of both houses of the Indian Parliament to muster the numbers in order to pass the bill.
[48] On 13 December 2001, suspected terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba attacked the Indian Parliament.
[49] The NDA is the BJP-led ruling National Democratic Alliance in India.
[50] “Repeal of IM (DT) Act,” Assam Tribune (Guwahati), 9 May 2003.
[51] H.N. Rafiabadi, Assam: From Agitation to Accord (New Delhi: Genuine Publications & Media, 1988).
[52] Ibid., 3.
[53] Ibid., 17.
[54] “Anti-foreigners Stir Was Ploy to Grab Power: Gogoi,” Assam Tribune (Guwahati), 20 May 2003.
[55]
“Demographic Change Threat to State: RSS,” Assam Tribune (Guwahati), 18 May 2003.