Assam Violence: The Dynamics Of Continuity!
Assam
is burning. Widespread ethnic violence for the last three days has 38 people
killed, over 200,000 people fleeing from homes to 150 relief camps and 500
villages abandoned. This is the inevitable outcome of a continuous process of
neglect, political mismanagement and brutalization making such violence occur
again and again in a land that was so serenely beautiful with peace loving
simple and hospitable people. The root cause being the unchecked infiltration
from Bangladesh
since decades.
Assam has been like
another India within India with its
tremendous diversity in terms of ethnicity, culture, language and religion. During
British rule Assam was a
bigger state along with the princely states of Manipur and Tripura to
constitute the full North Eastern region of India. After independence states of
Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram were formed out of Assam due to
ethnic distinction and self assertion. But even the reduced Assam managed to still retain much of its
diversity with numerous hill and plains tribes and the larger Assamese people
of the Brahmaputra river valley.
The neglect syndrome started right after Independence
with the central government of India
failing to recognize the realities. Mismanagement at the local level by the
state governments made the situation worse. The tribal chunks of population
felt alienated and neglected. The first incident of tribal self assertion was
by the Bodos—the largest plains tribe of Assam—who demanded a separate state
as far back as in 1967.
The infiltration from Bangladesh
had its origins during the British rule when that region was not a foreign
country and therefore its people had been welcomed into Assam. They
started living in areas and started doing jobs that were unthinkable for
largely white collar Assamese community. The concept of large vote banks
originated from that time.
With local governments firmly in power after Independence the influx of foreign nationals
went on unabated thanks to a lack of foresight of the selfish politicians. They
needed the illegal immigrants to vote them back to power again and again. Things
came to a head when 45,000 names of illegal migrants were discovered in the
voters’ list of a single assembly constituency in 1978. The Assam Agitation
started in 1979 as a knee-jerk reaction by the larger Assamese community and it
raged on till the Assam Accord was signed in 1985.
The varied ethnic groups now felt threatened on two counts—the unchecked
infiltration already creating economic pressures, and the increasing domination
of the agitating Assamese community. Almost every tribal group began asserting
their right to self determination and existence. While the Assam agitation led to the growth of an
extremist wing wanting Assam
separated from India
the tribal groups too started countering it with their terror outfits. The
situation became volatile and extremely complex.
But one solution that could have helped all distinctive communities was
stopping infiltration from Bangladesh.
Despite promises made in the Assam Accord to deport post-1971 foreign nationals
and sealing the border with fences nothing happened over the years. Even the students-led government that came to power in Assam in 1985 concentrated on making capital out of it and never tried hard enough to solve the crisis for which they started the agitation. So far only
some parts of the India-Bangladesh border have been fenced, but the waterways
remain as free as ever.
The full demography of a diverse Assam changed. One more irony was
that the infiltrators belonged to main religions of Assam and they also spoke an Indian
language. Therefore, the infiltrators freely mixed with local population and it
became impossible to identify who was who. Suspicions on legal citizens created
more insecurity and minority groups too started forming along with their
extremist outfits.
During our studying days in Delhi
University the Assam agitation
was at its peak. We had an association of Assamese students there and used to
carry out protest demonstrations and to meet prominent political leaders to
make them understand the reality. Since those times we have been telling our
fellow Indians that Assam
is against only foreigners and not Indians, and that the agitation is never
communal. Even today in our society in Assam there is perfect communal
harmony and it is difficult to distinguish us by religion.
Why Assam is burning now is not due to communal tension, it is due to
economic pressures, land disputes, feelings of insecurity and even existential
uncertainties. Like on earlier occasions a land dispute led to the riots that
are raging even now. Vested interests like motivated politicians, local and cross
border terror outfits and self-centered leaders could definitely be the other fueling
agents.
The political, economic, social and cultural degeneration of Assam seems to
be heading for the ultimate disaster. The future of Assam is at stake. Acton must be taken once and for all…now! Wisdom
can no longer afford to be incident specific. One cannot just afford to wait
for the next catastrophe.
Assam is burning, Assam is
bleeding. Assam is cut off
from the rest of India
for the last two days. Save Assam.
NOW!
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