India: Juggling with facts about Muslims in Assam (Parbina Rashid)

The Tribune 1 May 2016 May 1, 2016

Juggling with facts about Muslims in Assam
Parbina Rashid

The illegal migration theory has become the ready ammunition for anyone who wants to talk about the growth rate among Muslims. But they overlook the subsidiary theory of state reorganisations! In 1971, Assam had a much larger area.


IF there is an election, can politics of religion be far behind? Especially where Muslims constitute 34.2 per cent of the population and they are in a majority in nine of the state's 34 districts?

During the Assam Assembly Elections 2016, this kind of politics did take the centre-stage. The last few months saw parties playing politics of polarisation like never before. The elections also saw psephologists and scholars commenting alike on the astronomical growth rate in Muslim population. One such comment was by Prof Nonigopal Mahanta. He said the rise in the number of Muslim-majority districts in the state from two in 1971 to nine in 2011 was a glaring proof of the increasing infiltration of foreigners (read Bangladeshis) into Assam.

Incidentally, I once had the privilege of working with Prof Mahanta when I joined the Women Studies Research Centre, Gauhati University, as a project fellow for a brief period.

The illegal migration theory has become the ready ammunition for anyone who wants to talk about the growth rate among Muslims. But they overlook the subsidiary theory of state reorganisations! In 1971, Assam had a much larger area. It lost the landmass and a major chunk of its population in the form of Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura, the three states carved out of Assam in January 1972. The phenomenon was repeated in February 1987 when Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh were granted statehood. Needless to say, the population Assam lost to these newly formed states was non-Muslim. Assam alone was left with the Muslim concentration.

While no one denies illegal migrations from neighbouring Bangladesh, is it not the time to look at the issue not just through the political prism but also from a socio-cultural point of view?

The settlement of Muslims in Assam can be traced as far back as the eighth century when the Turks from Turkistan reached Assam crossing the Himalayas. They settled in Darrang district.

In 1874, the Muslim population of Assam was 1,104,601 and its percentage to the total population was 28.8 per cent. It increased to 3,441,554 in 1941. This was during the Raj when the migration of Bengali Hindus and Muslims to Assam was totally legal.

However, sentiments have flared up from time to time. During 1952-’71, over two lakh Muslims were expelled from Assam as “East Pakistanis.” After the creation of Bangladesh till 2002, at least one lakh Muslims were deported.”

The indigenous Muslims of the state would, in fact, want to be more at par with their Bangladeshi counterparts when it comes to grave issues like Mothers Mortality Rate which is 300 per 100,000 births as against Bangladesh's 176, a far better scenario than most states in India. Or, for that matter, Infant Mortality Rate which is 43.19 per 1000 births in India and 54 in Assam, which are much higher than Bangladesh's 32.

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