India - Haryana communal violence: Facing threats, Muslim migrant workers leave city en masse

 

  Hindustan Times 

Haryana violence: Facing threats, Muslim migrant workers leave city en masse

ByLeena Dhankhar, Abhishek Behl

Aug 03, 2023 11:56 PM IST

Hundreds of Muslim migrant workers have left Gurugram in India this week following communal clashes between a group of young men and workers from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The violence has spread to other areas, resulting in six deaths and numerous arrests. Muslim workers have been targeted and threatened, causing many to flee the city or seek shelter with relatives. Shops, factories, and residential complexes have been affected by the absence of Muslim workers. The situation has prompted calls for immediate action from authorities to maintain law and order.

On Thursday, 35-year-old Shamim Hussain, a migrant worker from Malda in West Bengal, was asked by his landlord to pack his bags and leave his rented room in Badshahpur. Hussain phoned his wife, who was working as a house help in an apartment in a nearby residential complex, and asked her to return immediately.

Migrants leave a slum in Gurugram’s Sector 70A on Thursday, days after communal violence broke out in Haryana, leading to the death of six people. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

[ . . . ]

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/gurugram-news/communal-clashes-in-gurugram-force-muslim-migrant-workers-to-flee-city-101691087196207-amp.html 

In Assam, campaign urging Bengali Muslims not to list Assamese as mother tongue has sparked protests

In Assam, campaign urging Bengali Muslims not to list Assamese as mother tongue has sparked protests

People behind the initiative say adopting Assamese decades ago has not saved them from being branded as illegal migrants.

https://scroll.in/article/926022/assam-drive-urging-bengali-muslims-not-to-list-assamese-as-mother-tongue-could-become-explosive

India: Sushanta Talukdar on the real aim of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill . . . .

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill incorporates the BJP’s articulated ideological position vis-à-vis undocumented immigrants in respect of three countries — Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ideological position of the ruling party is that undocumented immigrants belonging to Hindu and other religious minority groups in these three countries cannot be treated as “illegal migrants” in India and need to be granted citizenship, while the Muslims among them are “infiltrators” must be identified and driven out.
The BJP introduced the Bill in Parliament in 2016 when the NRC was being updated in Assam. The objective of the Bill is very clear: to remove the “illegal migrant” tag on members of six religious groups — Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis — from these three countries and reduce the requirement of residency in India to six years to make them eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.

source: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-smokescreen-of-an-infiltrator-free-india/article27004848.ece?homepage=true

India: Anti Migrant Violence in Gujarat - Thousands of workers from UP and Bihar Flee | Reports from TOI, NDTV and The Indian Express (6-7Oct2018)

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Violence intensifies in Gujarat, migrants flee for lives

TNN | Oct 6, 2018, 05.24 AM IST

PALANPUR/AHMEDABAD: The week-long violence against non-Gujaratis in the wake of the rape of a 14-monthold girl in Sabarkantha has triggered an exodus of people from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who have been targeted in north Gujarat districts as well as in Ahmedabad.

The toddler was raped, allegedly by a 20-year-old youth from Bihar at the ceramic factory he worked at Dhundhar village near Himmatnagar, which caused widespread anger among locals after the accused was arrested.

Police at a colony home to migrants from North India


In the 24 hours ending Friday evening, at least 19 incidents of attacks on migrants were reported in Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad rural and Ahmedabad city. Offences were registered in all these cases. Nine offences were registered in Mehsana, six in Sabarkantha, three in Gandhinagar and one in Viramgam.

Shriram Rawat, who was engaged in gardening work in Dediyasan village near Mehsana, fled with 20 other people from his native village in Uttar Pradesh. Rawat and others, including a pregnant woman and toddler, stuffed themselves into two cars and reached Abu Road on Friday evening. “Trains are jam-packed and there is no place to even stand. We will board buses going towards our native places,” Rawat told TOI.

“We are very scared. Being outsiders, we don’t even know whom to approach and how for protection. It’s best we leave at present and return only when normalcy is restored,” he said.

Some 17 families living in Gopal Das Chawl and JP Chawl near Sabarmati railway bridge in Ahmedabad have fled after their houses were ransacked and looted by a mob of Thakor community members late on Thursday night. Dramatic scenes were witnessed at JP Chawl on Friday when a mob of women threatened to kill two women, “to avenge the rape of the toddler”. Surprisingly, they issued the threats in the presence of a few policemen who had rescued the two women.

On Thursday evening, a mob of nearly 400 gathered near Indrad village and targeted around 100 non-Gujaratis living in 20 rented rooms near an industrial area, said police sub-inspector Nandasan, M G Rathod.

In Vadnagar town, police had to rescue around 10 migrants who were attacked by a group of motorcycle-borne people, said Manjita Vanzara, deputy superintendent of police, Mehsana.

Director general of police Shivanand Jha said a total of 170 people have been arrested so far in the FIRs lodged for attacks on migrant workers. “Violence has been reported in Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. We have deployed about 16 companies of SRP in the violence-hit areas in addition to the existing deployment. We have even called for additional forces from other districts.”

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ndtv.com

Workers From UP, Bihar Leave North Gujarat After Protests Over Rape

Over 150 people have also been arrested for allegedly targeting people, mostly migrant workers, from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

All India | Reported by Saurabh Gupta, Edited by Debanish Achom (with inputs from ANI) | Updated: October 07, 2018 13:13 IST

The police said they have arrested over 150 people for targeting migrant workers

Ahmedabad:
Hundreds of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have left north Gujarat after protests broke out over the rape of a 14-month-old baby girl allegedly by a man from Bihar last week, the police said. The accused has been arrested.

Over 150 people have also been arrested for allegedly targeting people, mostly migrant workers, from UP and Bihar, and the police are patrolling the streets of Sabarkantha, 116 km from Ahmedabad, a senior police officer said. The situation is under control, he added.

Protests broke out in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Patan, Sabarkantha and Mehsana a day after the accused was arrested.

"In reaction to the Himmatnagar's Gambhoi rape incident, some people are targeting those who have come to Gujarat from other states. This is totally unacceptable. We have arrested more than 150 such people and are patrolling areas that have more non-Gujarati people," Gujarat Director General of Police Shivanand Jha told news agency ANI.

Gujarat Congress legislator Alpesh Thakor, who also heads the Thakor Sena group in the state, has appealed for calm. Mr Thakor's group has been accused of leading the attacks on the migrant workers from the two states.

He has denied the allegations. "This is unfortunate. We have never advocated violence and only talked peace. All Indians are safe in Gujarat," Mr Thakor said.

With inputs from ANI

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The Indian Express

Rape backlash: Fearing for lives after mob attacks, UP, MP and Bihar migrants flee Gujarat

Squeeze into buses with children and basic possessions to make long journeys home; say ‘never encountered something like this in our many years in state’

Written by RITU SHARMA | Ahmedabad | Updated: October 7, 2018 7:33:51 pm


Migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar leaving Ahmedabad on Saturday afternoon. Javed Raja

HUDDLED UNDER Ahmedabad’s Chanakyapuri flyover with their bags and small children, they waited for a bus that would take them on a backbreaking 24-30-hour journey home to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

From Ahmedabad and its neighbouring districts, Hindi-speaking migrants who have lived in Gujarat for years, are fleeing — driven by fear after mobs, seemingly angry over the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl, started to attack “non-Gujaratis” earlier this week.

In some cases, landlords had asked them to leave, said some of the migrants waiting for a bus in the afternoon sun Saturday. At least 180 people had been arrested in the districts of Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Patan, and Mehsana for targeting migrants, especially those from UP and Bihar, police had said Friday.

“My children were playing in the lane outside our house when the mob attacked on Thursday night. They are still in shock. I took my four-year-old son to the doctor to calm him down that night,” said Rajkumari Jatav, 30, waiting for a bus to return to her village in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh.

Rajkumari’s three children and her husband, who does paint jobs to sustain the family, live in Mahadev Nagar, a colony of migrants in Ahmedabad’s Chandlodiya area. Several other migrant families who are their neighbours, are fleeing too — in their seven years in Gujarat, none of them has ever felt a fear like this, Rajkumari said.

Some 20 buses, each packed with more than 80 passengers, left for UP, MP and Bihar Saturday. (Source: Javed Raja)
Dharmendra Kushwaha, who too is from Bhind and lives in Mahadev Nagar, said some 1,500 UP, Bihar, and MP migrants may have fled from their homes in the colony over the last few days. “Two hundred people left today,” said Kushwaha, 20, a labourer who works with painters, and arrived in Ahmedabad two years ago after spending seven years in Surat. He said masked men had told him to “leave Gujarat before 9 am” Saturday, or he would be dead.

Some 20 buses, each packed with more than 80 passengers, left for UP, MP and Bihar Saturday. Normally, no more than a handful of buses leave on these long-distance routes every week.

“A bus would leave for UP, Bihar, or MP once in two days, with perhaps 25 passengers. But now, I am having to accommodate 80 or 90 people in each bus. And 20 such buses are leaving every day,” said Pintoo Singh of Satyam Tomar Travels, an agency that has been operating private buses on these routes for several years.

Krishnachandra Sharma, a 42-year-old building construction contractor who says he has lived in Ahmedabad for the last 22 years, cannot recall having witnessed seen a situation earlier. “There have been Hindu-Muslim riots, but never something like this. The news spread like wildfire on Facebook and WhatsApp, which everyone has on their phones,” he said.

Manju Singh (27), who does paint jobs in Gandhinagar, said his bike was stopped by a group of seven men on Thursday evening. “They asked me where I was from. Sixth sense told me to lie, and I said I was from Rajasthan. When they probed further, I mumbled the name of a district. They let me go only after they had satisfied themselves I was not from UP, MP or Bihar. Immediately after I left, they burnt a vehicle at that very spot,” Manju Singh said.

Manju Singh and several others left for their homes in Madhya Pradesh Saturday. All of them are painters, and this is peak business season for them, with Gujaratis painting and decorating their homes ahead of Diwali.

Waiting for a bus to Jalaun district in UP, Urmila Devi, who has been living in Kalol in Gandhinagar district for the last two years, said she did not know why people from her state were being attacked, or who was targeting them.

“Some 50-60 people stormed our settlement, shouting, ‘Sab bhaiyya log nikal jao nahin toh mar-peet karenge’,” she said. “They set all the pani puri stalls in the lane outside our homes on fire. My son-in-law now has a fractured arm. Our landlords asked us to leave as soon as possible,” Urmila said.

Mannbhai Prajapati (26), who has been selling pani puri in Visnagar in Mehsana district for the last 11 years, fled home with his family and reached Ahmedabad Friday morning. On Saturday, he said he was boarding the first bus he could get for his village in UP, along with his wife and three children, ages eight, two, and one.

“We do not know why they are doing this to us. We have locked our rented rooms and left with only our clothes. What else could we do? We do not know when we will be able to return. We never thought we would have to run away like this,” he said.

Meanwhile, the child whose alleged rape by a man from Bihar on September 28 in Sabarkantha district triggered the violence against Hindi-speaking migrants, was discharged from hospital in Ahmedabad Saturday. Her condition was stable and she was out of danger, a senior official of the hospital said. The alleged rapist had been arrested on the same day.

Both the BJP and Congress have appealed for peace and harmony in the wake of the violence and exodus of North Indian migrants from Gujarat. State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said Saturday that “what happened is a black spot on our society”, and asked people “not to give political or caste colour” to the incident. “I condemn both the rape of the minor as well as the subsequent attacks on migrants,” Pandya said.

State Congress president Amit Chavda said “anger was building among youths owing to rising unemployment” and “the rape of the minor girl provided the trigger for the attacks on migrant workers”. However, Chavda said, an entire community could not be held responsible for the actions of one individual. “What has happened, cannot be justified. But it is the responsibility of the state government to protect the life and property of citizens,” he said.

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The Indian Express

Rape backlash: At one factory, few migrants on rolls, sacked staff in mob

Officials said that soon after the news of the rape, messages circulated on social media appealing to members of a particular community to “unite and chase non-Gujaratis away”.

Written by Satish Jha | Ahmedabad | Updated: October 7, 2018 5:41:44 am

One of the first to be run over by mobs was the ceramic factory where the accused, who belongs to Chhapra in Bihar, worked. (Express photo by Javed Raja)
SINCE the September 28 arrest of a 19-year-old for allegedly raping an infant, at least half-a-dozen factories hiring migrant workers have been attacked across northern Gujarat. One of the first to be run over by mobs was the ceramic factory where the accused, who belongs to Chhapra in Bihar, worked.

While Alpesh Thakor, the Congress MLA and president of the Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena, said their anger was directed at the government and industry for “not complying with the rule to employ 80 per cent locals in factories”, police officials who refused to be named said that in at least one of the attacked factories, Himalaya International Pvt Ltd in Vadodara, of the over 500 workers, “not more than 100 were from outside the state, mostly UP and Bihar”.

Inspector General of Police, Gandhinagar range, Mahendrasinh Chavda said the rape had brought to the fore “long-suppressed sentiments”. “The locals had been dissatisfied with the factory owners and were looking for an opportunity.”

Officials said that soon after the news of the rape, messages circulated on social media appealing to members of a particular community to “unite and chase non-Gujaratis away”. Officials believe this provoked the more than two dozen incidents of violence in north Gujarat, in which 180 people have so far been arrested.

A day after the 19-year-old was arrested for allegedly raping the 14-month-old, two factories located in Himmatnagar and Prantij of Sabarkantha district were targeted. On October 2, another two were attacked, in Vadnagar and Vijapur towns in Mehsana district, including Himalaya International, a food processing plant inaugurated in 2012.

According to Vadnagar town police, a mob of over 200 people gathered outside the factory and demanded that “till the 14-month-old rape victim gets justice, migrants from UP/Bihar be removed from job, else they would be killed….”

The police report states the mob threw stones at the company’s building and tried to force their way in. Manager Shyamlal was badly beaten up, hit on the head with a stone, and had his shirt torn off. Twenty people were arrested, all belonging to nearby villages and to Thakor community.

Apart from rioting, the accused were booked for allgedly promoting enmity between groups and for acts prejudicial to harmony.

A police officer said, “Our investigation has found that at least five of them used to work in the factory and were sacked for different reasons. The rape incident gave a chance to them to mobilise and attack the company.” Police and locals also say that migrants comprised no more than one-fifth of the work force at Himalayan International.

The attack on Jay Prabhu Cotton Mill, in Kotadi village, happened the same day. A police report, in Gujarati, says 150-200 people from “Thakor members of the Kshatriya-Thakor Sena” got together “with a common intention… to create unlawful assembly and create ruckus”.

The report says the mob forced its way into the mill, pelting stones and beating up workers. All the 23 arrested for being part of the mob are Thakors.

In another incident, at Unjha town, an FIR has been lodged against 100 people for “promoting enmity between different groups and committing act prejudicial to maintenance of harmony between different groups”.

The Mehsana district has been the worst affected in the violence. DSP Nilesh Jajadia said, “Till today, 15 FIRs have been lodged, out of which two are related to spreading rumours on social media. The rest 13 are related to law and order issues. We have arrested 100 people so far.”

Ahmedabad too has seen attacks on migrants, with an incident of a mob threatening them to leave Gujarat reported from Changodar in Ahmedabad rural early last week. On Friday, a group of people hit a worker, Dashrath Sodha, on the head in Odhav industrial area of Ahmedabad. Police said Sodha was attacked when he questioned the group for forcing people to shut shops, while threatening non-Gujaratis to leave the state. Twenty people were arrested in the case.

IGP Chavda said they were trying to bring peace by talking to village heads, factory owners, community leaders.

Genealogy more than history reminds us that we all came from the same place and were once black | Chidanand Rajghatta

https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ruminations/drifting-from-rift-valley-genealogy-more-than-history-reminds-us-that-we-all-came-from-the-same-place-and-were-once-black/

Drifting from Rift Valley: Genealogy more than history reminds us that we all came from the same place and were once black

February 26, 2018, 2:05 AM IST

Chidanand Rajghatta in Ruminations | Edit Page, World | TOI

The story of human migration is very expansive and inexact. It has plenty of holes and lot of dots. It has cunning passages and contrived corridors. The world’s greatest anthropologists, paleontologists, genealogists, archeologists and others involved in the science skip over the holes cautiously, connect the dots hesitantly, navigate the routes tentatively, and string together evidence, speculation, and theory to arrive at conclusions, some of which have stood the test of time.

Unless you are a creationist who believes “God in heaven” or aliens in a spaceship from yonder carefully scattered animal and human species across the planet, the story of both human evolution and human migration, holes, warts, and all, is fairly logical, coherent, and broadly accepted. It is agreed on the basis of reasonable evidence that humankind took its first outbound steps from Africa to Asia. As they schlepped across Asia populating it, some sailed on towards Australia from Southeast Asia, while others doubled back north to Europe, populating that continent.

One or both of these groups populated northern and eastern Asia, including Russia, and some 15,000 years ago, stepped nimbly across the Bering Strait connecting Asia and America. So Russian collusion via the isthmus certainly predated Trump and even the birth of the United States. Down they went along the west coast of America, the first place to be populated on the continent. It wasn’t the conquistadors or the Pilgrim Fathers who came from the east across the Atlantic who discovered America. The land was discovered by itinerants who migrated from Africa to Asia to America, where they became Native Americans, and were later erroneously described by Columbus and co as Indians.

There are occasional challenges to this migration theory. Some experts have argued that America may also have been discovered and populated by seafaring Pacific islanders who came from the west, or ocean-faring Atlanticists predating the conquistadors by many centuries coming from the east. In either case, it would seem Native Americans are of Asian stock, and even before that, of African stock, because everything flowed out of Rift Valley. In that sense, we are all “black”. Whether they came by boats or on foot through Bering Strait, the natives of America are of Asian or African origin, depending on how far back you want to go into the history of migration.

A recently analysed DNA sample from a 10,000-year-old skeleton discovered in Gough’s Cave near Cheddar Gorge, England, offers a remarkable possibility: the first modern British people had “dark brown to black skin”. This should not surprise anyone. Research presented at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists shows that the whiteness, or paleness, of Europeans is only 8,000 years old. Contrary to the Nordic blond images of Jesus Christ plastered across the world, it turns out that he was a middle-easterner with a swarthy complexion and black hair. An artist’s impression from anthropologist Richard Neave showed him looking rather like Saddam Hussein.

In a “genetic portrait of America” that he drew in his 2012 book DNA USA, Bryan Sykes came to many startling conclusions on the basis of evidence from current US population: Not only did European genes appear among Native Americans as early as 10,000 years ago, among white Americans too there is evidence of African DNA. America is genetic mosaic long predating the US boast of being a melting pot. Dubbed a “globe-trotting genetic gumshoe”, Sykes’s assertions have been disputed – including a claim that a Florida accountant by the name of Tom Robinson was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan – but the broader point that America has been a melting pot melded from migration over centuries is not.

Of course, you can’t expect white nationalists in the US and hypernationalists in India – which is also periodically in the throes of nativism – to absorb or process all this. They have little bandwidth for science, evolution, migration and other complex issues. For their leaders, it is easier to toss out red meat to nativist crowds and rile them up about immigrants and foreigners, rather than let them know that they too have DNA from the “shithole” continent.

Long before nativists in India settled on the country being Indic or Sanskritic or Brahmanic or whatever term they prefer to “otherise” rest of the population who choose to look beyond 5,000 years, it turns out that the subcontinent was open to two possible migration movements from Africa: One that set off some 60,000 years ago across the Horn of Africa and moving east across the Arabian Peninsula; another that crossed into Asia further north at Red Sea some 50,000 years ago and went across the Caucasus before looping south into India.

Along the way both groups possibly mingled with Neanderthals and other hominid derivatives/ species who may have migrated earlier, before the two streams met in the heart of India (not in one meeting but over scores of generations), providing the subcontinent with an exciting medley of migrations and mixing, and giving us almost every possible representative skin tone in the world.

So in one sense, except for the original inhabitants’ descendants of the Rift Valley who may remain there, everyone on this planet, unconstrained by narrow nationalism, is an immigrant descendant of one kind or the other. Our ancestors saw this, which is why, in recognition of our mongrel status, they embraced the concept of vasudaiva kutumbakam – the world is one. This might hurt your feelings, but your holy cross or holy thread or holy book is not going to keep you pure, because you never were and you were never meant to be.

India - Assam: Nagpur based and RSS connected Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samannay Samiti (NBBUSS) demands emanding citizenship for Hindu Bangladeshis

The Wire

Bengali Outfit Rejects Assam Accord, Attacks Students’ Union Office

By Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty on 07/03/2017

Law and order concerns were raised and Section 144 imposed after protesters, led by a Bengali group demanding citizenship for Hindu Bangladeshis, vandalised an All Assam Students’ Union office.

New Delhi: In an unprecedented event, an office of the powerful All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) was attacked by a mob, allegedly led by a Bengali organisation demanding citizenship for Hindu Bangladeshis residing in the state and elsewhere.
Kuladhar Saikia, the state’s director general of police (law and order) told The Wire on March 7, “Curfew has been clamped in the area as a preventive measure and nine people have been taken into custody after an FIR was filed by AASU after the attack on March 6”.
According to local news reports, protesters led by the Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samannay Samiti (NBBUSS) – spearheading the movement across the country for granting citizenship to Hindu Bengalis by amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 – organised a meeting in Silapathar town of the state’s Dhemaji district on March 6. It was attended by the organisation’s state and national level leaders. NBBUSS is a Nagpur-based outfit. Its president Subodh Biswas, who addressed the meeting, is allegedly associated with the RSS.
Leaders addressing the meeting rejected the Assam Accord and demanded citizenship of all the Hindu Bengalis residing in the state and called for an immediate halt to ‘harassment’ under the garb of ‘foreign nationals’. They supported the Narendra Modi government’s December 2014 move to bring about an amendment to the Citizenship Act to grant Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis, among others, on religious grounds.
According to reports, the NBBUSS thereafter took out a rally through the town that went out of control. Protesters pelted stones at the local AASU office and vandalised it, which led to the police having to use teargas and resort to a lathi-charge.
The incident could trigger serious law and order issues in the state, as the anti-Bangladeshi sentiment among the ethnic Assamese community has been strong. Lately, many citizens and students groups have been taking to the streets, strongly opposing the Modi government’s decision to amend the Act which, if passed, will violate the Assam Accord. As per the accord, signed in 1985 by AASU and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad with the state government and the Rajiv Gandhi central government, anyone entering the state after March 25, 1971, would be considered a foreign national and would have to be deported to their country of origin. If the BJP government’s Bill becomes an Act, any Hindu Bangladeshi who has resided in the state for seven years will be eligible for citizenship.
Presently, the process of updating the National Register of Citizens 1951, is being carried out as per the cut-off date mentioned in the Assam Accord. Approximately, 1.5 lakh Hindus refugees from Bangladesh reside in the state.
Reacting to the March 6 incident, AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya demanded that the state government arrest the culprits behind the attack or else “the consequences will be severe”.
In a note released to the press soon after the incident, Bhattacharyya said, “The foreigners’ problems the state has been saddled with must be solved only on the basis of the Assam Accord. Religion has nothing to do with it. The indigenous people must call the shots in Assam, not Bangladeshis.” He also said, “The present ruling dispensation in the state came to power with a promise to safeguard the interests of indigenous people. After today’s incident, we will closely watch what steps the government takes in the coming days.”
AASU president Dipanka Nath said, “Due to indulgence from the BJP government, such groups are getting the opportunity to flex their muscles. The central government’s plan to give to citizenship to Bengali Hindus has emboldened them to react in a violent way. We oppose the Citizenship Bill tooth and nail and those (Hindus or Muslims) who came to the state after March 25, 1971, should go back to their countries of origin.”
The incident has also been condemned by the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). One of its senior leaders, Mrinal Hazarika, urged “all ULFA and ex-ULFA members” to join AASU in its fight against the incident. He also asked on social media, “Who is giving so much power and support to those forces opposed to Assam and the Assamese people?” and wondered whether the ethnic Assamese come out in protest after the incident.
DGP Saikia ruled out further violence in the area, stating, “Section 144 is in place as a preventive measure. We rushed security forces to the area soon after the incident, so the violence couldn’t spread. We have also issued an alert to the police forces in all the districts.”
NBBUSS, which calls itself “the voice of 3.5 crore Bengali refugees living in 18 states” of the country, organised the meeting in Silapathar with four issues on the agenda – Bengali Hindus as victims of India’s partition, removal of all Bengali Hindus from the D-voter list without any condition, unconditional release of all Bengali Hindus from the state’s detention camps and a halt to atrocities on Hindu Bengalis in the name of foreigners.
Attempts by The Wire to contact Hiranmay Sarkar from NBBUSS’s Dhemaji chapter and Prasen Raptan from the national chapter have failed to get a response so far.
The issue was raised in the state assembly today. State finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that the state government has formed a committee headed by the additional home secretary to look into the matter and asked it to submit its report within a month.
As per local news reports, an all-party fact finding team has left for Silapathar on March 7.

India: VHP warns govt to deport Bangladeshis, Burmese from Jammu

Press Trust of India  |  Jammu  December 23, 2016
VHP today asked the state government to identify and deport all Bangladeshi and Burmese nationals settled in Jammu by March 31, 2017, failing which it warned that the people of the region would be forced to decide their fate.[. . .]

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/vhp-warns-govt-to-deport-bangladeshis-burmese-from-jammu-116122301197_1.html

India: Protest Call Against Communally Motivated Proposed Amendments to the Citizenship Act, 1955 - [29 Sept, New Delhi]

The proposed amendment to India’s Citizenship Act, 1955 has raised grave concern among democratic circles in Assam and in other parts of the country. The proposed amendment reads that “persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who have been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946  [. . .]

http://sacw.net/article12956.html

India: Mass movement on religious lines leads to ghettoization in riot-scarred West UP

The Times of India

Mass movement on religious lines leads to ghettoization in riot-scarred West UP
Sandeep Rai | TNN | Jun 11, 2016, 10.06 PM IST

Members of another Kashyap family move out of the communally sensitive Shamli district adjoining Muzaffarnagar. Members of another Kashyap family move out of the communally sensitive Shamli district adjoining Muzaffarnagar.

KAIRANA (SHAMLI): A day after NHRC sent notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on exodus of 250 Hindu families from Kairana due to "fear of criminals" belonging to another community, in the communally-sensitive Shamli district adjoining Muzaffarnagar, it's emerged that it's not just Hindus who have migrated from Muslim-dominated areas, but vice-versa. Mass movement of families is happening across religious lines and is leading to ghettoization in the region.

"Hindus are moving out from Muslim dominant villages while Muslims are leaving Hindu majority regions," said Rihana Adeeb, director of Astitva, an NGO working for the rehabilitation of riot-displaced Muslim families. As Shamli DM Sujeet Kumar said he had set up a probe panel to look into the exodus of Kashyap families from Kairana, TOI visited one Jannat colony in Kandhla area of Shamli, where the number of Muslim families swelled considerably due to migration from other areas.

"We could feel too much hatred against us. A vicious atmosphere compelled us to abandon our houses and the village and move to Kandhla," said Mohd Ayyub of Jannat colony, saying pretty much what Hindus, who had to leave the area along with their families, said.

Akram Akhtar, programme officer of NGO Afkar India Foundation, said, "We have a list of more than 1,000 Muslim families that moved from their native villages to Muslim-dominated areas in the last three years in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Baghpat districts. The exodus is naturally out of fear."

BJP's Kairana MP Hukum Singh, however, denied the reports of Muslims moving to other areas. "To my knowledge, not a single Muslim family has moved out of Shamli and Muzaffarnagar districts as they have nothing to fear. However, it is true that Hindu families have been forced to leave their ancestral houses and move out. Kashyaps of Kairana is case in point."

On Wednesday, Singh had produced a list of 346 Hindu families that he claimed had fled leaving their properties behind after they were allegedly targeted and persecuted by another community. The MP said the list mentions only the families of Kairana, and if those who migrated from other parts of the district are included, the number would be more than a thousand.


"This is exactly what had happened in Kashmir. Businessmen are being targeted in a bid to grab their establishments and properties. These people are forced to migrate leaving their ancestral properties behind. And in the hurry, they have no other choice but to sell their properties far below the prevailing market price or just abandon them," the MP said.

Rahul Bansal (name changed), a jeweller in Gumbad locality of Kairana, has had to move his family to Saharanpur after his son was murdered allegedly by a man from the minority community. "The 60% Hindu population in the locality reduced to 30% in a couple of years. We did not feel secure in the area and had to shift to other city," he said.

Sunil Kumar Jain lost his sprawling house in Muzaffarnagar soon after the 2013 riots. "We used to live in Khalapar locality of Muzaffarnagar. It was a Muslim-dominated area. We had to move out of the area due to fear. When we returned after the riots were over, our house had been grabbed by a local muscleman. We have had to sell it off at a throwaway price. Now, we are staying in a rented accommodation in Nai Mandi area," Jain told TOI.

India: Politics of indigeneity - A Letter to the National Media from Two ‘Migrants’ in Assam (Mayuri Bhattacharjee and Anwesha Dutta)

The Wire, 17 May 2016

A Letter to the National Media from Two ‘Migrants’ in Assam
By Mayuri Bhattacharjee and Anwesha Dutta


The Assam assembly election results will be out soon and if the coverage we saw in the ‘national’ media during the campaign is anything to go by, we are likely to be treated to instant, distant and sometimes misleading analyses on what the vote means.

The last time Assam received so much attention was at the height of the media frenzy over the Indrani Mukerjea/Sheena Bora case – when national news channels camped outside Mukerjea’s ancestral house in Guwahati. In our hearts, we wished the same importance had been given to the devastating floods last year which affected nearly 3 lakh people in Assam, but the ‘mainstream’ media didn’t find that news meaty enough. The news of the floods was limited to only a few news capsules and on print it jostled for space with much more important updates about Indrani’s lifestyle. There is no way the news of severe water-logging in Mumbai or New Delhi would have been treated with the same apathy. This attitude of the national media is quite reflective of the general perception of mainland India which either views us as exotic creatures or as terrorists. And then the ‘nation’ wonders why the people of the northeast feel neglected or sometimes cry out for secession from India.

As if this traditional neglect weren’t bad enough, the way in which the media has displayed its ignorance about ‘indigenous Assamese’ and ‘migrants’ has been even more distressing.

Assam is an extremely heterogeneous society where the socio-economic and political dynamics are very different across Upper Assam, Lower Assam and the Barak Valley. But that didn’t stop TV channels from trying to reduce this complexity into neat data packages and Venn diagrams. In one of these programmes on a national channel, we were told that out of the 31.2 million people in Assam, 22 million people were “migrants” while the “Assamese” number just 10 million.

The politics of indigeneity

This astonishing – and alarming – claim reminds us of the infamous speech BJP leader Amit Shah delivered during the election campaign in Upper Assam, where he tried to hit out at Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi by experimenting with his knowledge of Assam history. He told the audience that the brave Ahom king Sukapha had defeated the Mughals 17 times and driven them away. He added that the same land is now being allowed to become the abode of “illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators” by the Congress government and accused Gogoi of protecting the “descendants of the Mughals”. What Amit Shah didn’t know was that Sukapha died in 1268, roughly 250 years before the advent of the Mughals.

But to return to the ‘Assamese’ vs ‘migrants’ claim, the channel said that the Assamese fall into five categories: Ahoms (2 million), Bodos (1.4 million), Christians (1 million), the Mising tribe (0.6 million) and “other tribes” (1.6 million). It is surprising that this classification of who is an Assamese comes at a time when the whole state is trying to answer these very questions. Sahitya sabhas across several communities – Assamese, Bodos, Rabhas, Misings and so on ­– have failed to arrive at a definition of ‘who is an Axomiya’ despite debating the issue for years.

Now, who are the migrants according to the channel? The Muslims (11 million), Bengali Hindus (6 million) and the tea garden workers (5 million). These figures paint a scary picture of Assam, that the state is under siege by migrants.

By this definition, both the writers of this article are “migrants” as we are Bengali Hindus. We speak, read and write both the languages fluently, but identify ourselves as Assamese first. One of us comes from a family that had settled in Assam since the early 1900s and the other had come during the partition in 1947.

If we go by the media’s classification then no Muslim in Assam is an Assamese. Which is a very odd thing to say, because historical records suggest Islam came to Assam in the early 13th century when General Mohammad Bin Bakhtyar Khilji tried to enter the state with his Turkish troops. It is assumed that a few Muslim soldiers preferred to live in Assam instead of going back and they married local girls some of whose relatives also converted into Islam. It is interesting to note that the Ahoms – descendants of the Tai people whom the New Delhi media calls the original Assamese – had also migrated to Assam during the same time. Moreover, several Muslim artisans came to Assam on invitation of the Ahom kings and had settled down permanently.

A second wave of migration occurred after the establishment of British rule through the treaty of Yandabo in 1826. The first such group were the literate Bengali Hindus who were brought to work in the British administration at subordinate levels. The second group of migrants were the tea garden labourers often referred to as tea-tribes or adivasis to work in the newly established tea plantations, and this was followed by landless Muslim cultivators who came to Assam and were mostly involved in settled agriculture, since most of the tribal communities like the Bodos were into shifting agriculture.

If the Muslims are migrants then so are the Ahoms. Now, let’s come to the Bodos who are ‘Assamese’ according to channel’s classification – despite the fact that the entire struggle for a separate Bodo homeland is based on the desire to carve out a separate identity for themselves which is distinct from being ‘Assamese’. We also say this from our personal engagement with the Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD), where one of us has been conducting her doctoral research since 2012.

Why the media needs to be careful

The word migrant in Assam can be a dangerous word as it is most often used in lieu of the term ‘outsiders’ or ‘foreigners’. The ‘son of the soil’ politics was used routinely by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to gain political mileage and create a fear psychosis to mask the corruption within its ranks when the party was in power in Assam. Even now, the Assamese-speaking population is wary of a takeover by ‘outsiders’, and this fear resulted in violence against migrant workers from Bihar a few years back. This also resulted in violent clashes between the Bodos and Muslims, most recently in 2012 and 2014. So, this classification has the ability to flare up dormant ethno- communal tensions whose undercurrents run deep, creating divides in an already fractured society.

Sadly, the national media as a whole has been consistently under-reporting or mis-reporting us in the north-east. There are so many issues that cry for attention such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and Irom Sharmila’s protest for more than a decade. What about the land dispute between Assam and Nagaland or Nagaland and Manipur? What about rampant human rights violation taking place across Assam, Manipur and Nagaland? What about music, arts and tourism? How much has the media reported on the Hornbill Festival or the largest river island in the world Majuli? What about the deplorable plight of the tea plantation workers across Upper Assam and their struggle to be recognised as Scheduled Tribe? The only decent documentary on this issue we have come across has been made by the BBC last year.

When the national media fails to report on critical issues from our region, we beg it not to make matters worse by giving currency to misleading and divisive ethnic categorisations. Perhaps camping outside Indrani Mukerjea’s ancestral home in Assam is something the national media should stick to for now.

Mayuri Bhattacharjee from Tezpur, Assam is the Founder of the non-profit initiative Loo Watch and an NGO consultant.
Anwesha Dutta from Silchar, Assam is a PhD researcher at the University of Ghent who specialises in peace and conflict studies.

India: NDTV's wrong on history and facts - Prannoy Roy classifies all Muslims in Assam as migrants and Ahoms as Assamese ...(Aman Wadud)

The Hoot

NDTV’s Battleground Assam: wrong on history and facts

BY AMAN WADUD | IN Media Practice | 12/04/2016

Prannoy Roy classifies all Muslims in Assam as migrants and Ahoms as Assamese but the earliest Muslim settlers came before the Ahoms did,

says AMAN WADUD

Very often, the national media offers the excuse of the “tyranny of distance” to explain their negligence and ignorance about Assam. For most Delhi-based journalists, Assam is still an unknown territory. They go by whatever little is written about the contentious issues in Assam. Very few venture out to check the veracity of these reports. Truth and the ground realities are the casualties.
On 8th April, NDTV aired a special programme on the Assam state election. It was hosted by India’s best known TV anchor Dr. Prannoy Roy who was joined by Dorab Sopariwala and Shekhar Gupta who spent three years reporting from the North East in the early ‘80s. The programme started with promotional trailer which said “TVs most credible faces come together to tell you who will be the big winner”. A short while later, Roy states “Assam has 31.2 million people and the Assamese are a minority in Assam”.
Sounds familiar? Yes, very often chauvinists and right-wingers say similar things, ie that the Assamese will become a minority in Assam. Some have even projected the year; a recent report that made the headlines was an independent survey done by Indrajit Barua who predicted that the indigenous population of Assam will be reduced to a minority by 2047. But according to Roy, this has already happened. He further states that migrants in Assam number 22 million and the original Assamese number only 10 million.
Then he breaks up the figure. He divides the entire population of Assam into two categories: “Migrants” and “Assamese”. In the first category of migrants are eleven million Muslims (the total Muslim population of Assam), six million Bengali Hindus and five million tea garden workers. In the second category of Assamese, according to Roy, are two million Ahoms (original Assamese as he calls them), 1.4 million Bodos, 1.4 million Christians, 0.6 million Mishing, and 1.6 million other tribes.
Fortunately history is different and so are the facts but Roy seems oblivious of both. The migration of Indo-Aryans to this region dates back to the Vedic period. Many Bengali-speaking Muslims who are indigenous to the lower Brahmaputra valley are converts from lower caste Hindus of Indo-Aryan stock.
The Khasi-Jayantias were the first inhabitants of Indo-Austric stock. The Bodo-Kacharis are of Indo-Tibetan origin and migrated to present day Assam much before the Ahoms (Gait, A History of Assam, 1925). The history books tell us that Muslims came to Assam in the year 1206 AD which is even before the Ahoms who migrated from Yunan Province of present-day China, and from Thailand and Burma in 1228 AD (ibid).
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji was the first Turkish commander to enter Assam while making an effort to invade Tibet in 1206 AD (ibid). This marked the beginning of Muslim settlement in Assam, to be followed by series of invasions first by Afghan rulers and then by the Mughals.
In upper Assam, a large number of people converted to Islam under the influence of legendary Sufi Saint Hazrat Shah Miran, popularly known as Azan Peer who was a disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddin and who settled near Sibsagar after getting married to an Ahom woman (Naqvi, 2013).
The first entry into Cachar by a Muslim was by Jamal Khan, a commander of the Mughal Army which was ruling in Bengal. He entered into the Cachar territory of the Cachar King (Dimacha) but in a midnight ambush, Jamal Khan, along with all his companions, was massacred (Cachar District Record).
In 1799, Mughal adventurer Aga Mohammad Reza entered Cachar  through Sylhet and after defeating the Cachar King, Krishna Chandra, occupied the kingdom of Cachar, particularly the areas now represented by the two sub-divisions of Silchar and Hailakandi. Reza, who entered Cachar with more than 5000 followers consisting of Pathan and Mughal renegades from the then-dismembered Mughal army, settled down in Cachar. He and his followers mingled with local Cacharis, adopted local customs, and practised inter-racial marriage. Very soon, many Cacharis converted to Islam (ibid).
Many people from this stock are now citizens of Bangladesh because Sylhet became part of East Pakistan after partition. Sylhet, including Cachar, was always part of Assam and was under Ahom rule too. But according to NDTV, the entire Muslim population is migrants.


Roy then turns to Sopariwala to say, “So Dorab, it’s amazing, 22 million outsiders or migrants in the state and only 10 million indigenous or local population”. Now it’s Sopariwala’s turn to exhibit his expertise on Assam. He very confidently states: “There is another way of looking into it, most of these, except the Bangladeshi Muslims, have been here for a long time, they been here for 100 years, the Marwaris came, the Bengalis came, people from the tea gardens came from Jharkhand, Orissa Madhya Pradesh and Bengal and so the rest of the migration has taken place slowly and so they have almost been absorbed into Assam. It’s the latest migration from across the border that stands out.”
So if the tea garden workers who have been in Assam since the start of tea industry and the many Bengalis who came with the British have been absorbed into Assam and call themselves Assamese, how is it that they do not fall into the category of ‘Assamese’, according to NDTV?
The Bodos have their distinct culture and separate language, don’t even consider themselves as Assamese, and are fighting for a separate Bodo state. Yet NDTV categorizes them as Assamese. Large numbers of Christians in Assam are Bodos and tea garden workers but NDTV confuses and separates Bodos from Christians and it calls tea garden workers migrants but calls Christians Assamese.
After independence, Muslim immigration has been negligible (Guha, 2011). Those Muslims of Bengal origin who are branded as Bangladeshis (and who Sopariwala was most likely referring to) were either natives of undivided Goalpara (which was always a Muslim-dominated district) or migrated from undivided Bengal and later East Bengal. Many Muslims in undivided Goalpara are also converts from the Koch Rajbonghsi community, from the Mech tribe, the Hajong community and the Rabhas tribe, and now call themselves Deshi Muslims (Barpujari, 2014).
The migration of Muslim peasants of Bengal origin started in the later part of the 19th century under the patronage of colonial administrators according to a well thought out colonial policy. The British promoted such migration as they wanted the hard working Bengali Muslim peasants to cultivate the barren and fertile land of the Brahmaputra valley.
The migration of these peasants was at its peak in the first three decades of the 20th century. Sanjib Baruah, in his celebrated 2011 book “India against Itself” quotes C.S. Mullan, the superintendent of the 1931 census: “In another thirty years it is not improbable that Sibsagar district will be the only part of Assam in which Assamese will find itself at home.”
Mullan’s prediction, even after nine decades, is yet to come true, but the opposite happened. Those Muslim peasants of Bengal origin who migrated from undivided Bengal and East Bengal gave up their mother tongue, accepted the Assamese language, got assimilated with the local culture, studied in Assamese medium schools, and call themselves Assamese. In fact, in the entire Muslim-dominated area of lower Assam, there is not even a single Bengali medium school.
Some mainstream Assamese intellectuals call these Muslims of Bengal origin ‘neo-Assamese’. However, chauvinists and right wingers are averse to calling Muslims of Bengal origin Assamese, despite their unprecedented sacrifice of giving up their mother tongue. Sopariwala seems to have fallen into the latter group, intentionally or unintentionally.
Denying the post-1971 migration of Muslims from Bangladesh will be wrong. The formation of human civilization is a result of migration. Every country has illegal immigrants. But branding all Muslims of Bengali origin as Bangladeshi Muslims is grossly unfair, preposterous, and prejudicial and has far-reaching consequences for the lives and properties of people and the history of Assam.
Muslims of Bengal origin have been facing persecution over their identity since independence and, since the Nellie massacre of 1983, mass violence has been cyclic. Every time Muslims of Bengal origin become victims of mass killings, right-wing politicians and jingoists describe them as Bangladeshi Muslims or illegal immigrants and shift the focus from gross violations of human rights to ‘illegal immigration’, thereby giving impunity to the murderers to carry on with further mass murders of Muslims.
No wonder that, from the Nellie massacre to the 2014 Khagrabari massacre, not even a single perpetrator has been punished.
At the beginning of the show, Roy said that, “This is a very complex election and the national media hasn’t really focused much on it and I have learned a lot by coming and traversing the state”. Well, if this is a complex election, so is the history of Assam and he and his team need to learn much more to understand the complexity.

References:
Barpujari, H. K. (2014). The Comprehensive History of Assam (4th ed.). Guwahati: Publication Board of Assam.
Baruah, S. (2011).India Against Itself: Oxford University Press.
Gait, E. (1925) A History of Assam (2nd ed.). Guwahati: Eastern Book House.
Guha, A. (2011). Jagaran (Souvenir of Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad, Assam).
Naqvi, S. (2013, Feb 28) Northeast Review. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from Rhythm of the Brahmaputra: Hajo, Assam: https://northeastreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/saba/

Aman Wadud is a Guwahati-based human rights lawyer. He tweets @AmanWadud.

India - Assam: New Election Old Scars [The Illegal migrant ,'the foreigner' and ambiguities of citizenship] (Sanjib Baruah)

The Indian Express, March 23, 2016

New election, old scars
Veterans of the Assam Movement now fight polls. But the bitterness — and the issues — linger on.

Written by Sanjib Baruah

A remarkable number of candidates fielded by various political parties in Assam are veterans of the Assam Movement — the protests against the entry and enfranchisement of “foreigners” that dominated the state’s politics for six long years from 1979 to 1985. Four elected ministries collapsed during that period and there were three spells of president’s rule. Even the census of 1981 could not be conducted in Assam during that period. Post-Independence India’s most violent elections are also part of this history, including the horrendous Nellie massacre.

Assam Movement veterans feature not only on the list of candidates of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the regional party that grew out of the movement and now an ally of the BJP. They are also among the candidates of the two major national parties:

The BJP as well as the Congress. Prominent among them are the BJP’s chief ministerial hopeful, Sarbananda Sonowal, and a number of former AGP heavyweights, as well as the Congress party’s Zoiinath Sarma, who led the volunteer force of the All Assam Students Union during the movement.

Then there are the politicians who made the transition to national political parties a long time ago such as the Congress party’s Bharat Narah. The Guwahati MP, Bijoya Chakraborty of the BJP, is also an Assam Movement veteran. This time, her daughter, Suman Haripriya, is the BJP candidate for the Hajo constituency.

In retrospect, the Assam Movement turned out to be the school and recruiting ground for a major segment of the next generation of Assam’s political leaders. And the Congress and the BJP appear to have succeeded in remaking themselves as national parties with a regional orientation — as the former chief minister, the late Hiteswar Saikia, had promised the Congress would become.

This story can easily be told as a warm and fuzzy self-congratulatory narrative of the inclusiveness and resilience of India’s democratic institutions. But the picture gets more complicated when one tries to take stock of the goals of the Assam Movement. How successful was it?

A novice may be excused for thinking that with so many veterans of the Assam Movement now part of the political establishment, the central issue of the movement must have been settled a long time ago. But that is not the case. From the perspective of the thousands who responded to the calls of the movement’s leaders and came out to the streets during those six years, what has transpired in the three decades since then is a story of bitter disappointment and betrayal.

It is not only supporters of the Assam Movement who are disappointed. Even the Supreme Court has expressed similar views. When in July 2005, it declared the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act unconstitutional, it spelt out the dangers to Assam from the continued unauthorised immigration from Bangladesh using a language that was reminiscent of that used by the leaders of the Assam Movement. There can be “no manner of doubt,” said the apex court, that Assam is facing “external aggression and internal disturbance” because of large-scale unauthorised immigration from Bangladesh. In July 2008, the Gauhati High Court said a “large number of Bangladeshis” play “a major role in electing the representatives both to the legislative assembly and Parliament and consequently, in the decision-making process towards building the nation”.

Such pronouncements by authoritative institutions cannot but eat away at the legitimacy of elected governments. It is not surprising that the failure of the Assam Movement created the ground for the rise of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) that argued in favour of an extra-constitutional path for defending Assam’s historical identity and wellbeing.

In recent years, the ambiguities of citizenship that the Assam Movement sought to address have been a potent source of civil strife in various parts of the state. When violence between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims broke out in the summer of 2012, a number of media reports and commentaries blamed it on the influx of “illegal Bangladeshi migrants” into the area, in effect portraying Muslims of East Bengali descent inhabiting western Assam — many of them descendants of the early 20th century settlers from East Bengal — as “Bangladeshis”.

A couple of years later, militants of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) gunned down 81 Adivasis — descendants of tea workers brought as indentured labourers to Assam in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Adivasis have been victims of violence and dispossession in the land conflicts on the Assam-Nagaland border as well; some of their forefathers having settled on those lands bordering tea plantations — technically reserved forests — after their contracts had expired. Quite a fate in 21st century India for a group of people whose forefathers provided the muscle for the 19th century capitalist transformation of Assam.

If one goes by the assessment of the Supreme Court of the IMDT act — a law passed by the Indian Parliament in order to deal with the challenges presented by the Assam Movement to the post-Partition citizenship regime — our decision-making process has become far too porous; it gives “too many actors the means to stifle adjustments in public policy”, to borrow the words of Francis Fukuyama used in a different context. The costs of the Assam Movement’s failures have been steep, but obviously not for its leaders. The price is being paid by some of the country’s most disadvantaged citizens: In blood, and in lives lost. After three decades of the Assam Movement, they are still unable to reclaim a sense of everyday security.
The writer is professor of political studies, Bard College, New York

India: BJP's "Hindu migrant vs Muslim migrant" policy lands it in trouble in Assam

catchnews.com - 25 February 2016
BJP's "Hindu migrant vs Muslim migrant" policy lands it in trouble in Assam
Catch Team
@catchnews

The move
Centre has decided to give long term permits to Bangladeshi Hindu migrants
On the other hand it has said that Bangladeshi Muslim migrants must be sent backward

The impact
This has irked Ahom and Bodo groups
BJP has been forced to go into damage control mode

More in the story
What has the BJP proposed?
What are the main points of contention?

Among all the poll-bound states, it is in Assam where the BJP is poised to shore up its presence. This state, said to be the gateway to the Northeast, is also strategically important for the Sangh Parivar. The ruling Congress party in the state, under the stewardship of 79-year-old Tarun Gogoi, is battling anti-incumbency after being in government for the last 15 years.

However, there are fears in the BJP that it certain moves of the Central government may alienate some of their new supporters in Assam. Some of the BJP allies also point out that they have not kept the promises which they made for the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto.

Promode Bodo, the young president of the All Bodo Students Union, an influential Bodo outfit says, "We supported the BJP in 2014 elections. That is why they won 7 seats. But they didn't do anything for us." The students leader points out how Bodo groups created a congenial atmosphere and stopped all ongoing movements. "Everyone is frustrated now," he points out. Bodo Territorial Administrative Council, which comprises of some of the most volatile areas in lower Assam has seen gruesome violence in recent years. The Bodos are engaged in a violent conflict with the Bengali speaking Muslims and also tribals from other parts of the country who have settled in Assam. The latter are referred to as tea tribes, because of their history of working on tea gardens. The Bodos, have been demanding a separate state.

The Bodos are also angry on the Central government's notification on allowing long term permits to persecuted minority communities so that they can stay in the country. There is a fear that this will lead to their getting citizenship rights in the long run. Their is big population of Bengali speaking Hindus who have migrated to Assam fearing persecution in Bangladesh.

On the other hand, the BJP has been vociferously opposing the presence of Bengali speaking Muslims whom they refer to as illegal immigrants. Tribals and other indigenous groups have been saying that the state doesn't have any room for 'outsiders' and that their land and resources have been already usurped by them leaving them poorer. "The settlers from other side of the border are not the only problem. The Bodos have problems with other Indian tribals as well who have encroached on our land," says UG Brahma, a former MP and a recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award.

"We have been appealing to the BJP to not divide the people by doing such things as giving rights to one religious group who have also entered illegally," says Bodo. He says all illegal migrants have to be dealt treated the same.

Bengali speaking Muslims, too, are intrigued as to why the Centre is making such a distinction. They form the core support base of Badruddin Ajmal's AIUDF. BJP's attempts to polarise the elections may not work if one looks at these voices of dissent on its decisions from important quarters.

Ahom anger

Dhrubajyoti Bora, a noted novelist and head of the Asom Sahitya Sabha, an important outfit of the native Ahomiyas says that the issue has reverberated in protests in the Brahmaputra valley. Asom Sahitya Sabha and the All Assam Students Union, the Asom Gana Parishad - the party of the middle class native population - and some other outfits have also been lodging their protest against this move. "This decision is against the spirit of the Assam Accord," says Akhil Gogoi, an activist turned politician who has been campaigning against the BJP. He explains how the BJP has lost ground because of its anti-Assam policies since it came to power. "They have reduced the ration for the tea garden workers, scrapped the Northeast Industrial Policy, withdrawn the special category status and have now started supporting the big dams which they were opposing before coming to power."

Meanwhile, Bora points out that in the Barak Valley, where a lot of residents have relatives on the other side of the border, it has not become a big issue. Barak Valley is also where bulk of this migration is directed at.

However, he fears that in the Brahmaputra valley it could become a big issue as the elections approach closer. "One has to agree that the migration of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh is much more than that of Muslims in recent years," he points out while adding that this is happening because the benefits of economic progress haven't trickled down to the minorities forcing them to migrate.

Bora points outs how there is a fear among the indigenous people that if this policy of allowing the people to come in continues then the migration will not stop and that the migrant population will become a threat for the locals.

These organisations have also been demanding that if at all these migrants or refugees as they are referred to by some, have to be allowed, then there has to be a clear policy. "There is no clear mechanism as of now," Bora points out. He says that the Sabha and others have been demanding that these migrants should not be allowed to enter the voting rolls or to become a part of the ongoing National Register of Citizenship exercise. "It is not that we are against the humanitarian action of granting refuge to persecuted people as such. But there has to be a proper mechanism," Bora clarifies.
Damage control

Meanwhile, the BJP on its part has tried to assuage the fears of these groups by telling them through different channels that they are being just given refuge and not citizenship rights. "A senior BJP leader reached out to these groups and tried to explain that citizenship is a complicated process and takes years," a source points out. However, they are not convinced and want the BJP to clarify its position. "We will not support them if they back of from their promises," Bodo says.

India: JNU Protest against allowing immigration into Assam - What kind of a xenophobic posture is this ?

[ It is one thing to protest the communal nature of the notifiaction declaring its intent to allow all Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to the minority communities only, but to stand up for the Assam Accord of 1985 to prevent any settlement by cross border immigrants is pure and simple xenophobic nationalism ... see report below]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Protests-in-JNU-against-MHA-notification-on-immigration-into-Assam/articleshow/49087106.cms

Protests in JNU against MHA notification on immigration into Assam

Shreya Roy Chowdhury, TNN | Sep 24, 2015, 12.14 PM IST

Protests in JNU against MHA notifiaction declaring its intent to allow all Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to the minority communities, who sought shelter before December 31, 2014.
NEW DELHI: On Sunday, a number of student organisations joined hand in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi to protest against the recent decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs to allow migrants from Bangladesh to settle in Assam on the basis of religion. The organizations that took part in the protest included the Assam Study Circle JNU, JNU Students' Union(JNUSU), All India Students Association (AISA), All India Students Federation (AISF), Chatra Mukti Sangram Samiti, Democratic Students Federation (DSF), Khasi Students Union of Delhi, Mishing Students Association of Delhi and Students Federation of India (SFI).

The students were protesting against a September 7 notice sent to Assam by the centre declaring its intent to allow all Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to the minority communities (Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists), who sought shelter before December 31, 2014, "due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution" in their country, to stay in India without documents.

"This move, which completely violates the recommendations of the Assam Accord of 1985, is a nefarious design to communalise the political space in Assam," says a statement issued collectively by the protestors. "First, the watershed year of 1971 for identification of 'foreigners', which had been unanimously accepted has been changed to 2014. Second, the Assam Accord insisted on identification of 'foreigners', Hindus, Muslims or of any other religion, without any prejudice. This has been violated by the recent decision... leading towards a very communally polarised atmosphere in the state. Third, no representatives of any political party, ethnic organisations, students groups or civil society groups from Assam were consulted in any manner before the centre came to the said decision", said a joint statement by the organisations, "If Hindu Bangladeshis need to be rehabilitated in India, then the question arises here is why a politically tumultuous, underdeveloped and resource-short state like Assam will have to bear the largest share of them? Why can't geographically larger and economically advantageous states with more resources also share the responsibility of receiving the displaced persons from Bangladesh, in accordance with their capacity?"

Sandipan Talukdar, a research scholar from Delhi University said that this attempt to communalise the politics in Assam will "dilute the harmonious relationship between various ethnic groups in the state." Kanhaiya Kumar, the President of JNUSU asked why no democratic processes were followed by the centre before coming to this decision. "This decision threatens to erase the identity of the indigenous people of the state," he said adding that "similar techniques of overpopulating states with population from outside the states, to gain votes, have been practiced throughout India in recent times." AISA's Shweta Raj argued that Assam was always known for diversity and this "attempt of communalising the situation in the state in view of 2016 elections will strike at the very core of this diversity."

Kiran Pegu, from Mishing Students Association of Delhi said that at present the rights of the Mishing people and all the tribal people of Assam is at threat due to this rampant migration. He urged the government to take requisite steps to safeguard the rights of the people of Assam. Shaheen Ahmed, a research scholar from JNU hailing from Assam, observed that earlier, religious tensions rarely existed between Hindus and Muslims in Assam and they lived in harmony. "Muslims in Assam always took pride in their identity as Assamese. Only after the Partition were the seeds of communalism sowed in Assam. Its grown needs to be checked by both Hindus and Muslims together," Shaheen added. Simon, President of Khasi Students Union of Delhi mentioned that the rights of the tribal people in north-east India has been affected by rampant illegal migration. Not only Assam but all the states need to take a stand against it together, he said.

India: a process of citizens’ registration on the basis of racial profiling is under way on the eastern fringe of the country

The Hindu - September 10, 2015

The starkness of being nowhere

by Joydeep Biswas

A riot victim woman whose house was burnt down by the militants takes shelter at a relief camp in Narayanguri village in Baksa district of Assam. File photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
The Hindu

The ongoing process of preparation of National Register of Citizens in Assam under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court, once completed, will leave more questions than it will have answered, one of them being the prospective statelessness of lakhs of Bengali settlers in the State

Very few in mainland India are aware at the moment that a process of citizens’ registration on the basis of racial profiling is under way on the eastern fringe of the country. The national media — both print and electronic — has not cared even to report the ongoing preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leave alone analysing the legal nuances involved in the action and the possible plight of the ‘denizens’.

This exercise, initiated through a gazette notification dated December 5, 2013 by the Registrar General of India, was initially due to be completed within a time span of three years. But the judgment delivered by a Division Bench of the honourable Supreme Court (Coram JJ, R. Gogoi, R.F. Nariman), dated 17 December 2014, advanced the due date of publication of the final NRC to January 1, 2016. The whole exercise, set off in a selective manner only for the State of Assam, is meant for detection, detention and deportation of the illegal migrants who crossed over to Assam from Bangladesh on or after March 25, 1971.

The vexed issue of infiltration and expulsion of foreigners in Assam, which has dominated the political theatre of the State for over three decades, has got close links with the very history of the subcontinent. Colonial history of the State dates back to 1826 when, under the Treaty of Yandabo, the then geography of what is now called Assam came under the British rule. And the tract was made a part of the Bengal Presidency which, of course, included the erstwhile East Bengal as well.

The first partition of Bengal

In a different turn of events, Cachar, now one of the three districts forming the Barak Valley in southern Assam, was annexed by the Britishers after the fall of the Kachari Kingdom in 1832, and was also made a part of the huge Bengal Presidency. Such arrangements were made much before the first Government of India Act, 1858 through which control over the Indian territories held by the British East India Company was vested in the British queen.

They effectively meant that people of Bengal and of Assam — transcending ethnicity, language and culture — lived within the same administrative jurisdiction and under the same political dispensation.

In 1874, by a whimsical decision of the British government, two districts of East Bengal — Sylhet (along with Cachar) and Goalpara — were separated from the Bengal Presidency, and were joined with Assam to create a new administrative unit which was placed under a Chief Commissioner. This was technically the first Partition of Bengal, a development that unfortunately escaped the attention of the mainstream scholarship.

Much has been written and read about the partition of Bengal in 1905, and its eventual rollback in 1911. However, surprisingly enough, historians of modern India have shown cruel indifference to the cultural knifing of 1874, due to which the Bengalis of Sylhet and Goalpara of the then East Bengal, for no fault of theirs, had to shift their allegiance to a completely different cultural geography.

The colonial power had its own fiscal logic. Sylhet, a revenue-rich district in British India, was tagged with a revenue-deficit Assam to address the administrative purpose of fiscal rationalisation. These two districts thereafter continued to exist inside the administrative boundary of Assam for the remaining length of the colonial rule. In 1947, Sylhet was lost to Pakistan on the basis of the outcome of an allegedly rigged referendum.

The communal carnage that took over the subcontinent resulted in the biggest displacement of people in the recorded history. The humanitarian crisis had its ramifications both on the eastern and the western boundaries of the newly liberated India. But in terms of number, intensity and continuity, impact of the exodus felt on the eastern front far exceeded that on the west. The internal political turmoil, coupled with communal riots first in East Pakistan, and then in Bangladesh, made sure movements across the boundary remained a regular feature even after 1971.

This repeated redrawing of political map of Assam, along with that of the twin valleys of Surma and Barak by the colonial rulers, showing utter disregard to the sentiments of the Assamese and the Bengalis, is causally connected to the emergence of the parochial political patriarchs who assumed power in the Assam in the post-Independence India. Assamese middle-class saw in the British actions of administering Bengali settlement on their own land an evil design of linguistic hegemony. Hence, in the post-colonial Assam, they tried to correct history.

In a bid to retaliate, the Assamese elites, who by then had got a fair share of political power, began to treat Bengali settlers on Assam’s soil as ‘cultural foreigners’. The genesis of the anti-foreigner movement, spearheaded by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) during 1979-85, thus, dates back to the series of above happenings where politics played mayhem with culture.

The bogey of ‘infiltration’

There was no evidence provided by either the government or the academia about the scale of cross-border movement of people. Despite that, the xenophobic movement launched by the AASU during the early 1980s was successful in convincing the Indian establishment that a ‘marauding infiltration’ by Bangladeshi nationals from across the border was putting the Assamese language and culture in great danger.

The six-year-long violent agitation, which left hundreds dead and thousands traumatised, culminated in the inking of the Assam Accord on August 14-15, 1985. This tripartite memorandum of settlement between the Centre, the Assam government and the AASU leadership was considered ‘historic’ in the Brahmaputra Valley. The Citizenship Act, 1955 was suitably amended by the Parliament to incorporate Section 6(a), bringing in a special provision of citizenship for Assam.

The legislative passage engineered by the Rajiv Gandhi government, which had a brute majority in both the Houses, did not care for the history, geography and anthropology of colonial Assam. The Nellie pogrom of February 18, 1983, in which more than 2,000 Bengali-speaking people, including women and children, were butchered, was conveniently forgotten by the Indian state. That gory incident has never been given enough attention in the media.

Legitimisation of racial violence

Successive governments have not been able to bring the killers to justice. To the contrary, the metamorphosis of AASU into Asom Gana Parishad and its eventual victory in Assembly elections has practically legitimised the racial killings.

The Bengali speaking citizens in Assam now face a new kind of terror, this time, from the Indian government. On the strength of an agreement, the State government is now active in the preparation of the National Register of Citizens. This is aimed at labelling lakhs of Bengali-speaking citizens as ‘illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators’.

The relevant rules and provisions in the statute book, including the Citizenship Act, 1955; the Foreigners Expulsion Act, 1946; the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950; the Foreigners Tribunals Order, 1964; and the Citizenship Rules, 2003 (as amended in 2009 and 2010), have all been very carefully crafted over the years to evict from Assam the Partition victims of erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

The Indian government has decided to upgrade the NRC only for the State of Assam even though, ideally, the exercise should have covered the entire country. The purpose of this official action is not difficult to decipher. The stringent set of conditions attached to the process requires the Bengalis of Assam to prove their Indian citizenship solely on the basis of their or their ancestors’ names appearing on the electoral rolls published up to 25 March 1971 and the NRC of 1951, failing which they would be thrown out of the updated NRC.

To make things complicated for these people, such electoral rolls are found to be both incorrect and incomplete. On the other hand, their Assamese and tribal counterparts would find easy inclusion, by virtue of being the ‘original inhabitants of Assam beyond reasonable doubt’.

The key question that confronts us now is: what would happen to these hapless Bengali settlers? In the absence of any bilateral arrangement between India and Bangladesh, the latter is not ready to take them back. This implies that lakhs of such Indian citizens, who have had their names on the Indian electoral rolls for the past four decades, and who are in possession of Electoral Photo Identity Card, would be rendered stateless. Going by the existing deportation norms and practices, they will just be evicted to the no man’s land on the Indo-Bangla border, that too in the dead of night. It will be a shameful moment for India, a proud signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

(Joydeep Biswas is an associate professor of economics in Cachar College, Assam (Central) University. E-mail: joydbiswas[at]gmail.com)

India: Is granting right to residence to members of persecuted minority from Bangladesh and Pakistan an election ploy towards voters in Assam? (Prasenjit Biswas)

Th Statesman

An election ploy?
Prasenjit Biswas
14 September, 2015

The recent notification granting right to residence and stay to members of minority religious groups persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan is an exemption aimed at garnering Hindu votes in Assam’s fractured polity. The Centre’s humanitarian gesture swells the support base of Bengali Hindus for the BJP even when hundreds of their ilk live in detention camps on suspicion of being illegal migrants. The irony is that many of these suspects are declared illegal ex-parte, many of them proving to be bonafide Indians after a strenuous legal battle.

The ex-parte modus operandi of declaring such bonafide Indians “non-citizens” amounts to the enforcement of a sense of stateless on soft targets like Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims. In many a proceeding under the foreigners’ tribunal, appropriate legal recourse, appeal and safeguards under the law were denied to suspected foreign nationals and they were sent to detention camps, the first step in their disenfranchisement and statelessness prior to deportation.

Interestingly, although India does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh to send back people declared “foreigners”, many have been pushed back without any explanation. More often than not they are shot on the border, which, according to international law, is not only anti-immigrant but also an abomination on humanity. Where, one may ask, in national and international law is such a practice permitted?

There is no certainty that the lives of such legally-created stateless individuals, belonging to some persecuted communit or the other, is going to change because they are exempt from being termed foreigners under a set of pre-Independence laws like the Passport Act, 1920 and Foreigners’ Act, 1946. Indeed, such outdated laws and and their provisions found reincarnation in Clause 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 that retains the notion of “illegal migrant” for those who enter India without valid papers from specified territories (read Bangladesh and Pakistan) and which still remains in vogue and applicable within judicial purview in determining the status of persecuted entrants from other countries. The notification, drawn up under the previous Acts of 1920 and 1946, does not provide a legally foolproof safeguard for such persecuted migrants against being called illegal and rendered stateless.

Further, rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 2003. which relate to a revision of the National Register of Citizens requires legacy data within 1971, which again is another mechanism to revoke citizenship. Such a play with citizenship laws continues to threaten Assam’s large non-Assamese population, including Bengali Hindus, in keeping them in limbo between non-citizen and citizen.

The situation shows up two opposite and contrasting tendencies. On the one hand, India, under the broad scope of the United Nations Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954, grants “exemption” to persecuted religious minorities of Bangladesh and Pakistan, keeping in mind the contextual situation in Assam. This very idea of exemption from having to produce valid passport and other travel documents is a declared humanitarian consideration for those being persecuted and displaced as a result of violence — a scenario that Bengali-speaking Hindus of Assam’s Barak Valley are all too familiar with.

There had been many victory processions by the BJP in Barak Valley claiming to protect the persecuted Hindu minorities who had come from Bangladesh and Pakistan. In the Brahmaputra valley, the same party merely paid lip service with regard to allowing persecuted migrants to remain in India. This has angered ethno-nationalists of the Brahmaputra valley, who see this as the imposition of a burden on the state’s refugees. Apparently, the exemption is a great political ploy to win over Assam’s sizeable Bengali Hindu vote that would allow the BJP to form the next government in Assam. Arguably, the exemption could be utilised to allay the fears of Bengali Hindus. Legally, the exemption would restrain the police from harassing religiously persecuted minorities at the slightest pretext.

The shrewd mix of politics and law, combined with a humanitarian concern produces a “fast pitch” for the BJP in Assam to bowl out the already beleaguered Tarun Gogoi government by placing on it the task of “freeing Hindus” from detention camps and even winding up these camps since “suspected foreigners” are kept there along with hardcore criminals. In response, Gogoi has placed the ball in the Centre’s court by claiming Assam has nothing to do with the issue.

According to Gogoi’s interpretation, if the Centre has granted these exemptions then it alone can grant Hindus immunity from legal proceedings on citizenship and, hence, he preferred to have nothing to do with it. This, needless to say, has given the BJP the gumption to accuse the Congress of being anti-Hindu. The political outcome of such legal exemptions, therefore, is a pretty kettle of fish that completely marginalises the case of Muslim migrants being given any exemption on any humanitarian grounds. There is no gainsaying that a large number of Muslim inhabitants of lower Assam districts are victims of ethnic cleansing and natural calamities, deprived of all their belongings and documents. Does not the heart of secular India bleed for such woebegotten religious and linguistic minorities living in Assam and elsewhere?


The writer is Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong

Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/north-east-page/an-election-ploy/89927.html

India: ‘Us’, ‘them’ and an elusive peace [on Manipur, ‘outsiders’ and the cry for an Inner Line Permit system] (Malem Ningthouja)

The Hindu, September 7, 2015

‘Us’, ‘them’ and an elusive peace


[by] Malem Ningthouja


The violence in Manipur is linked to unrestrained demographic pressure by ‘outsiders’ and the cry for an Inner Line Permit system. The role of vested interests and inter-community tensions have exacerbated this

Manipur has often been the setting for violent agitations, with those behind them demanding the implementation of an Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in order to define and protect “insiders” from buying up land on the one hand, and from the unregulated entry of “outsiders” on the other. All this can be traced to the core — in the agitations of 1920, 1935, and 1965, when sections targeted the “outsider” monopoly in trade. The agitations, in 1980, 1994, and from 2006 onwards, have been primarily against unregulated immigrants who bought up land and immovable properties.

Malem Ningthouja
The agitations have been motivated by the situation that has set alarm bells ringing following unrestrained demographic pressure by “outsiders” and the need for an ILP as it exists in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. The ILP is required for ‘other’ Indian citizens to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. The objective has been to prevent outsiders from buying up land and owning natural resources in Manipur. But these stirs have been confined to the Manipur valley, which is about 9 per cent of the geographical area and where 61.54 per cent of the enumerated population (Census 2001) comprises the majority community Meitei, tribals and others living together. Interpretations of the campaign have been along communal lines, probably because it was concentrated in the valley and led by Meitei-based organisations.

Geo-community projection

The apparent Meitei orientation of the agitation has been obvious since minimal tribal presence in the valley has been juxtaposed with Meitei predominance and tribal organisations in the hills that have deliberately maintained an opaqueness about a supporting role. A visible role for the Meitei is clear as defending the territorial integrity of Manipur is dear to them and as they have been the front runners in being associated with other popular movements to protect land and resources from being consumed by controversial projects.

The ILP agitation has been the brainchild of Meitei organisations for two basic reasons. First, its geographical epicentre has been the valley where there has been increasing pressure on land as a result of population growth. This includes migrations by outsiders and continuous “land grabbing” by the government for the setting up of military establishments and other infrastructure, which led to systematic reduction of areas under primary economic activities. Second, Meiteis have been in the fore front of this as despite their known achievements in arts and culture, sport and other skills, they are deeply apprehensive of being marginalised and facing insecurity in Manipur.

This needs to be explained in detail. Despite the perception that identifies the Meitei with the valley, in reality, the valley is liberally open to all who can buy and own land and resources. This situation is what has promoted the large-scale migration of tribals and outsiders from other parts of India and also Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is a one way migration that has deeply affected the psyche of many Meiteis, as they, as a result of being clubbed with non-tribals, are now constitutionally not permitted to own land both in the vast tracts of government reserved areas in the valley and in the hills of Manipur. However, the Meiteis consider the migration of tribals as a sign of integration and do not oppose it; what they are critical of and apprehensive about are the ‘outsiders’.

A form of restraint

Many Meiteis are worried that the numerical strength and growth of outsiders have now reached alarming proportions and there is a situation where they outnumber several small communities in Manipur; according to the 2001 census, there are 9.18 lakh Meiteis and others, 6.70 lakh tribals and 7.04 lakh outsiders. They predict a socio, cultural and economic domination by outsiders as a result of large-scale migration, especially after the extension of railway lines, trans-Asian highways and the expansion of market corridors towards Southeast Asian countries. They are also worried about unrestrained land grabbing in Manipur to facilitate hydro-electric projects, mining, and also oil exploration and drilling at the cost of the people and the ecology. Many have upheld that the implementation of the ILP or a similar law can act as a form of restraint to unregulated immigration and also prevent outsiders and companies/industry from taking control over the land and resources, especially in the valley, where there has been no protective law ever since the permit system was lifted by the Government of India in November 1950.

Following violent agitations that have often lasted months, the Government of Manipur and the Joint Committee on the Inner Line Permit System in Manipur (JCILPS) arrived at an agreement. Thus, on August 31, 2015, the Manipur Legislative Assembly passed three Bills, which were not to the complete satisfaction of pro-ILP sections. These are the Protection of Manipur People Bill 2015, which has fixed 1951 as the base year to detect outsiders; the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Amendment Bill 2015, and the Manipur Shops and Establishments Bill 2015. These Bills are being strongly opposed by the ‘tribal’ organisations in the Manipur hill districts, particularly those of the Kuki Chin Mizo-based organisations, and which have now been supported by Naga-based organisations as well.

Inter-community tensions

Kuki organisations have opposed the ILP movement from spreading in Churachandpur and Chandel districts, which led to a violent clash on August 18, at the border town of Moreh. They have charged the Bills as being evidence of Meitei expansionism in the hills to expel a large section of Kukis. The propaganda has been appealing to many who are unhappy with the anti-Kuki stance and ‘refugee’ tag attributed to them by individuals from other communities. There has also been rivalry between Kuki underground organisations and those who have been identified as being with other communities. There could also be an element of fear as many of them — either people who might have migrated after 1951, or those whose lineages might not have been recorded in the list criteria — could be treated as outsiders. Other tribes have also expressed similar concerns.

The overall projection of the Bills as being pro-Meitei fails to holistically interpret the limitations of the cut-off year of 1951. This provision actually affects all, including some sections of the Meiteis and others who came to Manipur after 1951. It will also be practically difficult to detect and deport migrants who have close ethnic bonds with one or other ‘indigenous’ communities. But the polemics of insecurity have interplayed with the propaganda that the Manipur Land Revenue and Reform Act 1960 has been extended to the hill districts, which is untrue as there is no amendment in the territorial extent of the said Act.

The recent tensions, and which have been extensively reported in the media, might not have occurred had the Government of Manipur dealt with the situation in a better way. Instead of fully relying on the consent of the tribal MLAs, it could have also consulted the Hill Areas Committee or other responsible ‘tribal’ organisations in order to resolve any misunderstanding, before passing the Bills. On the other hand, neither the organisation that had led the ILP movement nor the tribal organisations who protested against the Bills had approached each other for mutual consent in this regard. The Kuki and Naga organisations were not insensitive to the primary objective of the cut-off year of 1951, as being primarily to target the ethno-culturally, distinguishable outsiders from other parts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. They wanted to magnify the controversies arising from these Bills in order to invoke community sentiment, consolidate their respectively fractured communities, and to intensify the demand for either VI Schedule status for the tribes or different administrative systems for Kukis and Nagas. In this, there is tactical unity between Naga and Kuki organisations. This is understandable in the context of Naga enthusiasm towards the speeding up of some kind of pan-Naga integration under the proposed framework of the recent Peace Accord. This is something that the Kuki organisations are concerned about as this inspires the ‘Kuki’-based undergrounds that are under the Suspension of Order (SoO) with the government, to speed up their agenda to have either Pan Zomi Reunification or autonomous administration. The recently leaked Kuki National Organisation’s proposal to the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN-IM asserts: “Historically, the [Meetei or Manipur] Kingdom consisted of the valley areas, which today form the valley districts of Manipur… The Kuki and Naga peoples shall mutually respect one another’s identity and territory and maintain the best of fraternal relations and work together to preserve peace in the land and usher in progress and human welfare in the Kuki and Naga states.”

Now, when tensions have been fanned, there seems to be the role of certain vested political groups to add fuel to the fire in order to magnify the issue of unrest, and, in turn, use this as a reason to justify the imposition of President's rule in order to unseat the incumbent Congress government. In this there is an interplay of political demagogy, adventurism and speculation. Unrest, rioting and repression have led to a heavy toll in terms of civilian life, the destruction of property and a creation of tension. If the Bills are the issue, is there no room to either clear the misunderstandings or add some clauses in the Bills to resolve the tension? If the Bills are just the spark, what role should the Government of India be playing to scale down the tensions? The question now is this: who will negotiate for peace with whom, at what cost, and for what purpose?

(Dr. Ningthouja is a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and the author of three books on Manipur.)