NRC in Assam
Background to the Issue of NRC and CAA in Assam
The current political climate in Assam has turned tumultuous since the last few months because of BJP’s controversial Citizenship Act which seeks to give persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan naturalization; however excluding Muslims from the bill. While BJP had talked about implementing the NRC and CAA in subtle hints since the days of Vajpayee, the crux of the NRC issue starts from Assam. The issues of Assam are composed of a very delicate inter-webbing of geopolitical and socio-cultural conflict since decades. It’s important to understand and analyze its history before moving into narratives of Assam’s stand on NRC-CAA-NPR.
Pre-colonial conditions and cultural tensions in Assam
After British’s accession of Assam from the Burmese Empire, The British had commercial interests in Assam due to its rich fertile soil and weather condition ideal for growing tea and Digboi’s oil fields. Regardless, Assam Valley is a rich fertile land and among the most bio diverse states in India. Assam was included as a part of the Bengal Presidency. The annexation of upper Assam is attributed to the successful manufacture of tea in 1837, and the beginning of the Assam Company in 1839. Under the Wasteland Rules of 1838, it became nearly impossible for natives to start plantations. These would set forward a number of conditions that would be the core issues of Assam’s post-colonial problems.
The immigrant and foreigner experience in Assam has so far been a very delicate one. With the British accession of Assam, the subjugation under colonial rule and adding Assam to the Bengal province changed Assam’s culture and demographics. Bengali influx into Assam rigidized the caste system, sanskritising a huge population of lower Assam. Assam’s traditional religious practices differed from the caste Hindu system, where a lot of Assamese people were still practicing the Neo-Vaishnavite Bhakti religion of Srimanta Sankerdev. The stark differentiation in Bengali caste Hindus and the Bhakti practitioners of Assam was also a part of the reason cultural tensions that erupted between the Assamese and the Bengali. Beyond that, there were several indigenous groups and tribes living in Assam who were also alienated from the Hindu experience. Assamese was recognized as a dialect of Bengali for a long time (Sylheti is still considered a dialect of Bengali). The de-recognistion of Assamese culture led to Bengali Hindus having an upper hand in educational institutions and research, where Bengali was being taught as the official language. This led to increasing cultural tensions between the Assamese and the Bengali.
In 1912, the Assam province was formed which would be the entirety of North East India. The rise in Assamese nationalism started in this period and was followed by political movements supporting it and also opposing it.
The Bongal Kheda and Assam Agitation
The Assam Official Language Act was passed in 1960, recognizing Assamese as an official language in Assam, while also having provisions for the safeguard of linguistic minorities. The fight for Assamese cultural autonomy began with the Bongal Kheda movement and escalated to the Assam Agitation in the 70s. In 1960, large-scale ethnic riots erupted in Assam again when Assamese groups demanded for making Assamese the sole language for writing examinations under the prestigious Gauhati University and other universities, where Bengali was being taught as the official language. The concern for rapidly increasing amount of refugees arriving from East Bengal and later newly formed East Pakistan in the 1940s, created tension among the Indigenous Assamese people and many tribes in the state. By May 1949 the total number of refugees reached to two-and-half lakhs increasing up to 2,740,455. Many Bengalis had to flee due to ethnic clashes and significant property damage, ethnic policing and street violence occurred throughout the region. During its peak in 1960, around 50,000 Bengali Hindus were expelled from Assam, who took shelter in West Bengal.
The Assam Agitation lasting from 1979–1985 was a movement against illegal immigrants in Assam. The movement, led by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the ‘All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad’ (AAGSP), developed a program of protests and demonstration to compel the Indian government to identify and expel illegal (mostly Bangladeshi) immigrants and protect and provide constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to the indigenous Assamese people. The unrest officially ended on 15 August 1985, following the Assam Accord, which was signed by leaders of AASU-AAGSP and the Government of India. During this period of six long years of the historic movement, as reported 855 (later on 860 as submitted by AASU) number of people sacrificed their lives in the hope of an “Infiltration Free Assam” in the 1979–1985 Assam agitation. The movement came to an end with the signing of the Assam Accord with the then Congress government, which agreed to remove illegal immigrants and foreigners from Assam.
The Assam Accord
The leaders of the Assam Movement agreed to accept all migrants who had entered into Assam prior to 1971. The Government of India acknowledged the political, social, cultural and economic concerns of the Assamese people and agreed to revise the electoral database based on that date. Further, the government agreed to identify and deport any and all refugees and migrants after March 25 1971. In 1971, millions of citizens of Bangladesh — then called East Pakistan — fled the abuses of a civil war and associated genocide between East Pakistan and West Pakistan triggering mass illegal migration into Assam, West Bengal, various other nearby states of India as well as Myanmar.
According to the Assam Accord, the Government of India agreed to secure the international border against future infiltration with “erection of physical barriers like walls, barbed wire fencing and other obstacles at appropriate places” and deploying a patrol by security forces on land and river routes all along the international Bangladesh-India border. To aid this effort, the Government also agreed to build a road near the border for the patrol and quicker deployment of Indian security forces, as well as maintain a mandatory birth and death list of citizens. All open police charges against the participants and the leaders of the Assam Movement, prior to and on the date of signing the Accord, were also withdrawn and closed. The families of those who died during the Assam Movement were given monetary compensation. The Government also agreed to open an oil refinery, reopen paper mills and establish educational institutions in the state.
The problems with CAA and the Assam Accord
Clause 5 of the Assam Accord deals with the issue of foreigners, that is, detection of foreigners in Assam, deletion of their names from the voters’ list and their deportation through practical means. Clause 5 of the Assam Accord further says, “Foreigners who came to Assam after 1.1.1966 (inclusive) and upto 24th March, 1971 shall be detected in accordance with the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order 1964.”
This group of people were required to register themselves as foreigners in accordance the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939. The Assam Accord does not call for their deportation but they were to get voting rights only after expiry of 10 years from the date of their detection or declaration as foreigner. The rest had to be expelled.
Religious persecution was not a consideration for any relaxation in accommodating illegal immigrants. But now, religious persecution is the basis of giving preferential treatment to illegal immigrants who are living not only in Assam but in other parts of the country as well. However, other states don’t have an agreement with the Centre as Assam.
The amended Citizenship Act has shifted the cut-off date for granting citizenship from 24th of March 1971 to 31st of December 2014 — that is, by 43 years 9 months and 7 days. The protesters see this move by the Centre to go back on their promise made to protect their Assamese cultural identity.
Clause 6 is another often quoted provision of the Assam Accord to challenge the new amendment in the Citizenship Act. Clause 6 of the Assam Accord says that constitutional, legislative and administrative steps will be taken by the Centre to “protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill that was tabled by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament, the protesters say, is a deliberate violation of Clause 5.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah in his reply during the debate on the Citizenship Amendment Bill said that Clause 6 has not been tinkered with in the new legislation.
But neither his reply nor appeals by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal seem to have made an impact on the protesters who want an “infiltrator-free Assam”.
The Union Home Ministry was made the nodal agency for implementation of the Assam Accord. Incidentally, it was the Union Home Ministry that brought out the Citizenship Amendment Bill that has evoked strong and violent protests in Assam.
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