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Anti-Bengali sentiment
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Anti-Bengali sentiment
Anti-Bengali sentiment comprises negative attitudes and views on Bengalis. This sentiment is present in several parts of India: Assam, and various tribal areas of Northeast India. etc. Issues include discrimination in inhabitation, other forms of discrimination, political reasons, government actions, anti-Bangladeshi sentiment, etc. The discriminative condition of Bengalis can be traced from Khoirabari massacre, Nellie massacre, Silapathar massacre, North Kamrup massacre, Goreswar massacre, Bongal Kheda, etc. This has led to emergence of Bengali sub-nationalism in India as a form of protest and formation of many pro-Bengali organisations in India.
Assam has a long history of clashes with Bengal-based polities like the Bengal–Kamata War and Ahom–Mughal wars. The presence of Bengalis in Assam dates back to the British conquest of the Ahom kingdom following the 1st Anglo-Burmese war, who immigrated alongside Gorkhas & tea tribes to fill in the void caused by the massive depopulation of the Brahmaputra Valley following the Moamoria rebellion & Burmese conquest.[citation needed] This massive change in demographics of Assam, coupled with attempts by Bengali Hindu middle class bureaucrats to impose Bengali language upon the Assamese people by banning Assamese language from 1836 to 1897, laid the seeds of hostilities between Assamese & Bengali-speaking communities. According to Subir Deb, the author of Story of Bengal and the Bengalis, anti-Bengali sentiment in Assam was deliberately fomented by the British in the colonial times. The British designated Bengali the official language of colonially administered Assam between 1836 and 1873, which included the Bengali-majority areas of three districts (Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj) in the Barak Valley region, however, they also defined the map of Assam in such a way that many languages and communities (ethnic and indigenous) overlapped, creating language strife among the communities. Colonisers also introduced the infamous "line system", which segregated Bengali settlers in Assam from its indigenous people, starting the system in Nowgong district in 1920. From 1921 to 1931, the system was enforced in Nawgaon district, where immigrants constituted 14% of the population. It was also implemented in Barpeta sub-division of Kamrup and Darang. In 1937, a 9-member Line System Committee was formed by the government. The general consensus of the committee was that "the line system was a temporary mechanism created to check the unrestricted inflow of the immigrants into open areas and to protect the demographic composition against disruption and disturbance". However, even after successive governments, the line system was not abolished, continuing to segregate Bengalis from the indigenous and tribal people. The hostilites were further exacerbated by the Partition of Bengal in 1947, with many East Bengali refugees migrating into Assam. The Bangladesh Liberation War also saw hordes of Bengalis escaping genocide migrating into the state. Neglect of Northeast India, especially regarding the India-Bangladesh border by the Union government has fostered illegal immigration of Bangladeshi Muslims seeking better economic opportunities & Bangladeshi Hindus fleeing religious persecution into Assam. The continued flow of Bengali immigration into the state is cited as the main reason for anti-Bengali sentiment among the Assamese & tribal communities, which finally burst out in 1980s as the Assam movement.
On 10 October 1960, Bimala Prasad Chaliha, the then- Chief Minister of Assam, presented a bill in the Legislative Assembly to declare Assamese as the sole official language of the Assam. Ranendra Mohan Das, the then- MLA from Karimganj (North) assembly constituency and an ethnic Bengali, protested against the bill, arguing that it would impose the language of one third of the population over the remaining two thirds. On 24 October, the bill was passed in the Assam legislative assembly, thereby marking Assamese as the only official language of the state. The law forcefully imposed Assamese on Bengalis in terms of employment and education. This resulted in massive protests from the Barak Valley, which was home to many East Bengali refugees. These protests succeeded in establishing Bengali as an additional official language in the Barak Valley, which led to reactive insurgency by Assamese against Bengalis in Assam and numerous massacres.
In 1960, the Assamese demanded to purge Bengalis from Assam.[citation needed] In June 1960, frequent attacks on Bengali Hindus started in Cotton College in Guwahati and then spread to the rest of the state. An Assamese mob attacked innocent Bengali Hindu settlements in the Brahmaputra Valley. The District Magistrate of Guwahati, who was a Bengali Hindu, was attacked by a mob of around 100 people inside his residence and stabbed. Another Bengali Hindu, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, was also stabbed. Bengali students of Guwahati University, Dibrugarh Medical College and Assam Medical College were forcibly expelled from these institutions. In Dibrugarh, Bengali Hindu houses were looted and burnt, and their occupants were beaten up, knifed, and driven out. 500,000 Bengalis were displaced from Assam and taken to West Bengal.
The Goreswar massacre was a planned attack on Bengali Hindus living in Goreswar in the Kamrup district (now the Baksa district). As per a secret July meeting at a school in Sibsagar, a students' strike was organised for the next day at Sibsagar. Groups of students and youths were sent to Jorhat, Dibrugarh, and other adjoining areas to communicate the decision of the meeting. In the Brahmaputra Valley, Assamese mobs started attacking Bengalis. On 14 July 1960, riots began in Sibsagar with the looting of Bengali shops and assaults on several Bengalis. In lower Assam (Kamrup, Nowgong and Goalpara), intense violence occurred in 25 villages in Goreswar. An Assamese mob of 15,000, armed with guns and other weapons, attacked Bengali shops and houses, destroying 4,019 huts and 58 houses. According to the inquiry commission, at least nine Bengalis were killed, one woman was attacked and raped, and nearly 1,000 Bengali Hindus fled from the area during the riot. The violence continued for months. Between July and September 1960, nearly 50,000 Bengali Hindus fled to West Bengal.
In some districts of lower Assam, Kamrupi Bengali Hindus were harassed as foreigners and became the target of violence. On 3 January 1980, a group of students of Baganpara High School were visiting Barikadanga to supervise a three-day strike in response to a call given by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) for supporting the anti-Bengali movement.[citation needed] In 1981, the Assamese killed nearly 100 Kamrupi Bengali Hindus. Along with Assamese locals, Kamrupi Muslims attacked the Bengali Hindus and spread violence.
After the Partition of India, Bengali Hindus from India and Bengali Hindu refugees from East Bengal settled in Khoirabari in the Mangaldoi sub-division of the Darrang district. During the assembly election on 14 February 1983, the activists of the Assam Agitation blocked access and cut communications to the Bengali enclaves. Indigenous Assamese groups, who held resentments toward the immigrant Bengalis, took advantage of the resulting isolation and surrounded and attacked the Bengali villages at night.[citation needed] As result, the Central Reserve Police Force and polling agents could not be sent to Khoirabari. Immigrant Bengali Hindus had taken shelter at the Khoirabari School, where the indigenous Assamese mob attacked them. According to Indian Police Service officer E.M. Rammohun, more than 100 immigrant Bengali Hindus refugees were killed in the massacre. According to journalist Shekhar Gupta, more than 500 immigrant Bengali Hindus were killed. The survivors took shelter in the Khoirabari railway station.
In Silapathar, undivided Lakhimpur district, Assam, Bengali Hindus had been residents for two decades, as an ethnic minority in the region. In February 1983, Assamese mobs attacked the Bengali villagers with machetes, bows and arrows, burnt houses, and destroyed several bridges which connected the remote area. The villagers escaped into the jungle, and spent days without adequate food or shelter.[citation needed] Journalist Sabita Goswami claimed that according to government sources, more than 1,000 people were killed in the clashes. The survivors fled to Arunachal Pradesh.
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Anti-Bengali sentiment
Anti-Bengali sentiment comprises negative attitudes and views on Bengalis. This sentiment is present in several parts of India: Assam, and various tribal areas of Northeast India. etc. Issues include discrimination in inhabitation, other forms of discrimination, political reasons, government actions, anti-Bangladeshi sentiment, etc. The discriminative condition of Bengalis can be traced from Khoirabari massacre, Nellie massacre, Silapathar massacre, North Kamrup massacre, Goreswar massacre, Bongal Kheda, etc. This has led to emergence of Bengali sub-nationalism in India as a form of protest and formation of many pro-Bengali organisations in India.
Assam has a long history of clashes with Bengal-based polities like the Bengal–Kamata War and Ahom–Mughal wars. The presence of Bengalis in Assam dates back to the British conquest of the Ahom kingdom following the 1st Anglo-Burmese war, who immigrated alongside Gorkhas & tea tribes to fill in the void caused by the massive depopulation of the Brahmaputra Valley following the Moamoria rebellion & Burmese conquest.[citation needed] This massive change in demographics of Assam, coupled with attempts by Bengali Hindu middle class bureaucrats to impose Bengali language upon the Assamese people by banning Assamese language from 1836 to 1897, laid the seeds of hostilities between Assamese & Bengali-speaking communities. According to Subir Deb, the author of Story of Bengal and the Bengalis, anti-Bengali sentiment in Assam was deliberately fomented by the British in the colonial times. The British designated Bengali the official language of colonially administered Assam between 1836 and 1873, which included the Bengali-majority areas of three districts (Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj) in the Barak Valley region, however, they also defined the map of Assam in such a way that many languages and communities (ethnic and indigenous) overlapped, creating language strife among the communities. Colonisers also introduced the infamous "line system", which segregated Bengali settlers in Assam from its indigenous people, starting the system in Nowgong district in 1920. From 1921 to 1931, the system was enforced in Nawgaon district, where immigrants constituted 14% of the population. It was also implemented in Barpeta sub-division of Kamrup and Darang. In 1937, a 9-member Line System Committee was formed by the government. The general consensus of the committee was that "the line system was a temporary mechanism created to check the unrestricted inflow of the immigrants into open areas and to protect the demographic composition against disruption and disturbance". However, even after successive governments, the line system was not abolished, continuing to segregate Bengalis from the indigenous and tribal people. The hostilites were further exacerbated by the Partition of Bengal in 1947, with many East Bengali refugees migrating into Assam. The Bangladesh Liberation War also saw hordes of Bengalis escaping genocide migrating into the state. Neglect of Northeast India, especially regarding the India-Bangladesh border by the Union government has fostered illegal immigration of Bangladeshi Muslims seeking better economic opportunities & Bangladeshi Hindus fleeing religious persecution into Assam. The continued flow of Bengali immigration into the state is cited as the main reason for anti-Bengali sentiment among the Assamese & tribal communities, which finally burst out in 1980s as the Assam movement.
On 10 October 1960, Bimala Prasad Chaliha, the then- Chief Minister of Assam, presented a bill in the Legislative Assembly to declare Assamese as the sole official language of the Assam. Ranendra Mohan Das, the then- MLA from Karimganj (North) assembly constituency and an ethnic Bengali, protested against the bill, arguing that it would impose the language of one third of the population over the remaining two thirds. On 24 October, the bill was passed in the Assam legislative assembly, thereby marking Assamese as the only official language of the state. The law forcefully imposed Assamese on Bengalis in terms of employment and education. This resulted in massive protests from the Barak Valley, which was home to many East Bengali refugees. These protests succeeded in establishing Bengali as an additional official language in the Barak Valley, which led to reactive insurgency by Assamese against Bengalis in Assam and numerous massacres.
In 1960, the Assamese demanded to purge Bengalis from Assam.[citation needed] In June 1960, frequent attacks on Bengali Hindus started in Cotton College in Guwahati and then spread to the rest of the state. An Assamese mob attacked innocent Bengali Hindu settlements in the Brahmaputra Valley. The District Magistrate of Guwahati, who was a Bengali Hindu, was attacked by a mob of around 100 people inside his residence and stabbed. Another Bengali Hindu, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, was also stabbed. Bengali students of Guwahati University, Dibrugarh Medical College and Assam Medical College were forcibly expelled from these institutions. In Dibrugarh, Bengali Hindu houses were looted and burnt, and their occupants were beaten up, knifed, and driven out. 500,000 Bengalis were displaced from Assam and taken to West Bengal.
The Goreswar massacre was a planned attack on Bengali Hindus living in Goreswar in the Kamrup district (now the Baksa district). As per a secret July meeting at a school in Sibsagar, a students' strike was organised for the next day at Sibsagar. Groups of students and youths were sent to Jorhat, Dibrugarh, and other adjoining areas to communicate the decision of the meeting. In the Brahmaputra Valley, Assamese mobs started attacking Bengalis. On 14 July 1960, riots began in Sibsagar with the looting of Bengali shops and assaults on several Bengalis. In lower Assam (Kamrup, Nowgong and Goalpara), intense violence occurred in 25 villages in Goreswar. An Assamese mob of 15,000, armed with guns and other weapons, attacked Bengali shops and houses, destroying 4,019 huts and 58 houses. According to the inquiry commission, at least nine Bengalis were killed, one woman was attacked and raped, and nearly 1,000 Bengali Hindus fled from the area during the riot. The violence continued for months. Between July and September 1960, nearly 50,000 Bengali Hindus fled to West Bengal.
In some districts of lower Assam, Kamrupi Bengali Hindus were harassed as foreigners and became the target of violence. On 3 January 1980, a group of students of Baganpara High School were visiting Barikadanga to supervise a three-day strike in response to a call given by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) for supporting the anti-Bengali movement.[citation needed] In 1981, the Assamese killed nearly 100 Kamrupi Bengali Hindus. Along with Assamese locals, Kamrupi Muslims attacked the Bengali Hindus and spread violence.
After the Partition of India, Bengali Hindus from India and Bengali Hindu refugees from East Bengal settled in Khoirabari in the Mangaldoi sub-division of the Darrang district. During the assembly election on 14 February 1983, the activists of the Assam Agitation blocked access and cut communications to the Bengali enclaves. Indigenous Assamese groups, who held resentments toward the immigrant Bengalis, took advantage of the resulting isolation and surrounded and attacked the Bengali villages at night.[citation needed] As result, the Central Reserve Police Force and polling agents could not be sent to Khoirabari. Immigrant Bengali Hindus had taken shelter at the Khoirabari School, where the indigenous Assamese mob attacked them. According to Indian Police Service officer E.M. Rammohun, more than 100 immigrant Bengali Hindus refugees were killed in the massacre. According to journalist Shekhar Gupta, more than 500 immigrant Bengali Hindus were killed. The survivors took shelter in the Khoirabari railway station.
In Silapathar, undivided Lakhimpur district, Assam, Bengali Hindus had been residents for two decades, as an ethnic minority in the region. In February 1983, Assamese mobs attacked the Bengali villagers with machetes, bows and arrows, burnt houses, and destroyed several bridges which connected the remote area. The villagers escaped into the jungle, and spent days without adequate food or shelter.[citation needed] Journalist Sabita Goswami claimed that according to government sources, more than 1,000 people were killed in the clashes. The survivors fled to Arunachal Pradesh.