<p>India observes Martyr's Day twice every year, on January 30 and March 23. Martyr's Day is observed on January 30 to mourn the assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 and on March 23 to commemorate the hanging of freedom fighters: Bahgat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru by the British in 1931. </p><p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/assam">Assam</a>, however, observes its own Martyr's Day on December 10, besides observing the two Martyr's Days commemorated across the country. On Wednesday (December 10), the BJP-led government in Assam inaugurated a Martyr's Memorial in Guwahati. The memorial, situated on 150 bigha land, has a 225-feet memorial tower, besides other attractions. Rs 178 crores was spend for the construction. </p><p>So what is the genesis of Assam's own Martyr's Day? What is its relations with the state's decades-long problem of foreigners? </p>.<p>The Martyr's Memorial is a tribute to 860 Assamese people, who had died during the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement or the Assam Agitation that had kept the state on the boil between 1979 and 1985.</p>.<p>Assam Agitation was a fight against "large-scale migration" from esrtwhile East Pakistan, the present Bangladesh. Assam shares 263km border with Bangladesh. </p>.<p>Assam Agitation was spearheaded by All Assam Students' Union (AASU), All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad and others. </p>.<p>Khargeswar Talukdar, a college student of Bhawanipur in western Assam's Barpeta district, was the first "martyr" of Assam Agitation. Talukdar died in action by the security forces (police and central forces) on December 10, 1979 when the agitators had stopped Begum Abida Ahmed, wife of former President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (from Assam), while she was on her way with supporters from Guwahati to Barpeta to submit her nomination papers for Assembly elections despite a boycott call by the agitators.</p>.<p>The agitators had been demanding detection and deletion of names of suspected foreigners from voters list before conducting the elections. </p>.<p>Subsequently 860 agitators died in attacks by the suspected foreigners and the security forces. An estimated 7,000 people (both agitators and the Bengali-speaking suspected foreigners) had died during the Assam Agitation. </p>.<p>Assam Agitation had ended with the signing of Assam Accord on August 15, 1985 in New Delhi, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. </p>.<p>Assam government had later recognized 860 Assamese people as martyrs, who had died during their fight against "foreigners".</p>.<p>The family members of the martyrs were earlier given Rs. 5 lakh as one-time exgratia and Rs. 2 lakh to the injured by the BJP-led government, which came to power for the first time in 2016. On Wednesday (December 10), family members of the martyr's from across Assam were invited to Guwahati for inauguration of the memorial. </p>.<p>Inaugurating the memorial, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday (December 10) said that although the Assam Agitation had ended in 1985, Congress government did not implement it and the BJP government have been taking steps since 2016. Former AASU leader Sarbananda Sonowal served as the CM between 2016 and 2021. Sarma said Assamese people were still facing serious identity threats due to drastic change in demography and increase in population of "unknown" people (Bengali-speaking Muslims). He said population of the Assamese would come down to 60% in 2027 when the Census is conducted. </p>.<p>The Assam Accord decided March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of "foreigners." The NRC update exercise was accordingly carried out between 2013 and 2018 and over 19.06 lakh people were kept out of the final draft. However, AASU, BJP and a few others refused to accept the draft saying many foreigners made it to the list fraudulently. The NRC exercise has so remained on hold aa several petitions seeking reverification of the draft are pending in the Supreme Court.</p>.<p>The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 added a new dimension to Assam's fight against foreigners as it offered Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants till 2024. The AASU and others, howver, have been demanding for excluding Assam from the ambit of the CAA as it violates the cut-off of Assam Accord. </p>
<p>India observes Martyr's Day twice every year, on January 30 and March 23. Martyr's Day is observed on January 30 to mourn the assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 and on March 23 to commemorate the hanging of freedom fighters: Bahgat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru by the British in 1931. </p><p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/assam">Assam</a>, however, observes its own Martyr's Day on December 10, besides observing the two Martyr's Days commemorated across the country. On Wednesday (December 10), the BJP-led government in Assam inaugurated a Martyr's Memorial in Guwahati. The memorial, situated on 150 bigha land, has a 225-feet memorial tower, besides other attractions. Rs 178 crores was spend for the construction. </p><p>So what is the genesis of Assam's own Martyr's Day? What is its relations with the state's decades-long problem of foreigners? </p>.<p>The Martyr's Memorial is a tribute to 860 Assamese people, who had died during the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement or the Assam Agitation that had kept the state on the boil between 1979 and 1985.</p>.<p>Assam Agitation was a fight against "large-scale migration" from esrtwhile East Pakistan, the present Bangladesh. Assam shares 263km border with Bangladesh. </p>.<p>Assam Agitation was spearheaded by All Assam Students' Union (AASU), All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad and others. </p>.<p>Khargeswar Talukdar, a college student of Bhawanipur in western Assam's Barpeta district, was the first "martyr" of Assam Agitation. Talukdar died in action by the security forces (police and central forces) on December 10, 1979 when the agitators had stopped Begum Abida Ahmed, wife of former President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (from Assam), while she was on her way with supporters from Guwahati to Barpeta to submit her nomination papers for Assembly elections despite a boycott call by the agitators.</p>.<p>The agitators had been demanding detection and deletion of names of suspected foreigners from voters list before conducting the elections. </p>.<p>Subsequently 860 agitators died in attacks by the suspected foreigners and the security forces. An estimated 7,000 people (both agitators and the Bengali-speaking suspected foreigners) had died during the Assam Agitation. </p>.<p>Assam Agitation had ended with the signing of Assam Accord on August 15, 1985 in New Delhi, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. </p>.<p>Assam government had later recognized 860 Assamese people as martyrs, who had died during their fight against "foreigners".</p>.<p>The family members of the martyrs were earlier given Rs. 5 lakh as one-time exgratia and Rs. 2 lakh to the injured by the BJP-led government, which came to power for the first time in 2016. On Wednesday (December 10), family members of the martyr's from across Assam were invited to Guwahati for inauguration of the memorial. </p>.<p>Inaugurating the memorial, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday (December 10) said that although the Assam Agitation had ended in 1985, Congress government did not implement it and the BJP government have been taking steps since 2016. Former AASU leader Sarbananda Sonowal served as the CM between 2016 and 2021. Sarma said Assamese people were still facing serious identity threats due to drastic change in demography and increase in population of "unknown" people (Bengali-speaking Muslims). He said population of the Assamese would come down to 60% in 2027 when the Census is conducted. </p>.<p>The Assam Accord decided March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of "foreigners." The NRC update exercise was accordingly carried out between 2013 and 2018 and over 19.06 lakh people were kept out of the final draft. However, AASU, BJP and a few others refused to accept the draft saying many foreigners made it to the list fraudulently. The NRC exercise has so remained on hold aa several petitions seeking reverification of the draft are pending in the Supreme Court.</p>.<p>The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 added a new dimension to Assam's fight against foreigners as it offered Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants till 2024. The AASU and others, howver, have been demanding for excluding Assam from the ambit of the CAA as it violates the cut-off of Assam Accord. </p>