Indigenous Muslims in Assam await caste census to protect their identity amid Bengali-speaking Muslims

The caste census would help protect the identity as 'indigenous Assamese' against the growing population of Bengali-speaking Muslims, who are often called illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and a threat to identity and culture of the Assamese.

Guwahati: After repeated pleas to the state government for a special census not yielding any result, the Centre's decision to carry out caste census across the country has come as a hope for Assamese Muslims, who have been seeking protection for their identity against a large population of the Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Moinul Islam, President of Sadou Asom Goria Jatiya Parishad, an organisation of the Gorias and one of the indigenous Muslim groups in Assam, said that the Centre should hasten the process to carry out the caste census as indigenous communities like the Gorias have been facing serious threat of losing their identity.

"The indigenous Muslims can not be clubbed together with the Bengali-speaking Muslims, who had migrated to Assam from Bangladesh or erstwhile Pakistan. We are both linguistically and culturally different. The first step for protection of our identity is to have a proper census of the community," Islam, who hails from Tezpur in North Assam, told DH on Sunday.

In July 2022, the BJP-led government in Assam had decided to recognise the five Muslim groups, Goria, Moria, Deshi, Jolah tea tribe and Sayeed communities as "indigenous communities". But the challenge of carrying out a proper census has retarded the state government from addressing the issues concerning them.

"According to our assessment, the Goria population will be around 10 to 11 lakh. But some are saying the number to be more. Many Bengali-speaking Muslims, who have learnt Assamese or got married to people from our community, have started claiming themselves to be Gorias."

"The government must properly train the enumerators to prevent the Bengali Muslims from getting enrolled as indigenous Muslims," he said.

These Muslim groups had either converted to Islam or were war prisoners in the Mughal-Ahom battles in Assam in the 13th century. But the growing population of the Bengali-speaking Muslims since the partition have left them worried about their identity.

"We demand that after a proper caste census, the Assamese Muslims must be included as OBCs and offer reservation in education, jobs and in political representation like other indigenous communities in Assam," said Rajib Choudhury, publicity secretary of the parishad.

The caste census, they believe, would help protect their identity as "indigenous Assamese" against the growing population of Bengali-speaking Muslims, who are often called illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and a threat to identity and culture of the Assamese.