Life on the edge of Assam’s anti-immigrant campaign

Guwahati/Goalpara: We have no place to go now," said Momina Khatun, raising her voice above a group of Bengali-speaking Muslim men and women taking shelter on a plot of private land in Chokuduha area of western Assam's Goalpara district. They were evicted from Paikan forest reserve, about 2 km away, on July 12. "They just came and demolished our houses," said Khatun, about 70 years old. 

After their homes were demolished during an eviction drive carried out by the BJP-led government in Assam, many built makeshift huts near the site.

On July 18, after 19-year-old Sakor Ali was killed in police firing during a protest against the eviction, they had to flee again. Nearly 50 families have now taken shelter on private land. "We do not know how long we will be allowed to stay here,” said Aberun Nessa, a mother of four. Behind her, a group of evicted women were cooking under the open sky while children roamed around the tin-roof huts.

A total of 1,080 families were evicted from Paikan forest, where concrete houses, schools, anganwadi centres and mosques were demolished with bulldozers. The forest department has planted 1.5 lakh fruit trees to rejuvenate the 140 hectares of land. "Once these fruit trees grow, we can control the human-elephant conflict, which has worsened here over the years due to encroachment on forests like this," a forest guard deployed at the site told DH. A school building near the entrance to Paikan forest has now been turned into a forest protection force camp. 

The evictions have been widespread; thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims have been evicted from forests, wetlands, village grazing land and other government plots since June. "We have cleared more than 40,000 acres, or 160 square kilometres, of land since May 2021, when I assumed office as the CM. This is equal to the size of Chandigarh," Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters in Guwahati on July 15.

As anti-immigrant sentiments continue to build in Assam, Bengali-speaking Muslim communities in Assam continue to grow more wary. 

With Assam's decades-long problem of illegal migration from neighbouring Bangladesh remaining unresolved, Bengali-speaking communities have borne the brunt of politics, particularly ahead of elections.

With the Narendra Modi government in 2019 enacting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the Bengali-speaking Muslims seems to have now been made the target in the state's fight against immigrants. 

The BJP-led government claims that most of those who have been evicted, so far, are illegal migrants. Sixty-five-year-old Naushad Ali, who lost his home in Paikan, however, questioned the allegations. "Let them check our documents first before calling us Bangladeshis. We have had documents since 1951 to prove our Indian citizenship," he said.

Frail and unwell, Ali explained that he once lived in Haguripara village, a few kilometres west of Goalpara, but moved after the river washed away his home. "My house here was on revenue land, not forest land as the administration is claiming."

Mir Arif Ikbal Hussain, a lawyer at the  Gauhati High Court, told DH that several evicted families have approached both the High Court and the Supreme Court to challenge the government’s drive. "In their petitions, they stated they are not illegal settlers and that many had been evicted from revenue land as well. They also pointed out that they were provided houses under the PM Awas Yojana, electricity, schools, and anganwadi centres... In some cases, the court issued orders for status quo," he said. "Many even complained to the court that the government was targeting them because they are Muslims."

The evictions in Lakhimpur and Sonitpur districts in North Assam drew considerable attention, as the Muslim population in these areas is relatively small. Many in the region continue to believe that Bengali-speaking Muslims are carrying out a "demographic invasion," which has reduced indigenous communities to minorities in lower and central Assam.

Soon after, a large eviction drive was conducted at Rengma Reserve Forest in Uriamghat, in the Assamese-majority Golaghat district of eastern Assam. According to CM Sarma, Muslim immigrants had converted thousands of bighas of forest land into betel nut farms. These plantations have since been cleared.

The BJP often describes Bengali-speaking Muslims as infiltrators from neighbouring Bangladesh and a threat to the identity and culture of the Assamese. The party argues that Assam’s long-standing problem of "illegal migration" remains unresolved, and that such "infiltrators" are occupying forests and government land, thereby altering the state’s demography. The saffron party, which came to power in Assam for the first time in 2016, alleged that the Congress kept the problem alive to use the immigrants as its vote bank. 

A few days later, Sarma made his position more explicit, stating that the eviction drive was targeted specifically at "Bangladesh-origin" Muslims. "We will not evict the indigenous people as they have the right to live in the forests," he said, while claiming that most of those evicted were of Bangladeshi origin.

Indigenous Muslims

The targeted evictions have impacted some indigenous Muslim communities, like the Deshi Muslims which the BJP-led government had recognised as one of five indigenous Muslim communities in the region in 2002. 

"We are not Bangladeshis; we belong to indigenous communities. Then why have we been evicted?" Ajufa Bibi, a mother of three children, asked. The family was also evicted from Paikan and have been taking shelter at a relative's home nearby. Her son, Hasinur will appear for his Class X board examination. "Can he study in such an atmosphere?" she asked.      

Deshi Janagosthia Mancha, a forum of indigenous Deshi Muslims, said houses of at least 64 such indigenous Deshi Muslim families have been evicted during the ongoing eviction drive. "This BJP government in 2022 recognised us as an indigenous Muslim community. So, we urge the government to arrange for the rehabilitation of those evicted," said Mofiyal Rahman, a leader of the Mancha in Goalpara, situated about 120 km west of Guwahati. 

Politics over the issue

CM Sarma has said that the eviction drive would continue till all encroached land is cleared, even after the elections slated in March-April next year. 

The Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front and the Opposition Congress, however, have alleged that Muslims are being singled out by the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government as part of the BJP’s polarisation strategy in the run-up to the Assembly elections.

The BJP and its allies, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), have already set a target of securing a third consecutive term in Assam. The AGP, formed in 1985 after the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement known as the Assam Agitation (1979-1985), was led by former All Assam Students' Union (AASU) chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. The AGP came to power twice, in 1985 and 1996. The UPPL has its base in Bodoland, a region in western Assam that has also witnessed recurring conflict involving the indigenous Bodo community and Muslims.

"The evictions are aimed at diverting attention from the failures and corruption of the BJP government ahead of elections," said Debabrata Saikia, Congress MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly.  Saikia is the son of former CM Hiteswar Saikia. 

CAA complications

The long-debated ‘foreigners’ issue in Assam was to be resolved with March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date, as enshrined in the Assam Accord of 1985. The cut-off date was agreed upon as a compromise: those who entered Assam before it would be considered legal residents, while those arriving afterwards were subject to detection and deportation.

However, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), passed by the Narendra Modi government in 2019, gave a fresh and contentious twist to the debate. The legislation sparked massive protests across Assam, with five people even losing their lives.

The CAA altered the framework for detecting and deporting post-1971 migrants by offering Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who had arrived before 2014, citing ‘religious persecution’. This provision angered the AASU and several indigenous groups, who argued that the law violated the very spirit of the Assam Accord.

"Our stand is very clear: All post-1971 migrants must be detected and deported, irrespective of religion. By signing the Assam Accord, Assam accepted immigrants who entered India till 1971. We cannot take more burden," AASU president Utpal Sarma told DH in Guwahati. 

"Indigenous people are becoming minorities in some districts. If the post-1971 Hindu migrants from Bangladesh are granted citizenship in Assam, we will be reduced to minorities," he said.

CM Sarma recently said that three Hindu Bengalis have been given Indian citizenship under the CAA, out of 12 applications so far. "Hindu Bengalis in Assam migrated prior to 1971 and so they do not want to go through the CAA," Sarma said. AASU and a few other organisations, however, have rejected the CM's claim.

With the CAA law providing a pathway to Hindu Bengalis, the Bengali-speaking Muslims are now becoming the BJP government's target in their "fight against infiltrators." PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, during their recent visit to Assam, also endorsed the evictions, saying ‘infiltrators’ posed a threat to the  demography of several districts in Assam. 

Playing with emotions

According to Manoj Kumar Nath, a veteran Assamese journalist and author, all parties — whether Congress, AGP, or now BJP — have often played on emotions surrounding Assam’s long-standing foreigners issue for political gain. "As Assamese voters get emotional over the foreigners issue, parties play politics by highlighting the threats posed by immigrants or promising to solve the problem. People elected the AGP government led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta twice, seeing it as their own government. But the Mahanta government merely blamed the Centre for failing to implement the Assam Accord and resolve the foreigners' problem," Nath, author of the Assamese book Asom Andolan, told DH.

The Manmohan Singh-led Congress government in 2005 had begun updating the NRC but did not complete it. Before the 2016 Assembly elections, PM Modi promised to drive out all "ghuspetiyas" (infiltrators) from Assam after May 2016, yet later introduced the CAA after coming to power in the state. 

"The parties simply harp on emotions to divert attention from developmental issues," Nath said. "As politicians have kept the problem alive, Assam faces humanitarian situations like the one created by the ongoing evictions."

Nath added that the only sustainable solution to the decades-long foreigners problem lies in implementing the Assam Accord in its entirety, clause by clause.

In May this year, the BJP government’s drive against "illegal migrants" took a different turn, with several ‘declared foreigners’ reportedly being sent back to Bangladesh. CM Sarma also stated that others attempting to enter the state were stopped at the border and pushed back.

Prasenjit Biswas, a professor at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, said Assam’s anti-immigrant movement raises serious human rights challenges for both Bengali Hindus and Bengali Muslims. 

"Human rights are being bypassed by rule of order over rule of law. Enforced statelessness, decitizenization of many bona fide citizens based on suspicion and the fiat of documentation without proper constitutional safeguards is weakening civil and political rights," he said.

"The constitutional mechanisms to resolve the foreigners issue are no longer relied upon, leading to tragedies, impunity, and a lack of transparency in the processes adopted," Biswas added.