‘Miya Museum’ in Assam sealed after row over identity

A private museum, named Miya Museum, was sealed on Wednesday by Goalpara district administration in Assam. The private enterprise was shut down after a comment by Chief Minister Himanta Biswas’s comment that there was no community called “miyas” created a furore.

In Assam, Bengali-speaking immigrant Muslims are referred to as 'Miya', whom the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Sarma, considers a threat to the identity and culture of the state's ethnic communities.

Constructed by an organisation representing the immigrant Muslims, called Asom Miya Parishad, the private museum was opened on October 23 at Dapkarbhita village in Goalpara’s Lakhipur area, about 100 km west of the capital city Guwahati.

According to the Parishad, the museum displayed items showcasing the culture and traditions of the 'Miyas' in Assam—akin to the museums showcasing culture of other ethnic communities in the state. The Parishad said it displayed the equipment and items used in cultivation, fishing and other activities, which were disappearing fast.

Officials in Goalpara district administration, however, said the museum was closed down as it was opened in a house provided under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana, which was a violation of the norms of the Centre’s flagship housing scheme.

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Expressing strong objection to the museum, cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika had told reporters in Guwahati that the items displayed in the museum were those belonging to indigenous communities in Assam. “If they want to display the lungi, I have nothing to say. But I have strong objections to the museum displaying the items of our communities as those of the Miyas,” Hazarika had said.

“I don’t understand how you can set up a museum by stealing items of our ethnic communities. They will have to prove to the government that these items belong exclusively to the Miyas. If they can't prove, then there will be a case,” Chief Minister Sarma had told reporters in Guwahati when asked about the museum.

Prashanta Phukan, an MLA of the ruling BJP in Dibrugarh, was the first to demand that the museum be pulled down, as it sought to threaten the culture of the state’s indigenous communities. Former BJP MLA, from Hojai constituency, Shiladitya Deb also demanded its demolition saying that it sought to promote the culture of Bangladeshi Muslims.

“The Miya Muslims were brought from erstwhile east Pakistan (present Bangladesh) in 1936 by former CM Muhammad Saadulah. So, the museum can’t be part of Indian culture. If they want to set up a Miya museum, they can do so in Bangladesh, not in Assam,” Deb had said.

In 2020, a demand by former Congress MLA Sherman Ali to allot a space for setting up of a ‘Miya Museum’ in Sankardeb Kalakshetra, the centre of Assam’s culture in Guwahati, had sparked a similar row.