Protecting Assam’s land

Every member of the younger generation belonging to the Assamese and other indigenous communities of Assam must keep in mind the fact that the ‘silent invasion’ of Assam had started much before Partition. While it was during Viceroy Lord Curzon’s time (1898–1905) that the British split Bengal into two parts and Assam was clubbed with East Bengal as one province, with Dhaka becoming the capital and Shillong losing its status. He was also the person responsible for encouraging the first large-scale migration of peasants from East Bengal to Assam, most of whom happened to belong to a particular language and faith.

Though Assam’s status as a separate province was restored in 1911, the foundation for a demographic invasion of Assam was already laid. It is always important to keep in mind the fact that CS Mullan, Superintendent of Census Operations of 1931 in Assam, had recorded the following observations: “Probably the most important event in the province during the last twenty-five years – an event, moreover, which seems likely to alter permanently the whole future of Assam and to destroy… the whole structure of Assamese culture and civilization – has been the invasion of a vast horde of land-hungry Bengali immigrants, mostly Muslims, from the districts of Eastern Bengal and in particular from Mymensingh.” In a subsequent paragraph of the same report, Mullan, a British officer himself, went on to say – “Without fuss, without tumult… a population which must amount to over half a million has transplanted itself from Bengal to the Assam Valley during the last twenty-five years… the only thing I can compare it to is the mass movement of a large body of ants.” There are official statistics that also said that the number of such immigrants – over 85 per cent of them Muslims – increased from three lakh in 1921 to over five lakh in 1931. Though that was an era when India also meant areas which later became Pakistan, and one part later became Bangladesh, volumes have been written about how Jinnah had always dreamt of including Assam in his Pakistan, as also about his successors keeping the effort alive to realise that dream. Volumes have been also written, including by the Supreme Court itself, about how migration from erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh has not been just because of economic reasons as some experts like Amalendu Guha tried to establish, but a real silent demographic invasion intended at taking away a vital portion of India. The 1998 report of former Assam Governor (late) Lt Gen (retd) SK Sinha to the President of India too had very elaborately discussed this aspect.

Coming forward to the present time, the BJP-led government, which had come to power by promising to protect ‘jaati, maati and bheti’ (identity, land and homestead) of the indigenous communities, has proposed a Land Policy this year, through which it intends to protect land – the most vital asset of the indigenous people. The present Land Policy, as reported, has proposed to protect agricultural land first through digital mapping, and then by imposing restriction on the sale and transfer of such land without the government’s permission. This is a very important step. It is good that the State government has also proposed to ensure protection of land belonging to the Xatra institutions as also to other indigenous faiths. But then, a move that this government had started in 2016-17 to evict land belonging to National Parks and Xatra institutions has suddenly come to a halt. This needs to be resumed. Land required for free and unhindered flow of the Brahmaputra and all its 104 tributaries should be also cleared of encroachers and protected. This will additionally reduce the impact of floods and erosion too. Another aspect which needs to be investigated thoroughly is a continuous effort by one particular political party to collect as much information possible about land in Assam. A detailed look at the questions placed in the Assam Legislative Assembly from 2006 onward will reveal that members of a particular party have been systematically asking certain specific questions, like – How much government land is available in such-and-such district?

How much land is covered under PGR/VGR in such-and-such district? What is the total wasteland area in such-and-such district? What is the total area under reserved forests in Assam? How much land is occupied by the tea industry? Though members of the Assembly have the privilege to ask various sorts of questions, why is it that only members of a particular party have been asking such questions related to land? Has the State and Central intelligence mechanism noticed this trend? And, as the BJP-led government of Sarbananda Sonowal proposes to protect agricultural land of the indigenous communities, can his government also conduct a survey to find out how much of land belonging to members of different indigenous communities have been transferred to the immigrants, be they of the pre-1947 era or of the post-1947 era?