[Reader-list] The Migration, the Fear and Hatred of the Outsiders

[uddipan dutta]

The Migration, the Fear and Hatred of the Outsiders and the issue of Development and Progress in the Early Formation of Assamese Identity: Probing the text of Jonaki

						By: Uddipan Dutta

The Times of India 
New Delhi, Friday, May, 13, 2005
Youths ‘evict’ illegal migrants from Assam
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Dibrugarh: Herding them into buses, tempos and rickshaws, groups of young Assamese men began forcing suspected illegal Bangladeshi migrants from Dibrugarh town and neighbouring districts. By the end of the day, nearly 15,000 people were evicted.
 Maintaining that “government tied down with vote bank politics, will not do anything to solve an issue that is threatening demography social fabric of Assam,” the groups of young men in Dibrugarh said they were forced to “devise the drastic” action because political leaders would not do anything about it. 
As the Bangladeshis exited Dibrugarh, police did not take any action because there was no violence and no complaint had been made about threats of intimidation. “We could not take any action against any group or individual because no one is being dragged or forced out,” said superintendent of police Pradip Chandra Saloi.

Many of you must have read, heard or seen this news in the newspapers, radio channels or TV channels. Although this news item does not tell much on the overall affairs of the things in the state, anybody who remembers the past events rocking the state would be startled by one commonality in the event – the ‘local’ resentment against the ‘outsiders’. For quite a long time Assam is in the news for the violent manifestation of the ‘local’ resentment against the outsiders. In November 2003 a violent campaign was started by the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) militants against the Hindi populace in Assam particularly the Bihari labourers. The problem started when the Assamese students demanded 100% reservation in the Group D jobs in the Northeastern Frontier Railways. Bihari students were obstructed from taking written examination in Guwahati. In rebound passengers from the North East were attacked in the trains which pass through Bihar. A girl was allegedly raped in a railway station in Bihar and many female passengers were molested. The situation took a very violent turn when the insurgent group ULFA unleashed a reign of terror on the Hindi speaking populace particularly the Bihari labourers. 

The apprehension that the ‘natives’ of Assam would be very soon overwhelmed economically, outnumbered politically and over swamped culturally can be traced even to the early days of the formation the Assamese  identity in the nineteenth century itself and this feeling got percolated through the collective unconsciousness of the Assamese middle class and the manifestation of this apprehension is seen in the various movements rocking the state ranging from language to refinery agitations  before the starting of the Assam Movement also known as Anti Foreigner’s Movement. Some of the ideas disseminated about the threat of the outsiders still holds good in the popular mindset of the people of Assam. One just gets wonderstruck how well the threat of the large scale migration to Assam was prognosticated by some authors of the ‘Jonaki Era’. Whenever we talk of Assamese nationalism in the present context we cannot overlook this threat perception and also we must concentrate on how that threat was perceived by these early architects Assamese nationalism. What is important here is to remember the fact that this fear was expressed usually in the context of development or progress of the region. How to achieve “Unnoti” (Development or progress) was one of the most seriously discussed and debated topics in the pages of “Jonaki”.  The issue of the outsiders and the imminent danger of them swarming the region were cropped up again and again. My modest endeavour would be to find out this perception of threat in the early construction of Assamese identity manifested in the pages of Jonaki. I won’t dwell much on the detailed nitty-gritty of the different migrations taking place in Assam after the advent of the British and the consequent demographic changes (but would give a sketchy picture of it for the convenience of the readers). I don’t even have a solution to offer to this issue of migration. Pages have already been written on this issue and a lot of researchers are engaged on research to find the different patterns of migration in Assam and to find solutions to it. 

In the very first issue of Jonaki we get the article titled “Jatiyo Unnoti” (National Progress/ Development) by Kamalakanta Bhattacharya.  In the fifth issue of the first year another article came under the heading “Axomiyar Unnoti (The progress of the Assamese). The author was the same. Afterwards, he wrote a very long article which appeared in series, with a slight change in the name of the article “Axomar Unnoti” (The Development/progess of Assam). First it appeared on the second issue of the second year. Then the third issue of the second year, ninth issue of the second year, tenth issue of the second year, eleventh issue of the second year, and eleventh- twelfth issue ( which appeared together) of the fourth year. A protest article was written to that article on the first issue of the third year by Ramdas Goswami (it was the pen name of Ratneswar Mahanta) and a criticism to that same article appeared on the fourth issue of the third year. A protest to that protest was written Kamalakanta Bhattacharya which appeared on the seventh issue of the third issue. A similar article was written by Panindranath Gogoi. It appeared under the title of “Axomor Unnoti ne Abonoti” (Progress or Degeneration of Assam).

It’s clear that a lot of thought was given on what is progress or development and how to achieve it for the Assamese nationality. Naturally, the question of outsiders and their looming danger on the demography of Assam was prognosticated in the pages of Jonaki.

The author Kamalakanta Bhattacharya starts his article “Jatiyo Unnoti” (National Progress/ Development) in the first year first issue with the following paragraph:


“There are many people who want to contribute to the growth of the nation 
.I will discuss how to achieve it and what will lead to this development. Hope my discussion is well timed. As the material used in the construction of a big house must be very strong in order to have a strong house, the materials to be used in the development of a nation must also be strong. The most important material of this construction would be education. Although the growth of a nation or a country depends more upon the liberty it enjoys, but if the people of that country remains illiterate, the country cannot progress.” 

Citing examples from the developed countries of Europe he argued that the development of education led to the development of science which was facilitating trade and commerce. The wealth was generated by the flourishing trade and commerce. The educated masses of these countries became aware of their rights and the kings could no longer act arbitrarily the author argued. 

Unity is another ingredient that he identified for the development of a nation. Here he makes a very interesting comment. As there in no unity in India, Indians are the slaves of the others for the last “seven hundred” years. He was hoping that the thread of unity will once again be tied between the Indians. Two important observations can be made here. The author’s glaring Hindu fundamentalism and the recognition of India as the nation of concern not Assam. This is very important because till the ULFA gave a call for separate sovereign Assam, Assamese nationalism was imagined within the periphery of India first the British India and afterwards the Indian State, unlike the Naga nationalism. Secondly the ideology of Hindu nationalism has been trying to hijack Assamese nationalism ever since its modern incarnation.        

Then he emphasizes the importance to have a national language. “It is a very important thing to have a national language. In the foreign countries when there is no national language there is no nationality. We always see that the languages of the developed and civilized nations also flourish. The English language has developed as much as the English people. When we look at the beauty of the Sanskrit language, we can well conclude that India in that period was hundred times developed than the present India.” This remark is again a pointer to the author’s Hindu nationalism based on a glorious past.  .    

Then he gave two examples of patriotism from Greek and Roman history and also mentions the patriotism of George Washington. But what is interesting here is the mention of Raja Rammohan Roy as the archetype of patriotism in India. It shows clearly how this author and his other contemporaries were affected by the Indian Renaissance ushered in by Raja Rammohan Roy and his followers. He concludes the article with remarkable lines: “The development of one’s own nation would lead to the development of the country. I will write in future on the issue of how Assam can be developed after looking at the things carefully.” 

His next article appeared on 5th issue of 1st year – He starts the article with a strange and rather controversial line – “Before the advent of the most civilized British, Assam was ruled by half-civilized Chutiya, Barobhuyan, Ahom etc.” Then he continues: “it was the dark age of Assam. After Assam became a part of the British, it has received light and the people of Assam are now becoming conscious of their faults in that light. Some of them are becoming conscious to take their motherland from the dark to the light, to impart education to the uneducated Assamese, and to bring wealth to this poor country.  These are the virtues of English education. The benevolent British has done a lot for our development, schools are established for our benefit; providing scholarships to the meritorious students to study abroad. After seeing all these we can only say that the path of the progress in education in Assam is very short.” One of the salient features of Assamese Nationalism of the nineteenth century, what we are terming as the Print Nationalism was the British loyalty and their gratefulness to the British for providing modern education to the natives.

But after that he rues the non- the progress in the field of trade and commerce was quite negligible. He explicates his argument in the following lines:

“Many people of our state have not noticed how the people from the other states are becoming rich through trade and commerce. The Nature has given us in abundant, our land is fertile, many valuable crops are grown in our country, still we have not been able to make any progress in the field of trade and commerce. The outsiders or foreigners are raking in the wealth of our land.  But our store is empty; - we do not know what trade is. If someone comes out bravely to do business, it soon gets fizzled out for the want of determination and perseverance. I cannot say how many days will pass like this. But we can hope that the education would help the Assamese people to learn trade and commerce
. We hope that the education would eradicate all the evils crippling our society
”

Then he dwells upon the issue of language. Many of the complaints are still getting reverberated in the popular discourses in the magazines and meetings of literary societies. He writes:     

“Assamese is the language of our nationality, the development is very less in this language, and the process is not complete (standardization); so the development of Assamese is a duty of every Assamese. It is a grave injustice not to look after this. But there are some Assamese who don’t want to call it a language. ‘Is there a different language in Assam’ such sort of a question embarrasses us?  But what so ever, we hope that the literate Assamese would try to increase the glory of the language. And we also wish that the people engage in the development of the language also become successful.” 

In the previous article he mentioned the need of the patriotic fervour for the progress of the nation. He reemphasizes on it in the progress of Assamese nationality. He blames on the lack of unity among the people of Assam for the degeneration. He takes the example of the neighbouring Bengal where a lot of literary societies have flourished for the strengthening of their nationality.  But he concludes the article with the following line: Knowing that Assamese is an Aryan race, if the Assamese people do not strive to save the glory of the race, they would not be able to develop their own nationality. The assertion that the Assamese is an Aryan race has a very far reaching effect in the imagination of Assamese nationality. It alienated the Mongoloid and other races in the later political developments of the state. 

Then came the most important prognosis: “We will have to admit that the contentment of the Assamese people is receding slowly”. It would not be wrong to say that there is no doubt that some of the joys of Assamese people would no longer be there in the future.  The symptom is already evident that the fertile soil of Assam would no longer remain unused for long. Assamese people would soon taste the bitter fruit of being lazy. When you will have to buy grass to feed your cows, what will you do brothers?”  

I think I should stop here and let the readers see how development was defined in the formation of their own nationalities. 





 


 
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