Going back in time during the Partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, waves of immigration rose.\u00a0 There were around two million refugees that entered Bengal from Bangladesh and later trailed into Assam where they spread to other parts of the valley, especially the Darrang and Cachar districts. Census reports reveal that nearly a million people came from undivided Bengal to Assam between 1911 and 1941 and settled on vacant or wasteland. These people were cultivators and turned the land into profitable rice-growing areas, and with their new prosperity bought good farmland from Assamese landowners.\u00a0 They took over the broad, fertile plains of the Assam Valley, working as farm laborers for the happy-go-lucky Assamese farmers and landlords, and chiseled a powerful pathway for themselves in the economic life of the area.<\/p>\n
Soon after the Independence of India, the Assamese Hindu middle class gained political control in Assa as well as the prosperity of the immigrants from Bangladesh grew thus a movement called Bongal Kheda erupted with a slogan of “Drive out the Outsiders!”, a postcolonial movement in India, which mainly aimed at purging out non-native job competitors (primarily middle-class Hindu Bengalis) by the job-seeking Assamese. The story is told that the state government of Assam under Himanta Biswa Sarma picked on the vibes of local Assamese displeasure of “outsiders” including the Bengali Hindu middle class in their state. It was on these grounds that he assumably set up an eviction drive against \u2018illegal encroachers\u2019, Muslims in this case, from land which the state government aimed to repossess for a state farming project. What the chief minister was doing in actuality was fanning the communal fires once again for personal benefit by stirring up old Assamese aggression against anyone who entered their state for a fear of losing jobs, benefits, culture, and identity.<\/p>\n
Here are five points that make the Assamese horror very different from others:<\/strong><\/p>\n Deliberate Fake Stories Set Out By Higher Sources:<\/strong>\u00a0Wild stories flew around by fake news machinery agents on social media that these 800 families were Rohingya Refugees and even called them “Jihadis” who were encroaching the land. This was a total lie because the Rohingyas took refuge in India in 2017 after the Myanmar Massacre. These 800 Muslim families were of East Bengal origin living in that area in the land for over forty years and were farmers and cultivators of the land by profession.\u00a0 \u00a0They held Aadhar cards and were treated as Indian citizens, not until a government decided to criminalize them and distort their credentials.<\/p>\n Another fake story running like wildfire through the fanatical circles was that ten thousand rioters were ready to ambush the police and this was why the police opened fire!\u00a0 The truth is Thursday\u2019s eviction drive is the latest in a series done in the last three months at Dhalpur, a village that is populated mostly by Muslims of East Bengal origin. In a huge eviction drive conducted on Monday, the Assam government claimed to have \u2018reclaimed\u2019 8000 bighas of land, and this left at least 800 families homeless.\u00a0 The first round of eviction was conducted in June.<\/p>\n The villagers earlier too were displaced near flooded lands and dwellings submerged during floods, so this time, they firmly declared they would not budge until they were told where they were to be shifted.\u00a0 It is reported that the administration sent an eviction notice to residents of Kirakota Char late on Wednesday night. There was a protest on Thursday morning, after which the administration reportedly \u201cpromised that the villagers will be rehabilitated before the eviction\u201d. But when the activists left the area, the police opened fire on the protestors, residents said. On their resistance, violence ensued, they took up sticks, and then finally shots were fired by the cops killing two including a 12-year-old boy who was on the spot on his way to collect his Aadhar Card.<\/p>\n These 800 families had lived in this location for forty years, and earlier houses and mosques were torn down.<\/p>\n What protocol orders firing to the chest of a lone man coming running with a stick \u2066@DGPAssamPolice<\/a>\u2069 \u2066\u2066\u2066@assampolice<\/a>\u2069 ? Who is the man in civil clothes with a camera who repeatedly jumps with bloodthirsty hate on the body of the fallen (probably dead) man? pic.twitter.com\/gqt9pMbXDq<\/a><\/p>\n — Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) September 23, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n