-Gaurishankar Bhattacharya

Foreign-infiltration is the biggest problem for Assam today. It has impaired the political, economic and demographic balance of the State and has made a planned development of the State almost impossible. With the passage of time, it is becoming a growing menace endangering the very existence of the State of Assam and the integrity and safety of India. The danger has become all the more alarming because some neighbouring states and countries because of their long-cherished and oft-practised linguistic and socio-political design of demographic invasion of Assam are taking resort to a propaganda offensive. They have their overt and covert agents throughout India including of course the so-called “National Press”. It has, therefore, become a sacred duty for every patriotic Indian to know the truth of the matter and to disseminate the truth. It has to be remembered that a stitch in time saves nine. It has, however, to be appreciated that those people of Assam cannot easily comprehend the problem. Assam is situated in the North-East corner of India. A mere 30 km. wide corridor is the only land link of Assam with the rest of the country. Even this narrow corridor is tenuous, unstable and ill-protected. The rail and road connection of Assam with the rest of India through this corridor is frail and unprotected.

Assam is not unfamiliar with migration. As a matter of fact, life in human form having not originated in Assam, all its inhabitants are one-time migrants, Sir Edward Gait in his History of Assam writes that the soil of the Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys is fertile, but the climate there is damp and relaxing so that, while the people enjoy great material prosperity, there is a strong tendency towards physical and moral deterioration. Any race that had been long resident there, though rising in the scale of civilisation gaining proficiency in the arts of peace, would gradually become soft and luxurious and so, after a time, would no longer be able to defend itself against the incursions of the harder tribes behind them. Sir Edward Gait further says that apart from external aggression there was a strong tendency towards disintegration. There was no strong national spirit or other cohesive element amongst the tribes of Assam and their natural condition was probably that of a number of small communities, each under its own chief or headman and independent of its neighbours. In many cases among the Garos, Khasis and Nagas, their social organisation was of a distinctly republican type which had its inherent cohesiveness.

The rise of the Ahom Kingdom under the strong leadership of Siu-Ka-Pha (1228 to 1268 A.D.) was a new feature in Assam's history. His dual policy of State-craft, namely, most judicious moderation towards the conquered Moran and Borahi tribes and the brutal means he adopted to over-awe the hostile Nagas of the Patkai set the tone and brand of the six hundred years long Ahom rule in Assam. Ultimately, disunity, rivalry and mutual strife among the top advisers and administrators and degeneration of the ruling circle made it oppressive and inefficient. This gave rise to popular revolts. Taking advantage of this, there came wave after wave of barbarous Burmese invasion which destroyed the state machinery and the social fabric of Assam. Taking advantage of the situation, British Rule came to Assam as ostensible friends and saviours. In reality, however, they entered into a pact with the Burmese marauders. This unholy pact entered into by the Burmese King of Bhamo of North Burma and the Governor General of the British East India Company is known as the Treaty of Yandaboo (1826). Assam was not a party to it. By this treaty, the Burmese marauders handed over Assam to the British.

The advent of British Rule in Assam brought in its trail the immigration problem. Politically and administratively Assam became a part of British India. To run their administration the British brought with them administrative officers, lawyers and clerks from Bengal. Thereafter came businessmen and other professionals. Some of them settled down here and merged with the local people. The primary purpose of British occupation of Assam was economic. Lord Cornwallis, the then Governor General of British East India having received secret reports from his secret agents about the fantastic forest and mineral resources of Assam, became tempted to annex this territory as a British Colony. He found almost a God-send opportunity when in 1792 Ahom King Gourinath Singha sought for company's help to assist the Ahom King in suppressing the Moamoria rebellion, Lord Cornwallis promptly responded and in September, 1792 sent six companies of sixty sepoys each under the command of his trusted Captain Welsh with Lt. Macgregor as adjutant and Ensign Wood as surveyor. This Welsh mission successfully suppressed the Moamoria rebellion and lingered on in Assam on the Ahom king's request to assist his settling down and at the same time to collect correct information as required by the Governor General. The undivided district of Goalpara had become a British possession as early as 1765 and was made a part of the district of Rangpur. By 1793 the East India Company found that their territorial expansion policy proved very costly. In conformity with this self-imposed policy of restraint, Sir Jhon Shore replaced Lord Cornwallis as Governor General in December, 1793. Captain Welsh returned to Calcutta and submitted a detailed report about the vast resources of Assam and about the spinelessness of its rulers. The British decided to take over Assam in due course and made all necessary preparations for that. By 1822 the plan was complete. Even the state insignia (one horned Rhinoceros) was finalised. The much awaited administrative take over was completed by the Yandaboo Treaty of 1826. In his report of 1793, Captain Welsh estimated the population of the Ahom Kingdom at about 25 lakhs. Wanton devastation of Assam by the three successive invasions by the Burmese marauders reduced the population by more than a half. One of these three invasions was that led by Mingimaha Bandula. In that invasion his army captured 30,000 able-bodied Assamese people and took them away to Burma as slaves. About 2 lakh people were killed and more than twice that number mostly well-to-do people fled the country leavng behind all their properties including their home-steads and big-sized orchards, bamboo-baries, “Tamol-Baries” (betelnut gardens), “Pan” (betel leaf) baries, etc. The new British-raj confiscated all the landed estates of those people who did not return home within three months of British occupation. These confiscated lands were later on given to the British Tea Planters along with vast tracts of other adjacent lands as fee Simple, that is, revenue free permanent grants.

In 1835 the population of the entire Brahmaputra Valley was estimated to be 7,99,519 distributed as follows:-
1.    Native States in Upper Assam (viz. Ahom Kingdom under Purandar Singha) Matak State, Khamti State, Singphou State)    220,000
2.    Darrang    89,519
3.    Nowgong    90,000
4.    Kamrup    300,000
5.    Goalpara    100,000

Such a colossal reduction of the population of the newly acquired region worried the British conquerors. They had seen the prospect of exploiting Assam's mineral and surface resources through Tea, Coal, Oil, Inland navigation, timber and jute only if here was adequate number of labour. For all these industries and farming undertakings, labour was the key factor. Moreover, growing more food was an urgent necessity. Moamoria rebellions and the Burmese invasions had shattered the farming community and the agricultural system. The new British regime found it difficult to bring back normalcy and stabilise the old agricultural system. New problems were raised by the kiths and kins of the one-time ruling but now ousted nobility. A revolt was organised by Gomdhar Konwar in 1828. The British suppressed this uprising with ruthless ferocity and awarded him seven years' imprisonment as punishment. But suppression could not win loyalty from the erstwhile nobility. In 1830 quite a number of nobles, including Jewram Dutia Barooah, Rup Chandra Konwar, Deo Ram Dihingia Deka, Piyalia Borgohain, Piyali Borphukan (son of Badan Barphukan) and others ganged up together. On March 25, 1830 midnight they proceeded towards Rangpu with a view to setting on fire the arsenal and gun powder-store-house there as a signal of starting the rebellion. They were however apprehended and some of the ring leaders including Jewram and Piyali Borphukan were arrested and publicly hanged on the bank of the Sibsagar tank. After deep deliberations the British administration decided that there should be no deviation from the prime policy of colonial exploitation and so the entire eastern region east of the river Dhansiri was allowed to be administered by local subordinate rulers like Purandar Singha, Matak Barsenapati, Sadiya Khowa Gohain and local Khamti and Singphow Satraps. The whole of the Assam valley west of the river Dhansiri was retained under the direct British administration. Thus, it was in fact from 1835 A.D. that the intensive economic exploitation of Assam by the British Colonial regime started in full swing. On March 6, 1838 Assam Waste Land Rules, 1838 were promulgated. With the help of this land settlement regulation thousands of acres of “waste land” were given to the British Tea Companies which were just registered or incorporated. In 1861 was passed the Assam fee Simple Grant Regulation. With the help of this regulation additional thousands of acres of government land were given to the big tea companies which were all British.

Huge quantities of government lands were provided to the other British industrial and commercial undertakings free or almost free.Available facts and figures show that by 1901 the British companies started the following industries with the amounts of capital invested for each of them as indicated in Table-I against their names.

Table-1

Vast areas of arable government waste land were thrown open for jute cultivation to produce raw material for the jute mills situated on the banks of the Hoogly, Calcutta.

The labour force which was needed for the above-named industries was not there in full measure in Assam at that time. Moreover, it was the policy of the said industries not to employ local labour which had local footing and connection with the local populace. So, the British Colonial Rule started pursuing a well-calculated and meticulously draw up policy of immigration of labour force from outside the State promising them all sorts of inducements and concessions. It is thus clear that Assam's immigration problem is a British creation.

From 1901 to 1931 A.D. about 12 lakh indentured labourers were brought by the British Tea Planters from outside Assam mostly from the tribal areas of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Central Provinces. The relevant Census Reports of 1911, 1921 and 1931 sow the population of Assam's tea gardens as 702,000; 922,000 and 980,000 respectively. This pushed up the quantum and decennial growth percentage of Assam's population vis-a-vis India. But I was not considered as a serious problem threatening the balance of Assam's ethnic and demographic composition.

From the beginning of the 20th century there began an ever-increasing influx of population from East Bengal (later East Pakistan and ultimately Bangladesh). This trend frightened the Assamese people. No doubt they were very good cultivators of all sorts of crops including jute. The prosperous jute mills on the banks of Hoogly in Calcutta owned by British industrialists had been facing raw material shortage from the last decade of the 19th century. The soil of the Brahmaputra valley was best suited for raising jute crops. East Bengal, particularly Mymensing was over-flowing with population who were excellent jute growers and who were landless peasants groaning under zamindar exploitation. They were extremely land hungry people. Muslim League leaders had been very happy with the partition of Bengal and formation of a province under the name and style of “East Bengal and Assam” with its capital at Dacca and they had taken it for granted that in no time, Assam would be grabbed by Muslim immigrants. When the partition of Bengal was set at naught and a separate Assam province was born, they made it an open to bring into Assam the land hungry Muslim people from East Bengal. In league with the British imperialists, they pressurised the British Government to help this migration in every way. At the beginning they did not create much problem, because there was plenty of cultivable waste land. But gradually they began to encroach upon grazing reserves and tribal villages. To guard against such excesses, “Line System” was introduced. Similar to the McMahon Line this “Line” also was an imaginary one beyond which the immigrants should not go. This measure was a total failure. It only created unnecessary and expensive bitterness between the immigrants and the indigenous people.

In 1946 “Tribal Belts and Blocks” were constituted during the Bordoloi Ministry. But the Bloc Vote strategy of the immigrants compelled the political parties to succumb to their pressure and the “Reserves” within the tribal areas began to be de-reserved to accommodate the immigrants slogan of human consideration to these poor people. This was the scenario of the pre-Independence days. The immigrants were no doubt outsiders for the indigenous Assamese people; but they were not foreigners. The scenario changed with Independence and Partition of India as per the demand of the Muslim League and design of British Imperialism. At the time of the partition of India, Assam was sought to be grouped with East Bengal. But the people of Assam with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi succeeded in resisting the attempt.

There was a great resentment among a section of Bengali intelligentsia against it. Professor Humayun Kobir wrote in his paper “India” as follows:—
“One can easily visualise a Bengali State comprising about ten million people and living in a compact area. Such a state would include the present administrative province of Bengal and some of the outlying districts of Assam and Bihar. In fact the Province of Assam may be wholly incorporated in it.”

Immigration to Assam from East Bengal (mostly form the district of Mymonsing) increased alarmingly. On the date of counting during the Census of 1931, the total population of the province was 92,47,857. Out of this 14,08,763 were born outside the province. Percentage of the population born outside Assam vis-a-vis the total population was found in the three consecutive censuses of 1911, 1921, and 1931 respectively as 12.5, 16.1 and 15.2. It is thus clear that onrush of immigration to Assam did not abate. This was upsetting demographic balance of the population of the province much to the worries of their indigenous ethnic and racial groups.

It may be quoted here the observation for Mr. E.H. Pakyntein, Superintendent of Census Operations, Assam published in the “Census of India” Vol. III (1961) Assam. General Report which reads as follows:—
“From 1901 onwards the men of Myensingh began to advance to Assam, apparently by pressure on the soil at home. They were joined by the people of other East Bengal districts in less numbers. These immigrants settled in clear lands of Goalpara from the Bengal districts of Mynensingh, Pabna, Bogura and Rangpur. The population of Goalpara which increased only by 1.4 per cent in 1881-91, and by 2 per cent in 1891-1901 shot up by 30 per cent in 1901-11. The thanes most effected were in the west of the district. The percentage rate of increase was 70.1 in South Salmara, 61.8 in Lakhipur and 88.6 in Bilasipara. The extent of immigration can readily be estimated from the fact that the growth in natural population was only 15.6 per cent.

The number of immigrants in Goalpara rose from 49,056 to 1,18,233, an increase of 240 per cent forming 19.7 per cent of actual population of Goalpara. Thus began the peaceful occupation of Assam by the advancing hordes of Mymensinghia migrants which has continued up to the present day ushering in most probably the most important single event in the history of this State during the last 80 years.

(To be concluded)