 |
Bongal is a term used in Assam to refer to outsiders. [1] Assam has been settled by colonial officials (amlahs) from Bengal pre-Independence and Hindu Bengali refugees in the post-Independence periods. The Muslims peasants from East Bengal settled in Assam are now referred to as Miya. The term lent the name to the Bongal Kheda movement of the 1950s and 1960s which sought to drive out non-Assamese competitors and to secure jobs for the natives. [2]
The term Bongal came into prominence in the Buranjis, where they were used to describe foreigners from the west of the Ahom kingdom. [3] The term may have been derived from 'Bangala', the name of the Mughal province of Bengal. Initially the term might have stood for the people of Bengal, but later it is said to have stood for any foreigner. [4] Because of its geographic location, the approach to the Ahom kingdom from mainland India was through Bengal. [4] The British came to be known as Boga Bongal (white Bongal). [5] Ahom general Lachit Borphukan is said to have referred to the Mughals as Bongals. [6] Over years of political seclusion, 'Bongal' became a term of suspicion, reproach and contempt. [4] When the British annexed Assam to its Indian territories, many Bengali Hindus arrived in Assam by taking up administrative jobs in the government. The Britishers and the Bengali Hindus alike were referred to as Bongals. After the independence of India, the amount of increasing refugees arriving from the region of East Bengal and newly formed East Pakistan escalated tension among the Assamese people and the tribes in the state. [7] By May 1949 the number of total refugees reached two-and-half lakhs increasing up to 2,740,455.
| Place of Origin | Year | Number |
| East Bengal | 1946 | 8,593 |
| East Bengal | 1947 | 42,346 |
| East Bengal | 1948 | 41,740 |
| East Bengal | 1949 | 33,138 |
| East Bengal | 1950 | 1,44,512 |
| East Bengal | 1950 (Jan.&Feb.) | 3,479 |
| West Pakistan | - | 647 |
| Total | 2,74,455 |
The Assamese people viewed Bongal was someone who didn't belong Assam, an intruder whose presence threatened to marginalize them socially and politically. [5] The Britishers were called Boga Bongal, literally meaning 'the white foreigner' [5] and the Bengali Hindus were called 'Kola Bongal' literally meaning 'the black foreigner'. [9] In the 19th century Assamese intellectual discourse, anyone other than the people of Assam or the Hill tribes were called Bongals. They were described to be foreigners, uncivilized and filthy. An 1872 Assamese play by Rudra Ram Bordoloi titled 'Bongal Bongalini' lampooned the social problems created by the outsiders i.e. the Bongals, especially who came during the British rule. [10] The Assamese women who preferred to marry the Bongals, referred to as 'Bongalini's (feminine of Bongal), were described as promiscuous women and concubines of the Bongals. [10]
After the Independence, the term continued to be used for the Bengali Hindus. However, it was not used for the Bengalis only. In a broader sense, it was used to refer to any group that was perceived to be an outsider. [11] West Bengal was described as Bongal Desh, literally meaning 'the land of the Bongals' in Assamese. [12]
|
In the colonial period, the British proclaimed Bengali as the official language of assam even though both Assamese and Bengali were very different in nature and most of the populus were not familiar or knew the language. This was resented by the Assamese population as they saw it as a threat to their language and culture, this also led to Bengali people working in assam as most of the teacher's who came to assam were unfamiliar with the native Assamese language leading to illiteracy in the Assamese community and resentment for the Bengali Hindu's residing in assam. The resentment grew even further as After the Independence of India, the Assamese political leadership promoted the concept of Assam for Assamese which soon led to the demand of Assamese to be the sole official language of the state. Soon as the growing middle class populus of assam were still not getting jobs having a suitable educational background in their own state a resentment for Bengali population of assam grew as they made up a huge chunk of Assamese job market as they were seen as more educated and had a better image in India than the Assamese people even though the Assamese populus was at par or even more capable than the Bengali population in their state. This grew resentment in the Assamese community and after many Instances of Bengali-assamese feuds this resentment soon led to the movement called 'Bongal Kheda', literally meaning 'drive away the outsiders(here referring to the Bengali populus)', which resulted in many protest, vandalisation of property and attack on the Bengali Hindus state-wide. [13] The movement that started in the early 1960s started again in different years throughout the sixties into the seventies and eighties leading to the even wider Assam movement. In the seventies it spread to other tribal northeastern parts of assam with significant Bengali population with similar condition likes Meghalaya and Tripura mostly under Assamese influence.
Assam is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of 78,438 km2 (30,285 sq mi). It is the second largest state in northeastern India by area and the largest in terms of population, with more than 31 million inhabitants. The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur to the east; Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Bangladesh to the south; and West Bengal to the west via the Siliguri Corridor, a 22-kilometre-wide (14 mi) strip of land that connects the state to the rest of India. Assamese and Bodo are two of the official languages for the entire state and Meitei (Manipuri) is recognised as an additional official language in three districts of Barak Valley and Hojai district. in Hojai district and for the Barak valley region, alongside Bengali, which is also an official language in the Barak Valley.
The Ahom, or Tai Ahom is an ethnic group from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The members of this group are admixed descendants of the Tai people who reached the Brahmaputra valley of Assam in 1228 and the local indigenous people who joined them over the course of history. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9,000 followers established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled much of the Brahmaputra Valley in modern Assam until 1826.
Buranjis are a class of historical chronicles and manuscripts associated with the Ahom kingdom. There were written initially in the Ahom Language and later in the Assamese language as well. The Buranjis are an example of historical literature which is rare in India—they bear resemblance to Southeast Asian traditions of historical literature instead. The Buranjis are generally found in manuscript form, a number of these manuscripts have been compiled and published especially in the Assamese language.
Lachit Borphukan was an army general, primarily known for commanding the Ahom Army and the victory in the Battle of Saraighat (1671) that thwarted an invasion by the vastly superior Mughal Forces under the command of Ramsingh I. He died about a year later in April 1672.
The Assam Movement (1979–1985) was a popular uprising in Assam, India, that demanded the Government of India detect, disenfranchise and deport illegal aliens. Led by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) the movement defined a six-year period of sustained civil disobedience campaigns, political instability and widespread ethnic violence. The movement ended in 1985 with the Assam Accord.
Barua is a common Assamese surname shared by the Assamese communities much like Aroras of Punjab.
Ahom–Mughal wars refers to the series of 17th-century conflicts between the Ahoms and the Mughals over the control of the Brahmaputra valley. It began soon after the eastern branch of the Kamata kingdom then under the Koch dynasty, Koch Hajo, collapsed after a sustained Mughal campaign bringing it face-to-face with the eastern Ahoms. After nearly seventy years of sustained efforts, the Mughals were finally ousted in the Battle of Itakhuli in 1682. The Mughals since then maintained interest to the region west of the Manas river via zamindars, till they were ousted from Bengal by the British about a hundred years later.
The Assamese people are a socio-ethnic linguistic identity that has been described at various times as nationalistic or micro-nationalistic. This group is often associated with the Assamese language, the easternmost Indo-Aryan language, and Assamese people mostly live in the Brahmaputra Valley region of Assam, where they are native and constitute around 56% of the Valley's population. The use of the term precedes the name of the language or the people. It has also been used retrospectively to the people of Assam before the term "Assamese" came into use. They are an ethnically diverse group formed after centuries of assimilation of Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan and Tai populations, and constitute a tribal-caste continuum—though not all Assamese people are Hindus and ethnic Assamese Muslims numbering around 42 lakh (4,200,000) constitute a significant part of this identity. The total population of Assamese speakers in Assam is nearly 15.09 million which makes up 48.38% of the population of state according to the Language census of 2011.
Colonial Assam (1826–1947) refers to the period in the history of Assam between the signing of the Treaty of Yandabo and the Independence of India when Assam was under British colonial rule. The political institutions and social relations that were established or severed during this period continue to have a direct effect on contemporary events. The legislature and political alignments that evolved by the end of the British rule continued in the post Independence period. The immigration of farmers from East Bengal and tea plantation workers from Central India continue to affect contemporary politics, most notably that which led to the Assam Movement and its aftermath.
Bongal Kheda was a xenophobic movement in Assam, India, orchestrated by native Assamese job seekers which aimed to purge out non-native job competitors — primarily, middle-class Hindu Bengalis. Soon after the Independence of India, the Assamese Hindu middle class gained political control in Assam and tried to gain social and economic parity with their competitors, the Bengali Hindu middle class. A significant period of property damage, ethnic policing and even instances of street violence occurred in the region. The exact timeline is disputed, though many authors agree the 1960s saw a height of disruption. It was part of a broader discontent within Assam that would foreshadow the Assamese Language Movement and the anti-Bangladeshi Assam Movement.
Dkhar, is a term used by the Khasis to refer to non-Khasi people in Meghalaya. It is non derogatory but some perceived it as derogatory. For Khasis any non-tribal is a dkhar and they address them by that term. Sometimes the word dkhar have been collectively used with the term heathen (Non-believers), as most of the native Khasis are christian, While non-tribals are mainly hindu. In real, the term is mostly used against affluent Bengali Hindu settlers from West Bengal or the Bengali Hindu refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan It is sometimes abbreviated to ′Khar and may also denote a Khasi clan with the same name.
Islam is the second largest and fastest-growing religion in Assam. The Muslim population was approximately 10.68 million, constituting over 34.22% of the total population of the state as of the 2011 census, giving Assam, the second-largest Muslim percentage in the country after Jammu and Kashmir (state). After Jammu and Kashmir became Union Territory, Assam became the state with largest Muslim percentage in the country. Islam reached the region in the 13th century and Muslims are a majority in almost eleven districts of Assam and highly concentrated in four districts. In 2021, estimations have predicted that the Muslim population in the state has reached 40%, numbering 14 million, out of total population of 35 million.
North Kamrup violence was a series of violent activities in North Kamrup, Assam, on 4–5 January 1980 between those who supported the Assam Movement and those who opposed it. Triggered by the death of a high school student, a member of the AASU, it led to a series of attacks and counter-attacks between Assamese and immigrant villages leading to a curfew.
The Goreswar massacre was the massacre of Bengali Hindus in Goreswar, in the Kamrup district of the Indian state of Assam. The massacre was part of a pre-planned pogrom, organized in a meeting of the local Teachers' Association.
The Miya people, alternatively identified as Na-Asamiya by themselves, denote the progeny of Bengali Muslim migrants originating from the contemporary Mymensingh, Rangpur, and Rajshahi Divisions. These individuals established residence in the Brahmaputra Valley during the 20th century, coinciding with the period of British colonial rule in Assam. The migration of the Miya people was actively promoted by the Colonial British Government from the Bengal Province, spanning the years 1757 to 1942. This migratory trend persisted until the year 1947. Presently, the term "Miya" is employed as a discriminatory label.
In May 1948, widespread rioting broke out in Guwahati and adjoining areas where Bengali Hindu businesses, schools and residences in general and Bengali Hindu staff of the Bengal and Assam Railway in particular were attacked. The Assamese Hindu nationalists who saw the Bengali Hindus as foreign usurpers in the territory of Assam led the attacks while Muslim League members joined them. The Bengali Hindus were looted and their properties were looted and set on fire. No Bengali-speaking Muslim was attacked, as they were seen as Na Asamiyas who had adopted Assamese language and culture and therefore assimilated in the land Assam. The Guwahati riots mark the beginning of the Bongal Kheda movement.
Ahomisation was an assimilation process in the former Ahom kingdom of Assam by which the people from different ethnic groups in the region became a part of what is now considered as the Ahom population.
Hinduism is the dominant religion practised in the state of Assam. According to some scholars, it is home to some of the most complex and poorly understood traditions in Hinduism. People follow traditions belonging to Shaivism, Shaktism, Tantra, and an indigenous form of Vaishnavism called Ekasarana Dharma; taken together the practitioners constitute around 61% of the state population as per the 2011 Census. Hindus form a majority in 17 out of the 29 districts of Assam. By region, there is a significant diversity among the ethnic groups that profess the Hindu faith, traditions, and customs. As per as 2011 Census, In Brahmaputra valley of Assam, Hindus constitute 62% of the population, the majority being ethnic Assamese. In the autonomous Bodoland region of Assam, Hindus constitute 71.3% of the region's population, most being of the Bodo tribe. In the Barak valley region of southern Assam, Hindus constitute 50% of the region's population, most being ethnic Bengalis. The Hill Tribes of Assam, particularly the Karbi people of Karbi Anglong and Dimasa people of Dima Hasao, are mainly Animists.
The Bengali Hindus are the second-largest ethno-religious group just after Assamese Hindus in Assam. As per as estimation research, around 6–7.5 million Bengali Hindus live in Assam as of 2011, majority of whom live in Barak Valley and a significant population also resides in mainland Brahmaputra Valley. The Bengali Hindus are today mostly concentrated in the Barak Valley region, and now are politically, economically and socially dominant. Assam hosts the second-largest Bengali Hindu population in India after West Bengal.
Anti-Bengali sentiment comprises negative attitudes and views on Bengalis. This sentiment is present in several parts of India: Gujarat, Bihar, Assam, and various tribal areas. etc. Issues include discrimination in inhabitation, other forms of discrimination, political reasons, government actions, anti-Bangladeshi sentiment, etc. The discriminative condition of Bengalis can be traced from Khoirabari massacre, Nellie massacre, Silapathar massacre, North Kamrup massacre, Goreswar massacre, Bongal Kheda, etc. This has led to emergence of Bengali sub-nationalism in India as a form of protest and formation of many pro-Bengali organisations in India.