Conflict on the Border in Assam

Deep Bora

My letter in issue 301 should have read: “jihadis have entered Assam state to make or explode bombs. That is according to newspaper reports, which must have come from security agencies.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) recently decided to drive out all illegal Bangladeshi nationals who have entered Assam and other Indian territory since 1971 and occupied Indian agricultural lands. The influx is still going on. AASU is joined in this effort by many other organisations and now seeks Government help.

In 1983 there was a bloodbath in Nellie Village in Assam between Hindus and migrant Muslims. The exact death toll was never known, though the gory photos displayed terrible scenes in all national and international magazines. As a matter of fact I wasn’t here then. I arrived much later.

The government is doing all it can to avoid such incidents particularly because ours is a secular and democratic country and also because Hindus, Muslims and Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews and Jains, all live side by side in India and we have learnt the definition of religious tolerance in practical reality after scorching and bitter experiences.

Copyright © 2008 by Deep Bora

Thank you for the clarification, Deep. Violence due to migrations, especially in border areas, is hardly confined to Assam; it has been experienced in other countries, as well.

We may expect that religious, national, and other differences will be exacerbated in coming years as a consequence of climate change. As the planet’s ice caps have melted, especially in Greenland and Antarctica, islands have begun to disappear.

How long, then, before all of Bangladesh sinks beneath the sea? And Bangladesh is a densely populated country. Where will the people go? And what will India — let alone the AASU — do then?

Now, multiply that problem by all the low-lying coastal areas around the world...

Don