Where does Assam lead demographically?
Hira Charan Narjinari
The
greatest and the most spectacular single event that took place in the history
of Assam during the first half of the twentieth century was the immigration of
enormous number of peasants from Bengal. Out of these immigrants an
overwhelming majority of more than 90% of the land-hungry immigrants consisted
of Muslims alone. And the second half of that century was wrought with infiltration
of illegal East Pakistanis/Bangladeshis into Assam. Assam and Bengal were two separate provinces
with distinct languages, cultures and religions. Naturally, inflow of
Bengali-speaking Muslims into Assam meant invasion by people of different
ethnic community. Therefore, while writing the 1931 Census Report C.S. Mullan
had employed military term like ‘army corps’ to describe the Bengali Muslim
immigration into Assam. How the Bengali
people of Bengal/Eastern Bengal province invaded Assam and settled there
permanently against the wishes of the indigenous Assamese people has been
brilliantly described by early Superintendents of Censuses.
Although
the British annexed Assam in 1826, en masse movement of Bengalis from
Bengal/East Bengal to Assam took almost a century from that time. It was only
during 1901-1911 that a great change in the demography of Assam was noticed
when the men of Mymensingh began to advance to Assam, “driven apparently by
pressure on the soil at home.” They were joined by people of other Eastern
Bengal districts, in less numbers. There had been extraordinary increases of
migrants to the Char lands of Goalpara from the Bengal Districts of Mymensingh,
Pabna, Bogra and Rangpur, and only few cultivators from Eastern Bengal went
beyond Goalpara, and the colonists formed an appreciable element of population
in all the four lower and central districts. Persons censused in the other
districts of the Brahmaputra Valley were mostly clerks, traders and
professional men who numbered only a few thousands.
During
the whole of twentieth century the activities of Eastern Bengal peasants
concentrated chiefly in the Brahmaputra valley which consisted of the districts
of Goalpara, Kamrup, Nowgong, Darrang, Sibsagar and Lakhimpur. The opening of
the Assam-Bengal Railway and the extension of the Eastern Bengal State Railway
to Guwahati had not only greatly improved communications but had facilitated an
influx of settlers to the Brahmaputra Valley from North and East Bengal. Almost
every train and steamer used to bring parties of Bengali Muslim settlers and it
was believed that their march would extend further up the valley and away from
the river before long. It was also believed that once the good news spread in
the more distant districts like Dacca and Rajshahi divisions, colonists from
those divisions would begin to come to Assam.[1] Hutton
remarks that “Since then these settlers have not refrained from breeding and their progeny born
in Assam was not distinguishable in the Census returns, except in so far as it
was predominantly Muslim which the indigenous population was not.”[2] R.B.
Vaghaiwalla as Deputy Commissioner of Goalpara during the 1940s personally saw
hundreds of Muslim immigrant persons coming by trains to Goalpara. He had the
same experience as Deputy Commissioner of Cachar during 1948-49 when he saw
hundreds of Muslim immigrants regularly travelling by the Hill Section Railway
from Badarpur to Lumding in order to go to the Brahmaputra Valley for
settlement.[3]
As
Goalpara was the nearest district to the Bengal frontier, settlers from East
Bengal were initially most active in that district. In 1881-1891 the population
of Goalpara increased by 1.4% and in 1891-1901 by 2% only but in 1901-1911 the
increase shot up by 30%. E.A. Gait commented in the 1911 Census of India that
the large increase of 30% was due mainly to “the extensive immigration of
Muhammadans along the course of the Brahmaputra from Mymensingh, Rangpur and
Pabna.” In 1941 the total Muslim population
of the district was 468924 forming 46.23% of the total population of Goalpara.
Kamrup
felt the impact of immigration only in 1931 when the decadal variation rate
rose suddenly from 14.20% to 27.93%. Throughout the 1921-1931 the Bengal Muslim
settlers continued to immigrate into Barpeta. They filled up all the chars and
riverain tracts and gradually occupied all available waste lands. There was an
unprecedented increase of 69% in the population of Barpeta in 1931 which is
stated to have been solely due to Eastern Bengal immigrants, chiefly from
Mymensingh.[4]
In the 1941 Census
the population of Kamrup was 1264200 which was an increase of 287454 over 1931
population of 976746. In 1951 the population of Kamrup increased by 226192. The
density of population in Kamrup had doubled in the 30 years from 198 per square
mile in 1921 to 387 per square mile in 1951. In 1951-1961 the population
increase of Kamrup was 38.39%.
In
the Darrang district the impact of immigration was felt first in 1921, when
decennial variation suddenly shot up from 11.89% to 26.67%. The increases in
1931, 1941, 1951, 1961 and 1971 were 22.68%, 26.07%, 24.25%, 39.64% and 34.62%
respectively. In 1941 the total Muslim population in the district was 120995.
In Nowgong
during 1911-1921 the percentage increase was being 31.9 per cent. But during
1921-1931 there was a largest percentage increase of 41.3 percent in Nowgong.
During the decade immigration continued unabated and there were 56,000 more
persons in Nowgong district who were born in Mymensingh. The greatest increase
of population had been in mauzas Bokoni (295 per cent.), Lahorghat (163 per
cent.), Laokhowa (140.5 per cent.), Dhing (126 per cent.), Namati (108 per
cent.) and Juria (101 per cent.). It has been stated in the Report that those
enormous increases were due almost entirely to the influx of new settlers –
mainly from Mymensingh. In 1941 the total population of Muslim in the district
was 250113.
Sibsagar
showed in 1901 an increase of 117,310 persons or 24.4% which was due in equal proportion to immigration and
natural increase. Since 1872 Sibsagar added 280,000 to its population or 88%.[5] Of the
three subdivisions of Golaghat, Sibsagar and Jorhat in 1931 the highest rate of
increase had been recorded by Golaghat with 18.4 per cent. Sibsagar subdivision
showed an increase of 14.4%, as against 20.5% in 1911-1921, and Jorhat, the
Sadar subdivision only 8.5% as against 18.2% in 1911-1921. In 1941 the total
Muslim population was 51769.
The
population of Lakhimpur district was 117343 persons or 46.1% in 1901 – 16% from
natural growth and 30% from immigration. The growth of Lakhimpur district had
been continuous and the population had trebled since 1872.[6] The total population of the district in 1941
was 954960 which had increased to 1126294 or 17.94% in 1951. In 1941 the total
population of Muslim was 44579.
G.T.
Lloyd in 1921 estimated that including children born after their arrival in
Assam the total number of settlers was at least 300,000 in that year. Mullan
placed their number in 1931 to be over half a million. The number of new
immigrants from Mymensingh alone had been 140,000 and the old settlers were
undoubtedly increasing and multiplying. It was pointed out in the Census Report
for 1921 that the colonists had settled by families and not singly. This has
been confirmed by the fact that out of the 338,000 persons born in Mymensingh
and censused in Assam over 152,000 were women.
During
the decade 1921-1931 the principal districts that were affected by Muslim
invasion were Nagaon, Kamrup and Darrang where Muslims increased by 152%, 115%
and 85% respectively.[7] It was noticed in 1931 that Sibsagar and
Lakhimpur were still untouched. Mullan reports: “Sibsagar and Lakhimpur are now
the only districts in the Assam Valley which have remained practically untouched
by the invading army of Muslim immigrants. One-fifth of the entire population
of the Assam Valley is now Muslim.”[8]
By
1931, the whole complexion of the population of Assam was being altered by the
permanent immigrants from Mymensingh in Bengal. This had for years been an
obvious and disturbing change to all native residents in the Assam Valley.[9] It will be best to quote C.S.
Mullan, the Census Superintendent for Assam himself.
“Probably
the most important event in the province during the last twenty five years – an
event, moreover, which seems likely to alter permanently the whole future of
Assam and to destroy more surely than did the Burmese invaders of 1820 the
whole structure of Assamese culture and civilization – has been the invasion of
a vast horde of land-hungry Bengali immigrants, mostly Muslims, from the
districts of Eastern Bengal and in particular from Mymensingh. This invasion
began sometime before 1911, and the census report of that year is the first
report which makes mention of the advancing host. But, as we now know, the
Bengali immigrants censused for the first time on their char lands of
Goalpara in 1911 were merely the advance guard – or rather the scouts – of a
huge army following closely all their heels. By 1921 the first army corps had
passed into Assam and had practically conquered the district of Goalpara”[10]
As
to the change at the 1931 Census, C.S. Mullan, the Census Superintendent may
again be quoted:-
“I
have already remarked that by 1921 the first army corps of the invaders had
conquered Goalpara. The second army corps which followed them in the years
1921-1931 has consolidated their position in that district and has also
completed conquest of Nowgong. The Barpeta subdivision of Kamrup has also
fallen to their attack and Darrang is being invaded. Sibsagar has so far
escaped completely but the few thousand Mymensinghias in North Lakhimpur are an
outpost which may, during the next decade, prove to be a valuable basis of
major operations. Wheresoever the caracase, there will the vultures be gathered
together – Where there is waste land thither flock the Mymensinghias. In fact
the way in which they have seized upon the vacant areas in the Assam Valley
seems almost uncanny. Without fuss, without tumult, without undue trouble to
the district revenue staffs, a population which must amount to over half a
million has transplanted itself from Bengal to the Assam Valley during the last
twenty-five years. It looks like a marvel of administrative organization on the
part of Government but it is nothing of the sort; the only thing I can compare
it to is the mass movement of a large body of ants. It is sad but by no means
improbable that in another thirty years Sibsagar district will be the only part
of Assam in which an Assamese will find himself at home.”[11]
The
trend continued even after the partition of India in 1947. Partition however
did not “assuage the land hunger in East Pakistan.” The border failed to create territories that
acted as self-enclosed containers of human resources because it was imposed on
a region with an expansionary population. People crisscrossed the border in
their thousands, and most of these population movements were not authorized by
the new states.[12]
A booklet was produced by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity,
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for the Ministry of External Affairs,
Government of India in August 1963 on the subject of ‘Influx.’ In this booklet
continued influx of large number of Muslims from Pakistan (East Pakistan, now
Bangladesh) even after partition, has been acknowledged by the Central
Government. The following extract confirms this:
“The
new international boundary was not physically marked on the ground, was largely
unguarded and virtually unpatrolled. Interplay of economic forces continued
despite Partition. Large numbers of Muslims from East Pakistan continued to
move across the open frontier into Assam, Tripura and West Bengal – for land,
work, and opportunity. Their passage was illegal but economic forces proved
more potent than passport and visa regulations.”[13]
In
1951, persons born in Pakistan and enumerated in Assam reached the enormous
total of 833 thousand persons, out of whom excepting a bare 37 thousand
enumerated in the Assam Hills Division, the vast majority of 796 thousand was
enumerated in the Brahmaputra Valley alone. These huge numbers included the
large number of refugees born in Pakistan who had migrated to Assam during the
partition. The number of refugees in Assam in 1951 was 274 thousand, out of
whom, all excepting 14 thousand were in the Assam Plains. [14] These figures are a striking testimony to the
vast number of East Bengal settlers in Assam. Even the setting up of two
Dominions of India and Pakistan did not deter these settlers from continuing to
pour into Assam.
The
East Bengal immigrants were not natives of Assam yet enormous amount of land
had to be settled with them throughout the Brahmaputra Valley. Till 1930 no
exact amount of land settled with East Bengal immigrants is available. But from
1930 to 1950 we possess Reports of the Land Revenue Administration which reveal startling truth about land settled with East Bengal immigrants
other than ex-tea garden labourers. During the years 1930-40 land settled with
East Bengal immigrants in the Brahmaputra Valley alone was 5967 thousand acres,
58 thousand acres in Sadiya and Balipara and 137 thousand acres in Cachar.
During the decade 1940-50 land settled with East Bengal immigrants was even
larger in area viz. 8926 thousand acres, out of which 8702 thousand acres were
settled in the Brahmaputra Valley alone and 165 thousand acres in Cachar and 59
thousand acres in Sadiya and Balipara. Thus during 20 years from 1930 to 1950,
apart from Sadiya and Balipara and Cachar, 14669 thousand acres of land in the
Brahmaputra Valley alone were settled with East Bengal immigrants. Can you
believe the immensity of the figure? It is almost unbelievable. How many
states/provinces in India during those decades siphoned off such huge amount of
their lands and settled with immigrants?
It may be noted that at a time
when Muslims in Assam even did not constitute majority in no districts, they
produced crimes of violence, disregarded government officials, openly announced
that they were the kings and the law was not made for them.[15] Rai Bahadur P.G. Mukherji, the then Commissioner of Nowgong reports
in 1931 thus: “Their hunger for land was so great that, in
their eagerness to grasp as much as they could cultivate they not infrequently
encroached on Government reserves and on lands belonging to the local people
from which they could be evicted only with great difficulty. In the beginning
they had their own way and there was frequent friction with the indigenous
population who did not like their dealings as neighbours.”[16]
But now they are stronger in
number and it will be natural that they would become more aggressive in their
activities. Some intellectuals have criticized C.S. Mullan’s prophecy that “in
another thirty years Sibsagar district will be the only part of Assam in which
an Assamese will find himself at home” is rather exaggerated and the prophecy
is not likely to be fulfilled.[17] Just
consider the total Muslim population of Sibsagar in 1872. They were in that
year only 12619 persons but in 2001 they had increased to 85761. Mullan’s
“thirty years” might be taken figuratively, but what he meant by saying this, I
presume, is that a day will come when Assam will become a Muslim majority State.
The 2001 Census Report on the total Muslim population in Assam is pointing
towards the fulfillment of the prophecy though in a slow pace but the trend
tells us that the destiny of Assam as a secular State is under great threat.
According
to Mr. Pakyntein, the Superintendent of Census operation, Assam, 1961, at least
5,20,000 people migrated into Assam during 1951-61. The number of Muslim
immigrants into Assam from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during this period
had been worked out to be about 220,000. So the remaining 300,000 must be Hindu
displaced persons and other non-Muslim persons who came to Assam from other
parts of India.[18]
In 1965, Intelligence Bureau,
Ministry of Home Affairs, drafted a scheme for the prevention of Infiltration
from Pakistan into Assam states under sub-title “The Problem of Illegal
Immigration” in which it has been remarked thus:
“The number of illegal immigrants
into Assam from Pakistan over the course of the last 12 years has been very
conservatively estimated at about 250 thousand. Local unofficial estimates,
however, put this figure even higher. The fact that such a large number of
immigrants succeeded in illegally crossing the frontier and settling down
unnoticed would prove that the measures so far taken have not been effective.
Indeed very large pockets in Nowgong, Darrang, Goalpara, North Lakhimpur
districts are inhabited almost entirely by Muslims, a very large proportion of
whom are new immigrants.”[19]
Nilim Dutta, Executive Director of
the Strategic Research and Analysis Organisation, Guwahati, states that “the
high population growth rate in Assam has declined since 1971 and has remained
lower than that of India, categorically refuting assumptions of continuing
illegal immigration from Bangladesh”.[20] How
would Sri Dutta explain out the exclusion of about 9-10 million population of
Bangladesh in 1991 from the computation? Sarifa Begum, a Bangladeshi
demographer has rightly attributed the ‘missing millions’ to unregistered
‘out-migration’.[21]
A study by Irvine Kamal Sadiq also reveals that the highest percentage growth
rate of population of Assam occurred during 1971-1991 which registered a growth
of 53.56 percent.[22] This
shows that Sri Dutta’s claim that high population growth rate in Assam has
declined since 1971 is not tenable.
That the Muslim population has
been going on increasing decade after decade is conclusively confirmed by the
Censuses since 1872. The 2001 Census reveals startling truth about this. In
2001 out of 23 districts in Assam at least 14 districts are found Muslim
majority districts. Out of 14 districts 6 districts viz. Dhubri (74.29%)
Barpeta (59.37%), Hailakandi (57.63%), Goalpara (53.71%),Karimganj(52.30%) and
Nagaon(50.99%) Muslims form absolute majority; 4 districts viz. Marigaon
(47.59%), Bongaigaon (38.52%), Cachar (36.13%), and Darrang (35.54%) are
closely following and 5 districts viz. Kamrup (24.79%) Nalbari (22.10%),
Kokrajhar (20.36%) Lakhimpur (16.14%)and Sonitpur (15.94%), are slowly but
steadily advancing.
The first formal Census of 1872
shows that immigrant Bengali Muslims in the Brahmaputra Valley numbered only
176108 or 4.24% but now they are the malik of a few districts in the
Valley. Will critics give rational
explanations as to how from an insignificant number of population in Assam,
Muslim population has grown so spectacularly? Shall we disagree with the Census
figures of the Muslim population in Assam enumerated in 2001? What does the 2001Census indicate about the
Muslim population compared to the 1872 Census? In 1872 the total Muslim
population in Assam, excluding Sylhet and including Cachar, was 250469 persons
only and in 1941 they increased to 3442479 persons but in 2001 they had shot to
8240661 persons. How did it happen? Is this solely due to natural growth? Is migration/illegal immigration a myth or a
reality?
The latest 2011 Census of India shows
that the population of Assam has increased by 4513744 or 16.93% and the total
population now stands at 31169272. Kamrup (Metro) has registered the highest density
of population of 2010 persons per square kilometer followed by Dhubri (1171
persons per sq.km.). Once the religion-wise population of Assam as per the 2011
Census is published then it will be ascertained as to whether there was
in-migration or not. In 2005 D.N. Bezboruah, Editor, The Sentinel, lamented
saying, “The
biggest problem facing Assam and the north-eastern States of India today is
large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh. The problem is very serious
today because at the present rate of influx, there is the very real danger of
Assam being annexed to Bangladesh in just a couple of decades from now, and the
irony of the situation is that the problem has stemmed from greed on both sides
– greed for cultivable land on one side and greed for votes on the other. And
now there is the remarkable poetic justice of the greed for power having infected
the providers of easy illegal votes as well.”[23]
The question of illegal
Bangladeshi infiltration into Assam is still a matter to be sorted out once for
all. How and when this issue will be finally settled rests with the seriousness,
interest and intention of the State and Central governments.
[1] G.T. Lloyd, Census of India, 1921, Vol. III, Assam, Part-I, Report,
p. 42.
[3] R.B. Vagjaiwall,
Census of India, 1951, Volume XII Assam, Manipur and Tripura, Part 1-A Report,
p.75.
[4] C.S. Mullan, Census of India, 1931, Assam, Volume III p.14
[5] H.H. Risley & E.A. Gait, Census of India, Volume I India Part I
Report, p.46.
[6] H.H. Risley & E.A Gait, Census of India, 1901, Volume I India
Part I Report, p. 46.
[7] C.S. Mullan, Census of India, 1931, Assam Vol.III Part I Report,
p.193.
[8] C.S. Mullan, Ibid.
[9] J.H. Hutton, Census of India, 1931, Volume I, India, Part I,
Report, p.65
[10] C.S. Mullan, Census of India, 1931, Vol. III, Part I Report, pp.
49-50.
[11] C.S. Mullan, Census of India, 1931, Volume III Assam Part I
Report p.52
[13] DAVP, Ministry if I&B, for Min. of External Affairs, GOI,
August 1963, quoted by Sekhar Gupta in Assam: A Valley Divided, Appendix 3
p.191.
[14] R.B. Vaghaiwalla,
Census of India 1951 Vol. XII, Assam, Manipur and Tripura, Part I-A Report, p.
74
[15] Harendra Nath Barua, Reflections on Assam Cum Pakistan, 1944,
pp.65-66.
[16] C.S. Mullan, Census of India, 1931, Volume III, Assam, Part I,
Report, p.52.
[17] H.K. Barpujari, North-East India Problems, Policies &
Prospects, 1998, p.37.
[18] Census of India, 1961, Vol-III, Assam, Part I-A, General Report,
p.72.
[20] Nilim Dutta, The Myth of the Bangladeshi and Violence in Assam,
available at
http://kafila.org/2012/08/16/the-myth-of-the-bangladeshi-and-violence-in-assam-nilim-dutta/
[22] Irvine Kamal Sadiq,
Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing
Countries, 2009, p.42.
