GUWAHATI: Iftikar Hussain Siddique is a gangly, quick-to-laugh 24-yearold who cannot understand why he is called ‘Bangladeshi’ when he speaks Assamese better than Bengali and generations of his family have lived in the state.“I have personally not had a problem in college but they call us Bangladeshis in front of the media,” says Siddique, an M Com student at Gauhati University and ‘they’ refers to organisations such as the All Assam Students Union (AASU), which has been at the forefront of the opposition to illegal migration, mostly from Bangladesh, but also Nepal. He hopes that will change when the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is updated in Assam by January 2016.It would be an understatement to say that the NRC update is among the most discussed and contentious issues in Assam today. Many believe that this is the only feasible solution to the illegal migrants issue, which has led to much bloodshed. The NRC is a register containing details of all Indian citizens.The first NRC was prepared in 1951, by recording details of people included in that year’s Census. Now, it is being updated only in Assam, to comply with the demands in the Assam Accord, which was the culmination of the sixyear-long Assam Movement against migrants from Bangladesh, but more on that later.To apply for inclusion in the NRC, one’s name or one’s ancestor’s name must be in the 1951 NRC or in any voter list up to the midnight of March 24, 1971, the cut-off date agreed upon in the Assam Accord.If the applicant’s name is not on any of these lists, he can produce any of the 12 other documents dated up to March 24, 1971, like land or tenancy record, citizenship certificate or permanent residential certificate or passport or court records or refugee registration certificate. March 25, 1971 is when the Bangladesh Liberation War began.If the applicant’s ancestor’s name is on any of these lists, the applicant will have to prove his relationship to his ancestor by producing his board or university certificate, ration card or any other legally acceptable document. An Indian citizen from another state who moved to Assam after the specified date is not eligible for inclusion in the NRC though he can continue to vote.Moreover, as per Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 those who came from Bangladesh between 1966 and 1971 will have to register themselves with the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, and will be included in the NRC, but will not have voting rights for 10 years from the date of registration.Section 6A and Section 3 of the Act, which provides citizenship by birth in contravention of the Assam Accord, have been challenged in the Supreme Court. People who have been declared doubtful voters can also apply but their names will be included only after being cleared by the Foreigners Tribunal.To apply for inclusion in the NRC, Siddique had to find his paternal grandfather’s 1951 NRC certificate — since his father was not born in 1951 and was a minor till the cut-off date in 1971 — and the 1997 voter list with his father’s name, along with his grandfather’s name, to prove the link between the two, and his own birth certificate to prove his relationship with his father.Asked if he is optimistic of a change after the completion of the NRC, he says, “There will be proof that I’m Indian.” Interestingly, Siddique’s grandfather and his family had listed Assamese as their mother tongue in the 1951 NRC. Abdul Kalam Azad, a social worker who has researched and written on the NRC, says this was one of the ways Bengali Muslims assimilated into Assamese society.The history of Muslims in Assam dates back to the 8th century when, according to some scholars, Turks and Arab traders and sailors came to the Brahmaputra Valley and settled in the Darrang region.After the British annexed Assam as part of the Bengal Presidency in 1826, migrant labourers were brought in from central India to work in tea plantations and this necessitated the production of more food, which the local population could not manage on its own. While there was a lot of cultivable wasteland in the region, recurring famines ravaged neighbouring Bengal.Moreover, a spurt in demand in the jute market necessitated an increase in jute cultivation in Bengal, which again was not possible. Both these reasons were behind the migration of Muslim farmers of East Bengal to Assam, first in small numbers. But by the turn of the 20th century, there was a huge influx of migrants to the chars, or river islands, in lower Assam from Bogra, Rangpur, Pabna and Mymensingh districts of Bengal.

The 1911 Census showed that the number of migrants had shot up to over 1,18,000 in Goalpara district, about a fifth of the district’s population, from 49,000 in 1891.



The total number of Muslim immigrants in the Brahmaputra valley in 1911 was 2,58,000. After most of the cultivable land had been occupied in Goalpara, they moved to other parts of lower Assam.

As a result, in the first three decades of the century, the proportion of Muslim population in Assam had shot up from 13.6% to 22.8%, causing much distress among the local inhabitants.Census Commissioner CS Mullan observed in his 1931 Census report: “It is sad but by no means improbable that in another thirty years Sibsagar district will be the only part of Assam in which the Assamese will find himself at home.”In the 1920s, the ‘Line System’ had been introduced, as part of the British divide and rule policy, under which an imaginary line was drawn to segregate immigrants from the indigenous tribals. But in 1939 the provincial government headed by Syed Muhammad Saadullah invited East Bengali Muslims to settle in Assam under a ‘Grow More Food’ scheme — to much opposition and criticism.The partition of India in 1947 had far-reaching ramifications in Assam and riots between 1947 and 1950 forced thousands of Muslims to move to East Pakistan. But the pact signed by prime ministers of India and Pakistan, Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan, allowed refugees from both countries to return by December 31, 1950.But many of the Muslims who had fled Assam could only return later, thereby not being included in the 1951 Census and NRC. The proportion of Muslims in Assam in 2011 was 34.2%, compared to 24.7% in 1951.Muslims have been victims of several attacks over the years by local tribes, anti-immigrant organisations and Bodos (see Anti-Muslim Violence since Assam Movement). To a lesser extent, adivasis have also earned the wrath of local tribes.Between 1985 and July 2012, over 55,000 people, and not lakhs as AASU and similar organisations claimed, were identified as foreigners by tribunals under Illegal Migrants (Determination under Tribunals) Act, 1983, and Foreigners Tribunals, but only 2,442 were deported or pushed back.“By saying Bangladeshis are coming every day, we imply that we don’t trust our own Border Security Force,” says Hafiz Ahmed, an activist who heads Char-Chapori Sahitya Parishad, a literary body.Akhil Gogoi, founder, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, a peasant organisation, says the politics of the state from the time of provincial governments pre-Independence to now has been defined by this one issue. “The NRC update is the only way to democratically solve this problem and everyone in Assam agrees on that,” adds Gogoi, who recently formed a political party.Following a fact-finding team from the All India Secular Forum, ET Magazine visited, over two days, four districts in lower Assam with significant populations of Muslims of Bengali origin — Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Goalpara, and Dhubri. Most people we met were cautiously optimistic about the NRC.Shabaruddin Mian, a 100-year-old who came to Barpeta from East Bengal in 1929, is one of those. “Whenever we want to go to some other district, they harass us, saying we are from Bangladesh. The NRC might put a stop to that. But if they still want to throw us out, we cannot do anything,” he observes, sitting outside one of the 2,500 NRC Seva Kendras in the state. Four persons were killed in Barpeta in 2010, when the police opened fire on protestors opposed to the NRC update pilot project.Despite repeated efforts, ET Magazine could not speak to someone who came to Assam from Bangladesh after March 24, 1971. While locals we met admitted that there were a few such people in their villages, they clammed up when asked to identify them. The Seva Kendras have been set up to help people find their legacy data, a term used for all electoral rolls till March 24, 1971 and the 1951 NRC.The Seva Kendras have two laptops each with almost 260 GB of data, and are the government’s way of reaching those parts of Assam without an internet connection. Those with a connection can get their data themselves from the NRC website. The process is bound to be laborious and contentious, given that the records are from half a century ago.Musharraf Hussain, also from Barpeta, says his father’s name is on the 1952 voter list, but not on the 1951 NRC as the page containing his name is missing in government records: “I want the 1951 NRC document because there might be an agitation to define citizenship based on the 1951 NRC.”While misspelt names and nicknames recorded in place of actual names, since the names were recorded in Assamese, are among the most common complaints of people, there is a great deal of unease over the fact the government has not made available all voter lists till 1971.Prateek Hajela, secretary of the home and political department in the Assam government and state coordinator of the NRC, says this is not possible since the government does not have all documents and by law it should produce whatever is available.“Those people who are in doubt whether they will be able to establish their eligibility for inclusion in NRC are raising these questions,” notes Hajela (see Most States Will Never...). He says even electoral rolls do not have everyone’s names and that is why people should look for one of the 12 other acceptable documents.Hajela says that 91% of the 38 lakh people who visited the Seva Kendras from February 27 (when the process began) till May 21 found their legacy data, and another 40.2 lakh people found their records online. Applicants have to attach their legacy code and/or other documents to their application, and a field verification will be done starting August.The draft NRC is to be completed by October 31 and the final NRC by January 31. The entire process, overseen by the Registrar General of India, is being monitored by the Supreme Court, which is hearing three writ petitions related to the NRC, one of which wants 1951, not 1971, as the cut-off year.



Hajela notes that those who are likely not to have any documents are those whose families have lived in Assam for centuries. He says the modalities for identifying them are yet to be worked out. There is a separate debate raging in Assam over who should be called ‘indigenous Assamese’, with AASU and many other organisations demanding those included in the 1951 NRC be classified indigenous.

Issues with the NRC aside, what happens to those left out of the NRC after it is completed is what will provide sustenance to the state’s politics. As per the Assam Accord, signed in 1985 by the then PM Rajiv Gandhi and AASU, which had led the Assam Movement against foreigners between 1979 and 1985 culminating in the Accord, those foreigners who came to Assam after March 24, 1971 were to be evicted.But it is now easier said than done, with the BJP claiming that Hindus who came from Bangladesh are not foreigners and should be given citizenship. BJP president Amit Shah recently said all Hindu refugees from Bangladesh would be given citizenship if BJP won the Assam assembly election next year.Santanu Bharali, state vice-president of the BJP, says most Hindus who came from present-day Bangladesh to Assam came before its creation. “Where will Hindus who leave Bangladesh and Pakistan go? They have to come here. They don’t even have minimum human rights, whereas Muslims who come here come for economic reasons,” he adds.The Narendra Modi-led NDA government in its first eleven months granted citizenship to 4,230 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Afghanistan, nearly four times the number the previous five years, when the United Progressive Alliance was in power. Moreover, around 34,000 have been given long-term visas, which precedes citizenship, in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.This might help BJP politically in the Silchar region which has a large concentration of Bengali Hindus, some of whom are said to have come after the cut-off date. The BJP won seven seats in last year’s Lok Sabha election, four more than the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front, whose main vote bank is Bengali Muslims.“We are concerned about Assam. If the [Central] government wants, it can take them [those who came after March 24, 1971] to Gujarat. They can’t stay in Assam,” says Akhil Gogoi.The Congress, which has ruled the state for three consecutive terms since 2001 under Tarun Gogoi, the state’s longest-serving chief minister, does not want to be left behind in the wake of BJP’s pro-Hindu claims.

“We will appeal to the Central government that whichever minorities were forced out from Bangladesh after its creation should be given citizenship on humanitarian grounds,” says Anjan Dutta, president of the Assam unit of Congress.



Niladri Roy, a Silcharbased lawyer, says the NRC should be based on the 2014 electoral rolls: “After someone has been given the chance to vote, how can it be taken back? If it’s not based on the 2014 electoral rolls, what happens to all the MPs who were elected on the basis of those rolls?”

Most parties and organisations are opposed to that and want the government to stick to the Assam Accord. “It is a national commitment to the people of Assam and we should fulfil it,” says Lurinjyoti Gogoi, general secretary of AASU. But for the government to expel those who came after 1971, it needs to have repatriation treaties with Bangladesh and Nepal, some of whose citizens moved to Assam.“The PM should have taken up the issue with Bangladesh on his recent visit there. Push-back is not at all an effective method,” says Guwahati-based lawyer Hafiz Rashid Chowdhury. Modi has come in for criticism for not acting on his poll promise in 2014 that after the NDA came to power at the Centre, illegal Bangladeshi migrants would have to leave Assam. He also did an about-turn on the Land Border Agreement with Bangladesh, which is a land-swap deal, and which he was initially opposed to.While political parties and organisations across the spectrum agree that the NRC might bring some amount of closure to the issue of foreigners, they admit it will remain an issue in next year’s election. “If it is done properly political parties will claim credit for its success,” says Lurinjyoti Gogoi.Monirul Hussain, professor of political science at Gauhati University, says the insecurity of Muslims is a major asset for AIUDF, which is the principal opposition party in the Assam assembly, and if the NRC solves that, then the party will suffer.But Aminul Islam, general secretary of the party, disagrees: “We will have other issues in the election, like corruption and law and order. While we don’t support a single Bangladeshi, people should be detected and deported by law, and not arbitrarily.”While the NRC update is a watershed in Assam’s blighted history of communal violence, it will certainly not be the last chapter on the fight between locals and foreigners.