Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s President Arshad Madani’s vitriolic tirade directed against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is nothing new or unusual. Jamiat has a long history dating back to 1947, since the days of Jamiat Chief Arshad Madani’s father, erstwhile Jamiat chief Hussain Ahmad Madani. Jamiat, which has been at the forefront of safeguarding immigrant East Bengali Muslims since colonial days, has always been critical of Assamese nationalism and Assamese identity.
In the run-up to independence, while the issue of the Sylhet referendum was raging, Jamiat Chief Ahmad Madani reached Sylhet and boisterously declared that “even if Sylhet is not annexed with Pakistan, there is nothing to be worried. Not only Sylhet, one day entire Assam will come under Muslim rule.” That speaks volumes about the covert design of Jamiat. Hence, there is nothing unusual in present Jamiat’s chief Arshad Madani’s rant that Assam CM be ousted and prosecuted. It is the frightened cacophony of a frustrated, treacherous bigot who always posed a grave threat to the identity and existence of Assamese autochthons.
Though mass migration of tea tribes, land-hungry East Bengali Muslims, Nepali graziers etc. was encouraged by colonial British at the initial stage, immigration of hordes of invading East Bengali Muslims soon took a political turn. It gained momentum after the Lahore Resolution in March 1940, which included Assam in the proposed Pakistan. Since then, demographic changes in Assam have been driven by the political motives of the Muslim League. Viceroy Lord Wavell observed how the much-touted, dubious “grow more food” policy of Syed Sadulla’s regime was actually “grow more Muslims.”
Syed Sadulla’s first ministry too took oath on All Fools’ Day, prompting a legislator to quip that “the country has been fooled.” And it proved to be true. Even after eight decades of independence, Assamese people are yet to see the reality—Sadulla and his later-day beneficiaries, communists, Congress, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, have fooled Assam’s people till date. It is worth mentioning that only due to the strenuous and painstaking efforts of Assamese sub-nationalists like Gopinath Bardoloi, Bijoy Bhagawati, Rohini Chaudhury etc., with the support of Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Sarat Chandra Bose, Assam got rid of the nefarious design of grouping.
It is known to all how erstwhile premier Syed Sadulla bequeathed his soul, like that of Mephistopheles, to the Muslim League in spite of being an indigenous Assamese Muslim. Sadulla bragged in his letter to Liaqat Ali Khan dated 25th March 1945 that in four districts of Upper Assam, the number of Muslims had quadrupled due to unabated influx hastened by him and the League. Muhammad Ali Jinnah also reiterated in his speech delivered at Dacca University that “Assam was in my pocket and I gave it away. We will take over Assam someday without any bloodshed.”
It is quite astounding how once hard-core Leaguers like Moinul Haque Chaudhury joined Congress overnight in the aftermath of the dismemberment of the Muslim League in India after independence. Since then, Assam Congress was populated by ex-Muslim Leaguers, and it was relegated to a pro-immigrant political party after Bishnu Ram Medhi. Gopinath Bardoloi and Bishnu Ram Medhi expedited eviction drives from government land, which also irked the Nehru-led central Congress dispensation. B. R. Medhi ended up losing his Chief Ministerial berth and was posted as Governor of Madras. That was the challenge involved when an autochthon took the bull by the horns and expedited eviction drives.
Wrath directed against the incumbent Assam Chief Minister is not an exception to this. It is not a mere grumbling against a political leader of Assam; rather, it is aimed at endangering Assamese identity as a composite nationality by putting Assamese autochthons in trouble. Demographic change in Assam and the march of immigrants to Upper Assam, making Uriamghat a satellite base, is also a part of the greater design that replicates the strategy once hatched by the Muslim League, which found expression in Hussain Ahmad Madani’s words in 1947. A similar tone is evident in the recent tirade of Hussain Madani’s son, Arshad Madani, against the incumbent Chief Minister of Assam.
Assam is on the verge of becoming an Islamic-majority state like Kashmir, as expected and orchestrated by Islamic stakeholders during partition. After a few years, if the uncontrolled birth rate is not prevented, we may soon see a Lebanon-like situation growing in Assam, with Assamese autochthons going extinct like the Christian autochthons of Lebanon. What is more worrisome is that sections of Assam’s left liberals and communists sided with immigrants and Jamiat, betraying Assamese autochthons. Even revered literary critic and writer Dr. Hiren Gohain too sided with Jamiat and addressed a press meet together.
The magnitude of immigration and illegal land encroachment can best be understood from Gandhiji’s remark in his “Message to the People of Assam.” Gandhiji, who throughout his life practiced non-violence, became furious enough to suggest Assamese people adopt violent or non-violent means to counter immigration and settlement policy in July 1944.
It is easily fathomable that Muslim League’s politics in Assam was centered around land and immigration. As Hindu-Muslim communal rift was not yawning in Assam like the rest of India, the Muslim League’s design was to support immigrant occupation of land and to project that Assam was not a Hindu-majority province. It is still evident that this covert design is underway to transform Assam into a Muslim-majority state through demographic change.
It is a great optimism that the Chief Minister has understood the Machiavellian scheme of the Islamists and communist propagandists and has taken the bull by the horns. The identity and security of Assamese autochthons are of prime importance. While hordes of invading illegal immigrants have managed to become Indian citizens by obtaining documents through dubious means, they need to be identified. NRC should be reviewed, and Section 6A of the Assam Accord should be implemented without delay, unlike earlier dubious Congress and AGP governments. This will immortalize Himanta Biswa Sarma’s name in Assam’s history for years to come. He is the third Assam Chief Minister to have undertaken the precarious and arduous task of eviction from government land since Bardoloi and Bishnu Ram Medhi.
The Union Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, should take up bilateral talks with Bangladesh for the deportation of illegal immigrants and removal of the impasse in the mechanism. Assamese identity must remain intact and safeguarded at any cost. Assam is the only homeland for Assamese. Once Assam is overpowered and outnumbered by immigrants, Assamese will have nowhere to go.
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