Assam Hornets’ Nest Stirred

Language appeal to Bengali Muslims draws flak

Of the people

Guwahati, Apr 19 : An appeal by an umbrella organization of religious minorities, asking the linguistic minority to identify themselves as Bengalis instead of Assamese during the ongoing census, has threatened to open old wounds in Assam.

The state has already seen two rounds of language-related agitation in the past.

The Citizens’ Right Preservation Committee (CRPC) has appealed to the Bengali Muslims of Barak Valley to identify themselves as Bengalis instead of Assamese, a move which has not gone down well with several organizations representing the religious and linguistic minorities of Assam.

Secretary of the Cachar unit of CRPC Sadhan Purkayastha said, “It would be sheer blasphemy on the part of the Bengali Muslims of Barak Valley to follow their counterparts in Brahmaputra Valley who are now insisting on identifying themselves as Assamese.”

The CRPC also opposed the two state Jamiat factions, which are in favor of religious and linguistic minorities identifying themselves as Assamese.

The All Assam Bengali Parishad, an organization representing the linguistic minority, on the other hand, has opposed the CRPC’s call and said that the organization “did not represent the 65 lakh Bengali-speaking people of Assam”.

Chitta Pal, the president of the Parishad, told The Telegraph that “a census is supposed to be a neutral exercise to determine the demographic pattern of the country”.

“It is a matter of individual choice how they identify themselves. No one can impose any diktat on anybody,” he said, adding “the timing of the appeal was clearly made with an eye on the Assembly elections next year”.

Pal also pointed out that Assam had already seen two phases of language-related “disturbances” over the Assamese-Bengali issue and there was no need to divide the two communities living as one for centuries.

It was the British rulers who drove the wedge firmly into the Assamese-Bengali divide in Assam, taking advantage of a simmering discontent among the local populace. The British had even imposed Bengali as the official language in Assam from 1836 to 1872. The language-related agitation took place in 1961 and 1972.

A leader of one faction of the state Jamiat and All-India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal has said the minority population in Brahmaputra Valley should adopt Assamese as their language.

AIUDF working president Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, too, said the issue of language was purely individual and a matter of conscience. “No political party or organisation can impose any language as mother tongue on the people,” he added.

While the AASU reserved comment on the issue, the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) said that it had made an appeal to all those who had resided in Assam and adopted the local culture and lifestyle to identify themselves as Assamese in the ongoing census.

AJYCP chief adviser Putul Dutta said, “Our stand is clear. All those people — irrespective of their religion, caste or the language they speak — living within the geographical boundaries of Assam are Assamese people”.

The directorate of census operations, Assam, has refused to take a stand on the issue.

A senior official at the directorate office here said the current phase of census was not covering the language and religious aspects. “A census is a neutral exercise meant to determine the demographic pattern of the country,” the official added.

[ via Telegraph India ]