Assam on the ‘Citizenship Amendment Act/Bill’ (CAA/CAB).

Let’s start with some facts about CAA.

• It takes 14 years of residence for a legal immigrant to acquire Indian citizenship.
• The CAB proposed that minorities such as Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis fleeing from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Who arrived in India on or before 31-Dec-2014 would be accepted as legal citizens.
• This makes it easier for non-Muslims refugees and illegal immigrants from the three Islamic nations to gain Indian citizenship. This has raised questions such as CAB being a Muslim biased law.
• This is because, in two of the aforementioned Islamic nations it is mentioned in their constitution that they’re a theocratic[1] nation and hence it is supposed that Muslims would not be exploited in these nations based on religious discrimination, excluding them from the minority groups in the CAB.
• A large portion of north-east states were against the CAB. This was blocking the CAB bill to pass for a long time, following this Government had made some exemptions in the CAB. The ILP[2] states and the areas amongst 6th Schedule Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram would be exempted from the CABCAB would be affected only in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and NOT in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram.

Why is Assam vehemently opposed to CAB?

This is not the first time such an issue has arisen in Assam. Let’s take a little look at the history of Assam. 

• During the Ahom dynasty Assam had developed a rich and unique culture, having its own language, varied art forms, and whatnot. This began to change with the intrusion of East India Company.

The Assamese culture in peril:

Act I - 1800(s) - The Inception of the Bengali influence: 

• Assam which was ruled by the Ahom dynasty for centuries came into the hands of British East India Company in 1826.
• Assam was placed under the administration of Bengal, which mandated the educational language and court language to be Bengali.
• This was not acceptable by the locals, as this would potentially kill the Assamese language and, in the late 19th (1870-1880) century, inspired by English missionaries, Assamese people started the “Assamese language movement”. Which would focus on giving prominence to the Assamese language in schools and courts and official documents. But it was too late, Bengali culture and language were now too ingrained in Assam.

Act II - 1930(s) - Internal State politics:

• In 1935, the Government of India Act was passed by the British Government under which elections were being held in 1936.
• This is when a Muslim league government was formed in Assam under “Mohammed Saadulla”.
• Gopinath Bordoloi, a congress stalwart charged the Muslim league that they’re incentivizing immigration of Bengali Muslims in Assam thus changing the demographic composition and culture and bolstering their electoral position.
• Gopinath Bordoloi later became the Chief Minister after Independence and he was a strong proponent of banishing illegal immigrants from Assam. Inspiring the first NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Assam in 1951.

Act III - 1970(s) - The Migration waves:

• After partition, a large number of people migrated to Assam from East Pakistan (Today’s Bangladesh)
• In West Pakistan, the migration wave essentially stopped during the 1950s but this didn’t happen in Bangladesh, following local turmoil and India-Bangladesh war in 1971 people continued to seek refuge in Assam.
• This resulted in bulging the Assam population and altering the demographics further. 
• During an election in 1979, the voter list seemed to have an unprecedented number of voters following which the “All Assam Students’ Union (AASU)” led the protest to identify and deport illegal immigrants. 
• Revolts regarding this issue persisted for the whole six years (1979 - 1985) and many people lost their lives.
• This is when the Nellie massacre happened in Assam claiming around 2000 lives.

Act IV - The Assam Accord:

• As a conclusion to the protest led by AASU, the government made a settlement called “Assam Accord”.
• According to Assam Accord, if someone entered Assam:

  1. Before 1966 - He was to be considered a citizen of Assam.
  2. Between 1966 and 1971 - He was to be considered a citizen, but without voting rights for the next 10 years.
  3. After 24 March 1971 - He was NOT to be considered a citizen.

• It was also decided that an NRC would be taken where applicants would need to prove that they or their parents, grandparents were citizens before March 25, 1971. To seek out the illegal immigrants in Assam. This was promised in 1985, which was delivered very recently (31-Aug-2019). And 19 lakh people were excluded from the final list.
• In the Assam Accord, clause 5.8, states that “Foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971, shall continue to be detected, deleted and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners”, which is being contradicted by the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Conclusion

Protestors are enraged about the fact that in spite of the Assam accord promising, in 1985, that people immigrated after 1971 would NOT be considered a citizen. And the government now has issued CAB which states that people immigrated before 31-Dec-2014 would be considered as a citizen.

This, people state, is unfair as the government is not obliged to the prior promises made. Also, according to 2011 census, only 48% of people in Assam have stated their language as Assamese and this has people debating that they’re becoming a minority in their own state and the increasing illegal immigration has already diluted the Assamese culture and changed the demographic composition of the state, which in turn has changed the Assamese politics.

References:

[1] Theocratic: relating to or denoting a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god.

[2] States which require the residence to have an Inner Line Permit.