It was on September 28, 2020 that former Chief Minister of Assam Syeda Anwara Taimur, who had the distinction of being the only woman Chief Minister of the state, passed away at the age of 83 years. She served as the Chief Minister of Assam from December 6, 1980 to June 30, 1981 during the peak of the Assam Movement (1979-1985) that took place to drive away illegal immigrants from the state.

Anwara Taimur was born on November 24, 1936 at Jorhat and completed her higher studies from the Aligarh Muslim University. A four-term legislator, Taimur was first elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency in 1972 as a Congress candidate. She was re-elected to the Assembly from the Dalgaon constituency in 1978, 1983 and 1991. Taimur also served twice in the Rajya Sabha from 1998-90 and then again from 2004-2010. She was appointed the State Education Minister in 1975 by the then Chief Minister Sarat Chandra Sinha. Taimur again served as a minister in the Hiteswar Saikia-led state government (1991-1996) handling the portfolios of Agriculture, Haj and Wakf Property. She also served as the Chairperson of the Central Haj Committee during 1989-90 and 1990-91.

Anwara Taimur took over as the Chief Minister of Assam at a time when the state was passing through a very critical phase.  It needs to be recalled here that Assam has always been a land enriched by successive waves of migration and migrants. But the peculiarity of the migration problem here predominantly began in the late 19^th century. It was around this time that the native Assamese people had started employing cheap labour from the surrounding regions, especially Bengal (now Bangladesh), to work in their farms and agricultural fields. The discovery of tea resulted in populating the state with tribals who were brought in from the Chhotanagpur region to work as labourers in the large British-owned tea estates. Gradually, migrants looking for job prospects in the North-eastern oil fields were naturally attracted to the region. The British also encouraged Bengali Muslim peasants from present-day Bangladesh to move into Lower Assam for bringing virgin land under cultivation.

It was during Sadullah’s Muslim League Ministry in Assam (1937-46) that a concerted effort was being made to encourage the wholesale migration of Bangladeshi Muslims into Assam chiefly for nourishing a political vote-bank. After partition, the porosity of the Bangladesh-Assam border allowed unabated migration for the next several decades. Between the years 1947-1971, Assam saw two big waves of refugee influx. A continuous stream of politically victimised minorities, majority being Bengali-speaking Hindus from East Pakistan, were also coming and settling down in the Brahmaputra Valley. While the Muslim migrants from East Pakistan were mostly land-hungry peasants and cultivators, the Bengali Hindu refugees were the victims of political and religious persecution in a monotheistic theocratic state.

By now, a deep sense of insecurity was beginning to prevail in the minds of the common public of Assam because of the alarming demographic change in the population complexion of the state. The threat to their culture, language, and shrinking resources was imminent. In fact, the issue of immigration has been a deeply complex and sensitive one in the identity politics of Assam. It eventually culminated in one of the largest public mobilisations ever witnessed in post-Independent India – the Assam Movement – led by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). It began from the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency in 1979 due to a sudden increase in the population of the electorate here by a whopping 80,000 voters within a span of just one year, thanks to the shrewd machinations of the Congress Party which had ‘imported’ nearly 70,000 Bangladeshi Muslim refugees purely for electoral gains. Defying all demographic logic, about 15% more people had miraculously appeared almost overnight in the area. Subsequently, the term ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ entered the lexicon of Indian politics, implying politically imported ‘Bangladeshi Muslims’.

The then Golap Borbora-led state government under the Janata Party was destabilised after President’s Rule was imposed in Assam between December 1979-80. Despite a strong demand of the agitators led by the AASU to undertake a full-fledged revision of the electoral rolls before conducting any elections in the state, the Congress Party went ahead with the assembly elections of 1980. Syeda Anwara Taimur was elected as the first woman Chief Minister of Assam who held the office from 1980-81. She took charge as the Chief Minister following a period of almost a year of President’s Rule that the state had underwent after the collapse of the state government headed by Jogendra Nath Hazarika in December 1979.

Keeping in mind the already volatile socio-political situation that the state was passing through, the choice of Anwara Taimur as the Chief Minister on the part of the Congress Party was a strategic one. It was from this time onwards that the Congress came to be identified as an all-time appeaser and saviour of the Muslim vote-bank in Assam, which had to be protected at all costs, even if it meant fomenting religious hatred against the native Hindus. Interestingly, Anwara Taimur was elected to the state legislative assembly of Assam from Dalgaon, a constituency in the Darrang district of Lower Assam that was and still is heavily dominated by Bengali Muslim migrants (few years back, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, Upamanyu Hazarika, had informed that there exist a few villages in Darrang district where immigrants not only outnumber the natives, but the latter have been pushed into ghetto-like dwellings in their own ancestral abode).

Thus, without an iota of doubt, Anwara Taimur primarily represented the Muslim immigrant interests. The appointment of a Muslim in the highest political position of the state by the Congress Party amid the thick of a huge storm was laden with a strong message. The message was that the Muslim vote-bank in Assam would continue to be nurtured and not compromised under any eventuality. By doing so, the Congress wanted to drive home the point that despite all probable backlash from the leaders and supporters of the Assam Movement, the political interests of the new migrants from Bangladesh would be very well safeguarded. It was a clear departure from the earlier position of the Congress Party which was based on persuading Assamese Muslim politicians to not aspire for the top post in the state.  In the words of Sanjib Barua, “They were instead encouraged to seek greener pastures in the pan-Indian arena, because it was feared that their chief ministership could be read as a sign of growing immigrant power.”

With the appointment of Anwara Taimur as the Chief Minister, strict measures were brought in to discipline ethnic Assamese government employees, especially senior officials who were known sympathisers of the Assam Movement. The idea was to use more force, both political and administrative, to stem the tide of the movement. With this purpose in mind, Taimur very effectively and gradually transformed the state bureaucracy, and the officials who occupied its top offices were made to tow the official line. It was reported that her personal secretariat consisted of only Muslim professionals. As argued by Sanjib Barua, “These measures accentuated the legitimacy crisis in the state”.

Quite predictably, Anwara Taimur met her political end very soon. The state was yet again engulfed by a wave of political turbulence, rising tensions, chaos, and lawlessness. The Congress party sensed that its strategy was failing to garner enough support from the common Assamese masses who still emotionally identified themselves with the Assam Movement and were ready to go to any extent to make their Xunor Axom free from illegal Muslim migrants. Anwara Taimur’s government was losing credibility and President’s Rule was re-imposed again. Taimur was soon replaced by Keshab Gogoi as the Chief Minister.

Nevertheless, by choosing a Muslim to guard the reins of its power in the state, the Congress Party cleverly mastered the art of playing the communal card and projecting itself as the messiah of the Bengali-speaking Muslim immigrants. During the 1983 Assam assembly elections which were marred by some of the worst-ever communal violence in the political history of the state from Nellie to Khoirabari and Silapathar, Arun Shourie had lamented, “The electoral strategy of the party [Congress] was the familiar one: isolate the largest group; gather together the other groups; foment insecurity in them; and then present yourself as the only available protector.”

Fast forward to 2011, the Census data revealed a steep rise in the migrant population in nine border districts of Assam. While Muslims constituted 30.9% of the population in 2001, this share jumped to 34.2% in 2011. A Report on ‘Illegal Migration into Assam’ submitted to the President of India by the then Governor of Assam Lt. Gen (Retd.) S.K. Sinha in 1998 clearly showed that the Muslim population of Assam rose by 77.42% in 1991 from what it was in 1971. Comparatively, in the same period, the Hindu population had risen by a mere 41.89%.

Whether self-professed ‘liberals’ or ‘secularists’ might agree or not, but the rise to power of perfume-baron Maulana Badruddin Ajmal in the political scenario of Assam has largely been aided by the rapidly changing demographic character of the state. The gradual reach and expansion of his party – the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) – both in terms of vote-share and seat-share, is a proof of the fact. It may be mentioned here that in 2011, Anwara Taimur had quit the Congress Party and joined Ajmal’s AIUDF. She was later appointed the Vice-President of the AIUDF.

It needs to be emphasised here that the problem of illegal immigration in Assam from across the border with Bangladesh is a serious political, economic, and demographic issue and not a communal one. In fact, it is more a matter of saving a community’s cultural and civilisational pride, and not simply its religious identity. Our ancestors had resisted tooth and nail all attempts to be dominated by any force alien to their history and culture. But, unfortunately, a defeatist mentality of choosing political correctness over raising the truth seems to have today infested the Hindu psyche! The menace of illegal immigration is a stark political and socio-economic reality that is now threatening to tear apart those same societies that had once stood up as the upholders of the ideals of multiculturalism and melting-pot societies! It is no longer a war of swords and weapons unlike in the times of Mahmud of Ghazni or Muhammad Ghori but has become a demographic war of numbers.

The attempt to be politically correct has often meant either overlooking or completely ignoring the gruesome reality of a disproportionate increase in the Muslim population of Assam over the past few decades. This has been coupled with the expansionist nature of Islam and the rapid mushrooming of mosques, especially in the border districts of the state such as Dhubri and Barpeta. It has made the native population wary and fearful of the consequences that await them if they become a minority in their own state in the near future. It is a serious emotional sentiment; but the usage of academic jargons such as Islamophobia or xenophobia implies denigrating this genuine sense of fear of the common public over an uncertain future. The change is alarming; more so with the rise of parties like the AIUDF, the strength of which lies in primarily being a Muslim party that openly espouses the Muslim cause.

No matter how friendly India’s relations with Bangladesh might be, but it would be too naïve to ignore the dangers of large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh over several decades. It has not only gradually altered the demographic profile of the state of Assam, especially in its border districts, but also poses a grave existential threat to the people and their culture and most importantly, to India’s national security. Intelligence reports have pointed fingers at the Jamaat-e-Islami and its patron, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, which have been using madrassas that have sprouted in increasing numbers along the Indo-Bangladesh border to infiltrate migrants into India to be used as spies.

While there is still lack of credible data and reliable figures on the exact number of Bangladeshi nationals staying in India illegally, there is no doubt that the flow of illegal immigrants continues unabated. On November 16, 2016, Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister for Home Affairs stated in the Rajya Sabha that an estimated 20 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants are staying in entire India; and, most of these migrants are said to have settled in Assam and West Bengal while many have moved into the interiors of the country, even reaching metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai in many instances.

Undocumented Bangladeshi migrants are largely uneducated, and generally occupy the lowest rungs of the labour force. Their economic survival over the years has been made possible by their capture of political power with the help of dubious documents such as forged Voter ID cards, ration cards, etc. through a corrupt bureaucrat-politician nexus. Naïve, ignorant Hindus who prefer to choose silence rather than engaging themselves in an honest debate on the issue have failed to realise that it is this same silence that has indirectly helped nurture a soft political vote-bank; a vote-bank that multiplies too fast and one which is based on selective ignorance of the long-term socio-political implications of the problem of illegal immigration.

The illegal immigration and land encroachment are majorly responsible for the continuous marginalisation of several indigenous tribes of the state. A case in point would be to understand the demographic transition of Lumding region in undivided Nagaon district (note: Nagaon is one among the several districts of Assam which has severely borne the brunt of the state’s demographic distress). In the Census of 1901, 31% of the district’s population consisted of janajatis who were largely nature-worshippers, referred to as ‘animism’ in academic vocabulary. Today, Census data barely finds any count of such nature-worshippers in the district. Many of the smaller groups of janajatis got either wiped out or moved out to other districts, because of the increasing pressure exerted on their land and resources by the incoming immigrant population. A leading Assamese daily reported that out of the 1,44,000 voters in Lumding constituency, only 10,000 were tribals, prominently belonging to the Dimasa tribe. In fact, the name ‘Lumding’ itself traces its roots to the Dimasa language. Once the traditional homeland of the Dimasas, Lumding today is dominated chiefly by a non-indigenous population of migrants. The natives were not only stripped of their land rights but have also been rendered economically vulnerable and politically insignificant. Sadly, not a single Dimasa person has represented the constituency, till date!

The urban English-speaking media houses supported by a Left-leaning cabal of “eminent public intellectuals” have always portrayed the issue in a way that seeks to garner as much sympathy as possible for those “poor, economically deprived migrants” (read Muslim migrants, not the Hindi-speaking Bihari migrants although). Sooner we honestly accept the fact that illegal immigration is not just an issue propelled by the logic of economics, the better it would be. Trying to understand it from the economic perspective alone means overlooking the real concerns of national security and increasing pressure on limited agricultural land and resources created by the spate of illegal migrants from across the border. Unfortunately, the issue has been reduced to the binaries of Hindu-Muslim divide in the media and academic circles, rather than generating a sense of political awareness that the fear of becoming an alien in one’s own land has more to do with culture and civilisation, and not merely religion.

The Supreme Court of India, the country’s highest judicial authority, has also taken note of this crisis and termed it as an “external aggression” in the case of Sarbananda Sonowal vs. Union of India (2005). The court clearly stated – “This being the situation, there can be no manner of doubt that the state of Assam is facing ‘external aggression and internal disturbance’ on account of the large-scale illegal migration of Bangladeshi nationals. It, therefore, becomes the duty of the Union of India to take all measures for protection of the state of Assam from such external aggression and internal disturbance as enjoined in Article 355 of the Constitution. Having regard to this constitutional mandate, the question arises whether the Union of India has taken any measures for that purpose.”

The problem of illegal immigration has assumed a monstrous dimension not just in Assam, but globally too. It’s high time that it is no longer weighed against the same set of “liberal” principles of freedom and secularism. It is all about self-preservation and protection of the culture of a community in the wake of a serious threat to their survival.

References:

1. Rajat Sethi & Shubhrastha. (2017). The Last Battle of Saraighat: The Story of the BJP’s Rise in the North-East. India: Penguin Random House, XXII.
2. ‘Report on Illegal Migration into Assam’ submitted to the President of India By The Governor of Assam. Lt. Gen (Retd.) S.K. Sinha, PVSM. November 08, 1998. Raj Bhavan, Guwahati.
3. Sanjeev Tripathi (June 29, 2016). Illegal Immigration From Bangladesh to India: Towards a Comprehensive Solution. Carnegie India.
4. https://www.pgurus.com/citizenship-illegal-migrants-issue/
5. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/assam-plans-shield-for-its-native-identity/articleshow/72923533.cms
6. The Assam Tribune. (September 30, 2020). Tackling biases: The other side of the story. p. 6.
7. The Assam Tribune. (September 29, 2020). Syeda Anowara Taimur passes away. p. 1.

Image Credits: Gulf News