I too am a ‘Bangladeshi’, I guess

I come from the border town of Dhubri in Assam. As such Muslims accused of being ‘Bangladeshis’ is anything but shocking. The latest victim of this indiscriminate labeling is the elected MLA of Baghbor, Mr Sherman Ali Ahmed. Many before him have been called ‘Bangladeshi’, ‘Bangladeshi supporter’ for raising pertinent question like the underdevelopment of the Muslim community. Despite being a sizeable part of the population, the Muslim as a community continues to lag behind on multiple fronts. But anybody expressing concern is quickly tagged as a ‘Bangladeshi’ expressing concern about other ‘Bangladeshis’ – hence calling an entire community  ‘illegal immigrants’.

It is needless to say that right wing BJP leaders are at the helm of such shameless propaganda. The exorbitant figures of illegal immigrants quoted by right wing political leaders comfortably includes Assamese Muslims, the descendants of Muslims who came even before Ahoms, Muslims who came with the Mughals, Muslims who were brought by British and settled under planned settlement, Muslims to whom local Axomiyas sold their lands and which subverted the line system and finally Muslims who converted from aboriginal tribes like Rajbongshis, Garos, Mech etc. Anybody who has read a little history would see the flaw in such blanket categorization. But one cannot overlook the general abhorrence of right wing towards education and information.

The bogey of ‘Bangladeshi’ has been used very generously to serve the purpose of political parties. It has been used to create panic, frenzy among people, to divide people on communal lines and to polarize voters. It has also been used to tag ‘D’ voters or doubtful voters as illegal immigrants. But one is left wondering if non-Muslim D voters should also be considered as illegal Bangladeshis. Political parties have conveniently hidden the fact that inconsistency in identity papers like spelling of names can also get a person marked as ‘D’ voter. There are many cases in which entire families are Indians and one member is marked D, parents are declared Indians and children are marked as D voters.

Now let us come to the geographical location of this place which is also to be blamed for the ordeal that its inhabitants have to go through on a regular basis. The history of this region is a history of contiguity – both geographical and cultural. When Cyril Radcliffe drew the international border across the homes of people it did not make sense to them. People were rendered aliens in their homes overnight. Post independence political turmoil that led to the war of 1971 also ensured that people continued to move cross border. Difficult terrain, marine border at times makes it difficult to put an absolute stop to movement of people. But should we even aim to achieve that? Political economists are of the view that Look East and Act East policies should look for greater economic integration and not focus on making borders impenetrable.

Border states must look for innovative solutions like border haats and work permits for economic migrants. Rather our politicians are busy scoring brownie points by talks of giving citizenship to immigrants solely on the basis of religion. This would not make any sense in economic terms because scarcity of resource has been one of the major causes for conflict in the region. All this is just another reminder that in terms of development of the region, the government has gotten it wrong.

Looking back to the pages of history (something we don’t like doing these days), it was interesting to note that the original Goalpara district which comprised of Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon was created for the first time in 1822 by David Scott, an employee of East India Company. Scott was also the first Commissioner of newly created North East Rangpur District (now at Bangladesh). The newly created Goalpara district was tagged with the North East Rangpur District. It was only in 1866 that Goalpara was withdrawn from Rangpur and tagged with Koch Behar. For close to 44 years Goalpara was a part of Rangpur which post independence went to erstwhile East Pakistan. By that logic, every resident of undivided Goalpara district including those of Kokrajhar were ‘Bangladeshis’ for a particular period of time!!

Historical linkages should be dismissed at our own peril. United Bengal presented a formidable challenge to British imperialism. Ironically any association to erstwhile East Bengal which is the home to many Bengali cultural icons is a taboo little short of an abuse. The problem of immigration is far from being solved. It seems successive governments have kept it simmering as a profitable election fodder. Nothing else can explain the timely opportunistic use of the bogey of ‘Bangladeshi’ who is supposedly taking over reserved land, state resources and jobs but the conspicuous absence of any talk with the Bangladesh government for deporting the alleged Bangladeshis.

Hordes of ‘Bangladeshis’ (read any Muslim and specially Muslims of East Bengal origin) are discovered in and around elections. Many are detained in camps. But if D voter is such an effective tool of finding Bangladeshis, how does the government explain non-Muslims being also tagged as ‘D’ voters in many cases and hence being harassed unnecessarily?? One can comfortably conclude that ‘Bangladeshi’, ‘D-Voters’ are rhetoric that the government often uses to whip up a frenzy and divert people from asking questions related to their livelihood. It is a time-tested tactic which keeps the Muslims concerned with questions of basic subsistence and the Hindus concerned with the fear of lost identity and lets the political class sit on the question of perpetual all-round underdevelopment of the region.