The Nellie Massacre was one of the worst communal massacres in India since Independence. On February 18, 1983, Nellie massacre left 1819 people dead and several thousand others injured. Unofficial sources and people of Nellie believe that the death toll could be around five thousand. In terms of brutality committed just in a few hours, probably this was the highest figure of people killed with crude weapons.
It was a result of reinterpretation of historical facts within communal politics to create a narrative that served a specific political agenda. In the past, the Assamese-speaking population of the Brahmaputra Valley not only didn’t resent the coming of the East Bengal farmers but welcomed them. Once, a Congress leader Rohini Chowdhury stated in the Assam Legislative Council that these East Bengal farmers had contributed to the prosperity of the State by making fallow lands cultivable and raising food production. The old attitude of welcoming the Muslim farmers changed into one of hostility later.
This change came about in no small measure because of the efforts of two senior police officers namely Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharya and Premkanta Mahanta and also the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. In 1981, Bhattacharyya was dismissed from service and imprisoned for a year under the National Security Act for his involvement in the Assam agitation.
The Assam problem was tactically exaggerated and linked to newly created Bangladesh. Importantly, it was all about migration of the people from one State to another State of a country as Bangladesh came into existence in 1971.
When Assam agitation started in 1979, All Assam Students Union’s stir was against Indians from other states particularly against the Bengalis. Shortly after Independence, anti-Bengali riots were organised, targeting the Bengali Hindus who were educationally and economically advanced. These riots took place in 1948, 1955, then in 1960 and finally during the five-year long “anti-foreigner movement” of 1979-85 which culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord. The All-Assam Students Union launched a mass agitation to evict outsiders. By outsiders, the union’s leaders meant Indians from elsewhere who were perceived to control Assam’s economy. But it soon morphed into a movement against Muslim immigrants.
Although a total of 688 cases were filed in relation to the massacre, the police filed charge sheets in only 310 cases that were eventually closed. All these cases were dropped by the Government of India as a part of the 1985 Assam Accord, and as a result, not a single person received punishment.
Could this massacre have been avoided? A commission was constituted to know the answer. There are several clues that speak that state authorities were alerted to possible attacks on the minority community in Nellie. Literature on Nellie has established that officials of the Home Ministry were alerted three days before the massacre about the possibility of the attack. A message from an officer in charge of the then Nagaon police station sent an urgent message to Morigaon 5th Battalion Commandant, sub-district police officer and officer in charge of Jagiroad police station. This alert was totally ignored. Also, the then officiating Assam chief minister HiteshwarSaikia held a press conference and said activists of AASUand AGSP were involved in violent activities in the state. Such facts may have prompted the government of the time not to reveal the facts given in the report.
Two commissions were constituted after the unfortunate occurrence of the Nellie massacre. First, the then Congress state government constituted a commission headed by Tribhuvan Prasad Tiwary on July 14, 1983 to investigate the massacre. The Commission’s objectives were to investigate the causes of the violence, to identify administrative and political failures and to suggest measures to prevent such incidents in the future. The Commission submitted its report to the government in May 1984, but it was never presented in the Legislative Assembly because the Commission Chairman’s signature was missing on the copy of the report. Would it be the true reason?
There were demands that the then Congress (I) government in the state should make the Tewary report public and revive all the criminal cases dropped by the AGP government and punish all the perpetrators of the heinous crimes during Assam agitation. But the government was fearing to take a courageous step on this.
Secondly, the Mehta Commission, chaired by Justice T. U. Mehta, was constituted in 1984 by the ‘Assam Rajyik Freedom Fighters Association’ as a non-official, civil-society-led judicial inquiry in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the government’s refusal to release the Tiwary report and its perceived failure to establish an impartial judicial probe.
On October 23, 2025 Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma made a welcome decision and announced that the report would be tabled in the Legislative Assembly on November 25 for the public with official information about the events and findings of that time. This move was considered an effort towards historical justice and transparency. It was urged that making the report public would clarify where the administrative structure and political decisions fell short and how such tragedies can be prevented in the future. On November 25, Tiwari and Mehta Commissions both were tabled in the Assembly. Notably, there was no mention of Mehta Commission on October 23, 2025.The Mehta Commission gives a long historical narrative of immigration, quoting censuses, political memoranda and leaders to argue that foreign infiltration underlay the unrest. It insists that unresolved foreigners’ issue coupled with election imposition led to violence. The government tabled an unofficial civil society report by the Justice T.U. Mehta Commission on the same events, which presented a divergent narrative. Moreover, no formal discussion on the Tiwary Commission report was held in the House that makes tabling unmeaningful.
Both reports deal with different narratives. It, of course, depends on political parties to choose one according to the suitability of their political ideology. This move came months ahead of Assam entering a state election. Congress had not tabled it due to fear of electoral loss of a particular section of the society and BJP tabled it to gain electoral benefit of another section of the society. One party had not disclosed it for 42 years. While, another one presented it but without discussion and action. Probably, it was just to strengthen a specific narrative ahead of the state election in April, 2026. The Tiwary report was mixed up with the Mehta report just to deal with a narrative that suits a political ideology. The result is the same in totality.
The killers of the innocent people are still at large. The relatives of the Nellie’s victims were given paltry Rs 5000 each as ‘compensation’.They are still waiting for justice. Denial of justice to the victims of injustices has created an unfortunate situation in the state in which thousands of innocent people have lost their lives and properties worth crores of rupees.
[The writer is a Professor, Department of Law, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Email: ishrat364@gmail.com]