Immigrant Muslims’ Contribution to Prosperity
By MOHD ABDUL RAHIM QURAISHI
The Muslim immigration, which began in about 1905 as a result of the interplay of economic forces in East Bengal in relation to Assam, ushered in an era of agricultural prosperity and development. Their contribution to the economic growth of Assam was so evident that the administrators could not ignore, but had to appreciate, it.
For years the flow of poor peasant immigrants did not create any adverse reaction; they were helped to settle down by local people, and particularly by local Marwari business communities. Their immigration and settlement in Assam fulfilled the economic necessities of both, the immigrants and the people of Assam. No one in Assam raised any protest. There was no fear or apprehension in the mind of the local people of “being swallowed” by the immigrants. Assam, and particularly the Brahmaputra valley, remained free from the communal ill will and frenzy which generated feelings of hatred between these communities in Northern India.
THE CENSUS – ILLUSION AND REALITY
Muslims had been in the Assam valley right from the turn of the 13th century, even before the Ahoms entered Assam, and even earlier in Goalpara, Cachar, and Karimganj regions. At the beginning of this century Muslims formed one-fourth of the population of Assam, and at that time, the province of Assam was comprised of the present Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal. The Gazetteer records:
About one-fourth of the population of the province, or 1,581,317 persons, returned as Muhammadans in 1901 – Muhammadans are also fairly numerous in Cachar, which for many years has acted as an outlet for the surplus population of Sylhet, and in Goalpara where they form more than a fourth of the population.
At the census of 1901, 44 per cent of the population of Goalpara returned as Hindus, 28 per cent as Muhammadans, and 27 per cent professed various forms of Animism.
For the composition of Assam Legislative Assembly in 1937, under the Government of India Act of 1935, the principle of allotment of the territorial seats on the basis of proportion to the population was accepted, and Muslims were allotted 34 out of 93 territorial seats in the Assembly. Thus, Muslims got 36.5 per cent of seats. There was a dispute on this point, and allotment of all 34 seats was opposed on the ground that, as per the 1931 census, Muslims constituted only 41 per cent, and taking an increase due to the immigration of peasants, their proportion might be taken as 43.7 per cent at the most. But, at last the controversy was settled, the Muslims getting 34 seats.
At the time of the partition (August 1947) the district of Sylhet was separated from Assam and included in East Pakistan, and as this was the Muslim majority district, one may think that the Muslim proportion in remaining part of Assam might have reduced considerably. This is not a fact. First, because the whole of the district of Sylhet was not awarded to Pakistan. In fact, the area of the Thana of Karimgunj remained with Assam and was made part of the Cachar district. After some years Karimgunj district had been formed carving out these areas from the Cachar district. Moreover, by the time of the partition the districts of Goalpara, Cachar, Nowgong, Kamarupa and Darrang had a very considerable Muslim population, their proportions ranging from 46.3 to 17 per cent of the district populations, and subsequently Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Arunachal were separated where the Muslims were less numerous. Consequently, Muslim proportion increased in Assam.
THE PARTITION
As violence engulfed the whole country following partition, Assam remained the only oasis of sanity and tranquillity. There were no disturbances, riots, or civil commotions, and the Muslims remained there in peace and tranquillity. The partition did not cause any significant migration of Muslims to East Pakistan from Assam.
DEVASTATING RIOTS OF 1950
The peace and tranquillity which prevailed during the partition days could not last long. The oasis became an eyesore to the Hindutva fanatics charged with a passion to convert India into a “Hindu Rashtra”, and the “oasis” was engulfed in a flood of communal violence in early 1950 which compelled hundreds of thousands of Muslims to take refuge in East Pakistan. The worst affected districts were Goalpara, Kamarupa, Cachar and Nowgong.
NEHRU-LIAQUAT PACT
The pressure of this problem caused so much anxiety to both the governments of India and Pakistan that the then Prime Ministers, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan, met at New Delhi, discussed the problems of the uprooting of thousands of inhabitants on both sides, and agreed to take back and welcome their return until a certain date. The pact was signed at New Delhi on April 8, 1950, and those returning to their original country by December 31, 1950 were assured of their citizenship, their rights of ownership, and of the occupancy of immovable properties which they held before their displacement.
How many Muslim families were driven out of Assam during and after the riots of January 1950? No one knows, not even the Government. Even if the government of Assam knows the figure, it has not, until now, revealed it. Some random figures were given by a few officials, and the figures were so unbelievable that other officials held them to be unreliable. R.B. Vaghaiwalla (Superintendent of 1951 census), in the 1951 Census report, had to admit that the official figures of Muslim displaced persons from some areas, due to the riots in 1950, were not made available to him with any degree of accuracy. The approximate numbers of Muslims leaving for Pakistan, as reported by the state authorities are:
Goalpara 60,000
Kamrup 20,000
Cachar 14,000
Darrang 6,000
Nowgong N.A.
Sibsagar N.A.
Lakhimpur N.A.
Total figure of four districts whose figures are available is 100,000.
Even a cursory glance at these figures indicates that these are utterly unreliable.
Under the Nehru-Liaquat pact, the Muslims of immigrant origin who were forced out of Assam in the early part of 1950 were allowed to return to Assam by December 31, 1950. The implementation of the pact required certain legal provisions and administrative actions on the part of the respective governments of Assam and East Pakistan. Due to other difficulties and the delay in follow-up action, the refugees could not return to their respective countries within the stipulated time, that is, by December 1950. Most of the Muslims who had taken refuge in East Pakistan returned in 1951.
FALSE NOTIONS AND MISCHIEVOUS THEORIES
It was R.B. Vaghaiwalla, the 1951 Census superintendent, who first postulated the theory of the continuance of migration of Mymensinghia Muslims and Muslims from other parts of East Pakistan which was later on termed infiltration of Pakistanis or Bangladeshis in Assam.
During and after the anti-Muslim riots of January 1950, mischievous rumours of a large scale immigration of Muslims from East Pakistan to invade Assam were spread. Vaghaiwalla refuted these mischievous rumours and observed:
There have been many grossly exaggerated reports of the recent, heavy stream of immigration into Assam, not merely in the press and on the platform, but also in authoritative circles. It has been stated by some that, in recent times, about five lakhs of Muslim immigrants came to Assam one and a half (1/2) lakh to Cachar alone. A study of the Census figures reveals how grossly exaggerated these reports were.
Vaghaiwalla’s report did not support the theory of a large scale immigration of East Pakistani Muslims to Assam, and he was also aware that the political, constitutional and psychological climate in Assam was “very adverse to any further Pakistan immigration into the state.” Still, he supported the view that immigration of East Pakistani Muslims was continuing even after the partition, but “not on a large scale.”
PERFUNCTORY CENSUS OF 1951
The Census operations of 1951 were the first such operations in independent India, and , as such, were very important not only in determining the disturbance of the pattern of population due to the partition of British India, but also for the future analysis of various aspects, for example, the growth rate of various segments of the population, inter and intra-state migration, etc. but the operations were perfunctory and deficient, and particularly so in Assam.
The report itself does not conceal it. The following extracts are very revealing:
Kamarupa was the worst district from the point of efficient census work. The large number of clear omissions and fictitious entries which have come to light in spite of the fact that the sample was as large as one in a thousand is a definite indictment of the census work of this district. Some Muslims living in Chars, or sand banks of the river, might also have been left out of the count of the 1951 Census.
Pakyntien, Superintendent of the 1961 operation, endorses this deficiency saying:
Shri Vaghaiwalla admitted that there was some amount of under-enumeration in Assam. He said this in the conclusions drawn by him after discussing the various results obtained from the post enumeration check. He also admitted that the post enumeration check was done only in some selected places in the plains …. about seven persons per thousand were not enumerated, and he worked out that the total number of persons left out of the enumeration 1951 was 60,362”. Allowing for an under-enumeration of 3 per cent, the population of Muslims in the 1951 Census must have been 2,057,665 and not 1,995,936.
MUSLIM INFILTRATION – FACTS AND FICTION
The pre-Independence Congress governments had taken an anti-immigrant stance and even resorted to eviction of the Muslim immigrants from their settlements because the Congress wanted to foil any attempt to include Assam in Pakistan on the basis of the Muslim proportion, or in the grouping with Bengal under the Cabinet Mission Plan. As soon as the controversy was settled that except for Sylhet, Assam would remain in India, the policy of eviction was not pursued.
But there were other groups like Hindu Sabha which were striving to make Assam a ‘Hindu province’ with a negligible Muslim population. These groups were dismayed as the creation of Pakistan did not evoke a mass exodus of Muslims from Assam. For this purpose, the large scale, anti-Muslim riots of 1950 were provoked which were described as a reaction to the inflow of refugees from East Pakistan. The Nehru-Liaquat agreement settled the matter by accepting the principle of the return of these refugees to their respective countries. The Bangla-speaking Muslims who were residing in Assam as on August 15, 1947 including those who returned under the Nehru-Liaquat agreement were, without any doubt, Indians and so are their descendants.
The spirit of the Nehru-Liaquat agreement did not last long. Those who had wanted to de-Muslimise Assam and who had provoked anti-Muslim disturbances of 1950 had for a while calmed down. After some time, they again raised the problem of Pakistani infiltration. The Asamese Muslims who returned after the lapse of a year were branded as Pakistanis. Though these late returnees could not claim citizenship right under the Nehru-Liaquat pact, they were still Indian citizens because (1) they had migrated to Assam before July 19, 1948, and since then were domiciled in India, or (2) they, or either of their parents, were born in undivided India and had not relinquished Indian citizenship by opting for Pakistani nationality. Their sojourn to Pakistan was due to the compulsory circumstances of 1950; but the atmosphere was not conducive to such sane introspection.
DEPORTATION OF MUSLIMS – FIRST PHASE
The provisions of the Assam (expulsion of immigrants) Act of 1950 were invoked during the period from 1952 to 1960. During this period Muslims were accused of being Pakistani infiltrators, and 17,107 were deported to East Pakistan from Assam.
The phrases attached to the persons detected and deported during the period 1952-1960 and thereafter also were “Pakistani immigrants,” or “Pakistani infiltrators.” The question, which is beyond comprehension, is why Pakistani nationals who were Muslims were migrating to Assam? What was making them leave their own country? The only answers given by all – from official authorities to “anti-foreigners” agitators and believed by gullible politicians, authors, and journalists are the “land hunger” of these East Pakistanis (now Bangladeshis). Be it land hunger or any other motive, was it worth taking all the risks? It was rather like committing suicide. Were they so foolhardy as to commit themselves to living under the constant fear even of death? What benefits awaited them in Assam? Being Bengali-speaking, they were bound to invite the wrath of Assamese chauvinism every now and then. Being Muslims, they were suspected of being “detrimental to the interest of the general public of India and they could be the victims of aggressive anti-Muslim sentiments. Also being ‘Pakistani’, they could be arrested, prosecuted, kept in jail for years, and pushed across the border any time. Can any hunger prompt thousands to act so rashly?
(to be continued)