Kokrajhar:
Blood and Belonging in Assam goes beneath the surface of the latest clashes in Assam's Kokrajhar and adjoining districts, governed by the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council to delve into the faultlines of ethnicity, religion and economic disparities that cut across Assam's various tribes and populations.
The targets of the latest violence once again, are the Bengali Muslim community in the area. Many of them, originally from what is today Bangladesh but had entered lower Assam in the 20th century, either fleeing the partition or the bloody backlash by a brutal Pakistani army during the creation of Bangladesh. The Bodo movement for autonomy and a separate state began nearly three decades ago, on the back of the Assam Agitation against the influx of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, after 1971. The Bodos argue that an agreement to detect and deport anyone who's entered Assam after that date has not been implemented on the ground, and the numbers of a Bengali speaking Muslim population are growing so rapidly, that it threatens the very identity and livelihood of the Bodos - Assam's largest tribe - in their own homeland. The distinction between immigrant - legal or illegal - and the descendants of settlers is extremely - and perhaps deliberately blurred in the Bodoland area of Assam. The Bodos argue that the fight is about the Bengali - read Bangladeshi Muslim foreigner. The fact that many of their families have been here for generations, that many are actually born and raised in Assam, as Indian citizens with all the corresponding rights, is irrelevant.
But any attempt to understand the anatomy of these clashes will fail, if they remain simplistically about a clash between two groups - a minority and a majority. The Bodos are about 30 per cent of the population in the four districts they govern, non Bodos - who include Bengali speaking Muslims, Hindus, as well as several other tribes make up the remaining 70 odd per cent. Earlier clashes have been between Bodos and other smaller tribal populations as well, although the "foreigner" from Bangladesh remains the key target. However, any attempt to call these clashes communal is met with immediate and robust denial, with the Bodo leadership insisting that they have nothing against the area's indigenous Muslims, either Bengali or Assamese speaking. In fact, Assam's indigenous Muslim population, especially in Upper Assam dates back to the 13th century.
The struggle for political space and resources saw a watershed in 2003 with a peace accord signed between the centre, state and the Bodoland Liberation Tigers or BLT, many of whom now make up the Bodo People's Front that governs the autonomous region after their surrender of arms. But periodic clashes with a community that has grown in numbers, even after 1971 has meant the different communities of this area live under the spectre of bloodshed and retaliatory violence- victims on a daily basis. At last count, officially the death toll in the last two weeks of violence was 57, and 3,92,000 people have had to flee their homes to seek shelter in relief camps, that are also divided along ethnic lines. This is clearly the biggest, most neglected humanitarian crisis in the country.