Latest news with #MiyaKhedaAndolan
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Anti-'Miya' campaign continues in upper Assam, CM Himanta Sarma says protests should be democratic
Guwahati: Even as a campaign against 'Miyas' in parts of upper Assam is getting intensified, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to people not to take law into their own hands. Miya is a pejorative term for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam. Sarma said places like Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Sivasagar are the 'borghar' (heartland) of the Assamese. 'If somebody enters our borghar and nobody speaks up, who will rescue the 'jati' (race)?' he asked. He called for raising a voice against it and agitating but within the law. 'The situation will deteriorate if somebody attempts to wipe out the Assamese. When somebody enters our borghar, it is natural that people will speak up against it,' he said. The Bengali-speaking Muslims are concentrated in southern, western, central and northern Assam. Upper Assam is the state's eastern part. Sarma said if people had encroached upon government land after being affected by riverbank erosion, they would have grabbed a small plot of land. He mentioned that people grabbed lands measuring up to 200 to 300 bighas in some places. The ongoing 'Miya Kheda Andolan' (movement to drive out Miyas) in upper Assam followed eviction drives carried out by the state government in Dhubri, Goalpara, Lakhimpur and Golaghat districts. Thousands of people, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, were evicted.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Oppose encroachment lawfully, Assam CM Himanta tells indigenous groups
GUWAHATI: Amid a campaign against Bengali-speaking Muslims in eastern Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma advised the indigenous communities to oppose encroachment of government lands peacefully and within the law. He, however, warned of serious consequences if there is any attempt to harm the Assamese community. The Chief Minister's insistence on democratic protests is seen as a bid to defuse tension in districts such as Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, and Tinsukia, where a 'Miya Kheda Andolan' (movement to expel the Miyas, a pejorative term for Muslims with roots in present-day Bangladesh) has sparked localised unrest. In Sivasagar, for instance, confrontation between the Assamese Muslims and non-Muslim indigenous groups has been reported following a house-to-house search by the latter to check the documents of 'Miya' workers staying on rent. Some Assamese Muslims, a community wooed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, have been accused of sheltering the Bengali-speaking Muslims because of religious affiliation. The Chief Minister's earlier call to not provide shelter to people evicted from various categories of government lands is believed to have led to the 'order' of some indigenous student and youth organisations to parts of eastern Assam. Some 6,000 people, mostly migrant Muslims, have been evicted from government lands since June. 'We must stand firmly against attempts to destroy our culture and beliefs, but nobody should take the law into their own hands,' Mr. Sarma said on the sidelines of an event in Guwahati on Wednesday (August 6, 2025). Condemning some incidents of violence during the anti-encroachment protests, he insisted that the indigenous communities must raise their voices to protect their culture and identity. 'If we don't do it now, there won't be another opportunity,' he said. Congress, Raijor Dal, and other opposition parties have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of fuelling communal hatred by tacitly supporting divisive rhetoric. They have urged the people to remain calm and not fall into the trap of religious polarisation. AASU backs eviction drive The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) backed the State government's drive to clear encroachment of forests, government lands, and those belonging to the satras (neo-Vaishnav monasteries). It, however, said the government must withdraw the 2019 CAA and publish an error-free updated NRC. CAA and NRC refer to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens, respectively. The demand to withdraw the CAA coincided with the Assam government's decision to withdraw all cases in the Foreigners' Tribunals against non-Muslim refugees who entered the State on or before December 31, 2014. All tribunals and District Commissioners have been instructed to act accordingly. 'We want the entire northeast to be exempted from the CAA. Assam accepted illegal migrants who had settled by March 24, 1971. The northeast cannot take more burden of the illegal migrants, be it Hindus or Muslims,' AASU president Utpal Sarma said after a meeting of the North East Students' Organisation (NESO) in Guwahati on Wednesday (August 6, 2025). The NESO is the umbrella organisation of the major student bodies of the eight northeastern States. Following protests in 2019, the Centre excluded states with inner-line permits from the purview of the CAA. These States are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland. The AASU also sought a flawless NRC. 'Those failing to make the error-free updated list must be deleted from the electoral rolls and deported to Bangladesh,' the AASU president said. The complete NRC draft, published in August 2019, left out 19.06 lakh of the approximately 3.3 crore applicants. The updating process has been in limbo since.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
‘Miya' Muslims asked to vacate parts of eastern Assam
GUWAHATI Muslims with roots in present-day Bangladesh, referred to as 'Miya' and perceived to be 'illegal immigrants', have been asked to vacate certain pockets of eastern Assam following Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's appeal to not provide shelter to people evicted from various categories of government land. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government has been conducting court-mandated eviction drives from forest lands, notified grazing grounds, and revenue lands in phases since 2016. The resumption of the drive in June is seen as a fallout of the Pahalgam attack in April. More than 55,000 people, mostly Bengali Muslims, have been evicted since 2016. The number of those evicted this year is estimated to be 6,000. At least seven organisations have been conducting house-to-house searches in the Sivasagar district to verify the documents of people working as labourers and staying on rent. A leader of one of these organisations, called Bir Lachit Sena, said they made at least a dozen people with 'suspect nationality' go back to where they came from. The All Tai Ahom Students' Union undertook a similar exercise in the Tinsukia district further east. Reports quoting the union's president, Milan Buragohain, said members of his organisation intercepted 16 'Miyas' near a bus stand in Tinsukia town on August 5. These persons were on their way to Arunachal Pradesh to work as masons and construction labourers, but were made to return home to western Assam's Barpeta, Dhubri, and South Salmara-Mankachar districts. The union also said it issued a month's notice to some 50 families of 'illegal immigrants' to leave an area near the district's coal-rich Margherita town. The 'Miya Kheda Andolan' (movement to eject Bengali-speaking Muslims) has made the indigenous or Assamese Muslims uneasy. 'Certain groups are trying to whip up communal tension by accusing us of sheltering the Miyas. Our people have rented out their houses to Indian citizens, people living in Assam before March 24, 1971,' Monirul Islam Bora, a Sivasagar resident, told journalists. 'We are not against the drive to evict encroachers from government and satra (Vaishnav monastery) lands. We want to know if the district authorities have permitted these organisations to check the documents of people in the name of ejecting the Miya people,' he said. Officials in the eastern Assam districts said they have been verifying complaints of harassment of certain categories of people.
