The Assam Movement, also known as the Anti-Foreigners Agitation, was a popular uprising in Assam, India, from 1979 to 1985, that demanded the Government of India detect, disenfranchise and deport illegal aliens."[T]he movement leaders demanded that the central government take steps to identify, disenfranchise, and deport illegal aliens.": "The citizenship status of many of the newer immigrants was ambiguous[...] The campaign also led to friction between the ethnic Assamese and some of Assam's "plains tribal" groups." Led by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) the movement defined a six-year period of sustained civil disobedience campaigns, political instability and widespread ethnic violence."The years since 1979 saw governmental instability, sustained civil disobedience campaigns, and some of the worst ethnic violence in the history of post-independence India, including the killing of 3,000 people during the February 1983 election." The movement ended in 1985 with the Assam Accord.
It was known since 1963 that foreign nationals had been improperly added to electoral rolls—and when the draft enrollments in Mangaldoi showed high number of non-citizens in 1979 AASU decided to campaign for thoroughly revised electoral rolls in the entire state of Assam by boycotting the 1980 Lok Sabha election."If there were a number of 'foreigners' in only one constituency—Mangaldai—what about other constituencies?...Naturally then, the next step for the AASU was to oppose the 1980 Lok Sabha elections without a thorough revision of electoral rolls of not just in Mangaldai but in the entire state...AASU leaders gave a call to political parties to boycott the polls till the EC revised the state's electoral rolls." "Preparations to a bye election to the Mangaldoi parliamentary constituency in mid 1979 revealed that out of 47,000 alleged illegal entries of the names of foreigners brought to the notice of the electoral registration officers, 36,000 were disposed of and out of these as many as 26,000 or over 72 per cent were found to be and declared as illegal entries being those of non-citizens. What is true of the Mangaldoi constituency could be true of many other constituencies. No wonder, Mangaldoi became the rallying point of a renewed attack on the electoral rolls culminating in the boycott of the Lok Sabha poll in January 1980." The Indira Gandhi government that followed could not accept the demands of the movement leaders as it came at considerable political cost"[t]o treat Hindu immigrants from East Pakistan and what subsequently became Bangladesh as illegal, irrespective of what the citizenship laws state, would have alienated significant sections of Hindu opinion in the country. On the other hand, to explicitly distinguish between Hindu "refugees" and Muslim "illegal aliens" would have cut into the secular fabric of the state and would have alienated India's Muslim minority. To expel "foreigners" would also have political costs internationally in terms of India's relations with Bangladesh: the official Bangladeshi position is that there are no illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India.""From the center’s point of view, readily giving in to the nationalists would exact a significant political cost: it would imperil its Bengali immigrant vote bank, 40 and treating Hindu immigrants from what had been East Pakistan as illegal aliens would have courted disaster in mainstream Hindu circles in the rest of the country. The “obvious” solution to this problem—of making an exemption for Bengali Hindus while declaring Bengali Muslim immigrants illegal — would open a unique can of worms, drawing into question the secular nature of the Indian republic as well as alienating Muslims at large, an important constituency for Congress. Finally, expelling Bengali immigrants would spell trouble for India’s relations with Bangladesh" and the movement escalated to economic blockades, oppression, violent pogroms and lasting ethnic conflict. The political nature of this movement was heavily debated among scholars in the journal Economic and Political Weekly.Some of the scholars who took part in the debate were Amalendu Guha, Hiren Gohain, Sanjib Baruah, Gail Omvedt, and others. The terms used in this debate were "chauvinism", "nationalism", "subnationalism" etc. The accord became possible under the Rajiv Gandhi ministry when the emphasis was on negotiation and compromise which both sides made, and particularly because Rajiv Gandhi was less concerned with Congress (I)'s electoral fortunes."As was the case in Punjab (see below), Rajiv Gandhi’s “decisiveness” garnered a great deal of credit. Unlike his mother, who “disliked making decisions,” Rajiv “hears his people and decides quickly—often immediately in the cabinet meeting.” The “fundamental difference” between the two was that while Indira was more interested in protecting Congress' majority, Rajiv cared less about the party’s interests and wanted to be seen as a problem-solver."
The Assam Accord did not resolve the problem of foreigners' names in electoral rolls because the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 passed by Indira Gandhi's government soon after the 1983 elections made it practically impossible to prove anyone in Assam was an illegal alien."The Indian Parliament in 1983—at a time when Assam was largely unrepresented as a result of the election boycott—passed the Illegal Migrants (Determination of Tribunal) Act, making it difficult, if not impossible, to prove that someone was an illegal alien in Assam."
Background Political Demography of Assam
+1983 Estimates of Immigrant Arrivals Period Estimate Type 1947–1951 274,000 Refugee"The 1951 census reported that 274,000 refugees had entered Assam since 1947. Most of these, it is believed, were Bengali Hindus." 1951–1961 221,000 Muslim Pakistani"Since immigration was no longer legal, recent Bengali Muslim migrants told census enumerators in 1961 that Assam was their place of birth and Assamese was their mother tongue. Bengali Muslims did, however, report their religion, thereby enabling the census commissioner to conclude on the basis of an examination of the data on the growth rate of Muslims that 221,000 Bengali Muslims had entered the state between 1951 and 1961, almost all illegally from East Pakistan" 1961–1971424,000 Muslim Pakistani"In 1971 the census reported an increase of 820,000 Muslims, or approximately 424,000 more than could be accounted for by natural population increase." 1971–1981 1,800,000 All immigrants"According to government estimates the population of Assam increased from 14.6 million in 1971 to 19.9 million in 1981, or 5.3 million (36.3 percent). Had Assam's population increased at the all-India rate of 24.7 percent the population increase would have been 3.6 million. Moreover, according to the Sample Registration of the Government of India, the natural population increase of Assam was 0.5 percent less than the all-India figures in 1970–72 and 1.2 percent less in 1976–78. On the basis of these figures we can estimate that the immigration into Assam from 1971 to 1981 was on the order of 1.8 million. How much of this was migration from elsewhere in India and how much from Bangladesh is purely conjectural, although it is plausible to assume that most of it was illegal migration." +2016 Estimates of New Immigrants from Bangladesh/East PakistanFigure 3.5 Period Estimate 1951–1961 295,785 1961–1971 312,495 1971–1991 1,121,949 1991–2001 1,742,044 +2016 Estimates of Ever-Immigrants from Bangladesh/East Pakistan and their descendants Period Estimate 1961 295,785 1971 698,199 1991 2,121,770 2001 4,235,124 +2019 Doubtful Voters in Final Draft of the NRC using 1971 Cut-off with Estimated Demographic Breakdown Demographic Doubtful Citizenship Total 1,906,657 Bangla Muslim ~486,000 Bangla Hindu 500,000–690,000 All Muslims ~700,000 Assamese Hindus ~60,000
Assam, a Northeast Indian state, has been the fastest growing region in the Indian subcontinent for much of the 20th century with the population growing six-fold till the 1980s as against less than three-fold for India."Throughout this century Assam has been the fastest growing area in the subcontinent. Its population has grown nearly sixfold since 1901 when it had a population of 3.3 million; India's population has grown less than threefold over this period." Since the natural growth rate of Assam has been found to be less than the national rate, the difference can only be attributed to a net immigration."Since there is no evidence that Assam's rate of increase was significantly different than that in the rest of India (in the 1970s its estimated rate of natural increase was actually slightly below the all-India average), the difference can only be accounted for by net immigration."
Immigration in the 19th century was driven by British colonialism—tribal and low castes were brought in from central India to work as labourers in tea gardens and educated Hindu Bengalis from Bengal to fill administrative and professional positions. The largest group, Muslims peasants from Mymensingh, immigrated after about 1901—and they settled in Goalpara in the first decade and further up the Brahmaputra Valley in the next two decades. These major groups were joined by other smaller groups that settled as traders, merchants, bankers, moneylenders, and small industrialists. Yet another community who had settled in Assam were Nepali dairy farmers.
The British dismantled the older Ahom system, made Bengali the official language (Assamese was restored in 1874), and placed Hindu Bengalis in colonial administrative positions. By 1891 one-fourth of the population of Assam was of migrant origin. Assamese nationalism, which grew by the beginning of the 20th century, began to look at both the Hindu Bengalis as well as the British as alien rulers."By the beginning of the twentieth century Assamese nationalists were pitted against the Bengalis as well as against the British, both of whom were seen as alien rulers." The emerging Assamese literate class aspired to the same positions as those enjoyed by the Bengali Hindus, mostly from Sylhet.