A new beginning or the beginning of the end.

I don’t know where it will lead us to but if something has started then let it start even though the protests are yet to take a statewide status with participants from all groups – majority and minority (religious and linguistic). 

I am not and do not presume to be a know it all or a pseudo intellectual. I am what I am because of the times and surroundings I have been living. I have formed my opinions and beliefs based on my interactions (however few they may be) with different people. My opinion (which may or may not be different from the facts) is that the common people and even many so called intellectuals do not have any idea about who is an Assamese.
Many people believe that only the people speaking the Assamese language per se are Assamese leaving a vast majority of other native people speaking languages like Bodo, Miri, Mising, Rabha, Karbi etc. out of that fold. I believe this particular narrow mindset of a large section of the Assamese speaking people have alienated the other linguistic minorities. If we read our history books we hardly find any or very few references of leaders or about the people speaking the other native languages of Assam. I believe that the feeling of alienation, neglect and exploitation from the Indian mainland that the Assamese always speaks about with regard to our backwardness are also felt by the other linguistic minorities of Assam towards the Assamese speaking ruling elite. No doubt we see so many armed insurgent/terrorist groups from our region demanding separation or more rights for their own linguistic groups. We have seen sharp division of the state on the basis of language. Autonomous district councils have been formed for development of districts where a single language is spoken by a vast majority (the word majority here needs citation from interested groups and is subject to hard facts as I have only taken a general view like everyone else). I believe that this same sense of alienation, neglect and exploitation felt by the other linguistics groups of Assam, notably the Bodos, may have led to them demand separation from Assam.

The common Assamese speaking person is so naïve that a person from the upper Assam districts laughs at the spoken language of lower Assam. A person belonging to the upper Assam districts do not know that languages spoken in Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta and Goalpara are dialects of the same Assamese language. People of those areas are of the view that since the semantics and syntax of the Assamese written language is as based on the way it is spoken in their areas (notably Sibsagar) they claim a moral high-ground by saying that they are correct speakers of the language. The history of the written Assamese language is a very deep subject matter and I do not think that this is the right moment to ponder over or discuss about it. I will take that opportunity at a later time at my own discretion if nobody objects.

Again the common Assamese does not have any idea regarding the other religious minorities. Very few people belonging to the other religious groups know anything about the Muslims in Assam. The Assamese muslims are a distinct group and are different from the predominantly Bengali (sylheti or mymenshingia dialects) speaking illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Even if I am accused of creating division among people on the basis of language or religion I believe some kind of separation and distinction based on nationality needs to be made for the betterment of the larger cause. In this case betterment of the Assamese people in particular and other north eastern states in general. Separation and distinction needs to be made for the Assamese Muslims who had been either living (by settling, being settled or by conversion to Islam) in Assam from many centuries or had come to this land before a widely accepted date or year (presently 24th March 1971)and have now fully assimilated with the larger Assamese society. These people have widely contributed to the development of the Assamese society be it in literature, popular culture or the economy. They are part of and belong to this land just like any of the other native people.

Let this not be just a movement against illegal migrants (belonging to a particular community and a particular country) let this be a movement to educate our fellow countrymen about each other. The greater Assamese intelligentsia needs to get together and educate the greater Assamese society about each other. Intelligent people belonging to the media, literature, entertainment industry (music, film, theatre, television, advertising, etc) and the educationists should get together to present a united front to fight against the illegal migrants (belonging to any country and any religion) and to take this movement to its logical end.

The media and the entertainment industry should make a beginning by stop depicting stereotypical images of other religious and linguistic minorities in the name of comedy or whatever. For example the typical images of a Muslim person is depicted as having a beard, wears a skull cap all the time and in either a lungi or a pyjama, and is always a very religious man who takes Allah’s name all the time and is forever ready to offer namaj. Again a Christian person is always/most of the time speaks in half English and half his mother tongue, a Sikh person is depicted as either a very dim witted jolly or a very dim witted aggressive person where being dim witted is the only common characteristic.

The native Muslims of the land should come forward and unite in this movement of education and fight against illegal immigration. They should not consider themselves inferior or any different from the greater Assamese society. The people should unite on the basis of their nationality and if difference needs to be created then create it between people being legal Indians and illegal Indians as per the law of the land.

If people are not educated the protests will be taken advantage by people with fundamentalist and communal agendas. They will divide the people on narrow religious lines. Division on narrow religious lines will lead to violent clashes. These violent communal clashes will lead to civil war and destruction of the Indian nation as a whole. These thoughts may now sound like figments of my imagination or some conspiracy theory but we have very recently seen how vested interests are waiting for such a situations to arise.

The reasons I am emphasizing these thoughts and beliefs is that I want to have a peaceful and prosperous future for everyone in this land as well as for the future generations.

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