Na Asamiya

Na-Asamiya or more popularly Miya refers to the group of migrant Muslims in Assam who began arriving in Assam after the colonization of Assam by the British from eastern Bengal (later East Bengal, East Pakistan and Bangladesh) and started settling in the Brahmaputra Valley. The migration was officially encouraged by the British, the Muslim League government in the 1940s and a section of the Assamese elite prior to the Partition of India and considered illegal after the constitution of Pakistan in 1947. Many of these migrant Muslims settled on the chars or riverine islands on the Brahmaputra and other low-lying areas. The Na-Asamiyas constitute the largest of the four major Muslim ethnic groups in Assam, who constitute a third of Assam's electorate.[1]

Etymology

The term 'Na-Asamiya' in Assamese language literally means 'new Assamese', the prefix Na- means 'new' and Asamiya means 'Assamese'.[2] After the Partition of India, the group gave up its Bengali linguistic identity and adopted the Assamese language. Gradually they adopted Assamese culture like gamosa. In English, they are sometimes referred to as Neo-Assamese. Na-Asamiyas also referred to as Charua Musalman, literally meaning Muslims of the chars, because of their preference in settling in the chars. They are also known as Pamua Musalman, literally meaning farming Muslims, as agriculture is their primary livelihood.[3] Some scholars also use the terms 'immigrant Muslim' or 'Bengali Muslim' to refer to the group.[3]

Ethnology

The Na-Asamiya Muslims are anthropologically and culturally different from the Assamese Muslims. The Assamese Muslims are medium statured, having leptorrhine nose and mesocephalic head.[4] According to a comparative study conducted in Kamrup district in 1995, the pre-adolescent Assamese Muslim males were found to be shorter and lighter than their Na-Asamiya counterparts.[5] The Na-Asamiyas are different from Assamese Muslims and Barak Valley Muslims in significant respects.[3]

The Na-Asamiyas constitute a majority of the three million population dwelling in the riverine islands of Brahmaputra. 70% of them live below the poverty line.[6] The Na-Asamiyas occupy the Brahmaputra chars along the districts of Dhubri, Barpeta, Nalbari, Kamrup, Morigaon, Nagaon, Darrang and Sonitpur.[7]

With the official acceptance of Assamese language and close proximity the Goalparia dialect, the Na-Asamiyas with the passage of time began to forget their original language. They gradually developed a creole language of their own containing 50% Assamese loanwords, 40% Bengali loanwords and 10% Urdu loanwords. The new language began to be known as Charua, Pamuah or Miah. This pidgin language is spoken by the Na-Asamiyas mostly at home and village, but in formal and official meetings, they switch to standard Assamese.

History

Migration to Assam

The migration of Muslims from eastern Bengal to Assam started during the census decade of 1901-11.[3] According to census reports, there was a large-scale migration of human population from eastern Bengal to Assam between 1911 and 1941.[8] 85% of the immigrant population were socially and economically backward Muslims, who settled down in the wastelands of Assam.[8] The majority of the migrants came from the erstwhile undivided Mymensingh, Pabna, Bogra and Rangpur districts of Dhaka and Rajshahi Divisions of eastern and northern Bengal.[3]

The local gentry of Assam including matabbars, Barpetia matigiris, Marwaris and Assamese money lenders encouraged the migration out of their own interests. The matabbars (literally meaning 'influential person in a village' in Bengali) were the earlier migrants, who owned large amounts of fallow cultivable lands ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 acres. With the ambition of becoming landlords they would send out the message of availability of cultivable lands to their impoverished kinsmen in their native villages in eastern Bengal. They would then either unofficially lease out their lands to the migrant Muslims who arrived later or hire them to cultivate their lands. Thus they would act as de facto landlords. The Barpetia matigiris were a section of Assamese gentry in Barpeta district who made profit by selling excess lands to the migrant Muslims and encouraged further migration to make even quicker profits. The Marwaris and the Assamese money lenders financed the migrant Muslims for the cultivation of jute, ahu rice, pulses and vegetables.

Adoption of Assamese language and culture

In the Presidential address of the 1940 Assam Sahitya Sabha held at Jorhat Dr. Moidul Islam Bora, an Assamese Muslim himself, happily noted that a community leader from the migrant Muslim community had proudly acknowledged the community's firm resolution become the part of mainstream Assamese culture. After the Partition of India, the Muslim League dissolved the party in Assam and asked the Muslim people to join the Congress.[8] The Muslim League leadership proposed that the Muslims should accept the language and culture of the country of their residence.[8] Accordingly, the leadership asked the Muslims of Assam to register themselves as Assamese speaking during the census. The leadership also asked the Muslims to identify themselves as Assamese and send their children to Assamese medium schools.[8] As directed by the Muslim League leadership, the migrant Muslims gave up their linguistic identity and adopted Assamese as their language. This along with the separation of the major portion of Sylhet district from Assam resulted in a spike in the number of Assamese speakers in Assam. In the 1951 census, the no. of Assamese speakers in Assam rose to 56.7%.[8]

Gradually the Assamese intelligentsia also began to accept the migrant Muslims in the fold of Assamese identity. Benudhar Sharma, the President of 1956 Assam Sahitya Sabha held at Dhubri felt that the mainstream Assamese people were happy to welcome the migrant Muslims into the Assamese fold, just like the Koches, Kacharis and Ahoms. By this time the migrant Muslims began to establish Assamese-medium schools and colleges and attempted to merge themselves into the mainstream of Assamese culture.[8] In 1961, the Census Commissioner reported that the Na-Asamiyas were honest in their intent to learn the Assamese language and send their children to Assamese-medium schools. The migrant Muslims thus came to be known as the Na-Asamiyas. To this day, there is not a single Bengali-medium school in the areas dominated by the Na-Asamiyas.[9]

Role in the language movement

In the 1950s, the Assamese political leadership and the intelligentsia started considering Assamese as the sole official language of the state and began to put forward various arguments in support of their claim. Shashi Sharma, a researcher of Assamese folklore argued that it was because the migrant Muslims had adopted Assamese as their mother tongue, it should be made the official language of the state. The Na-Asamiyas joined the language movement in Assam in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s in favour of Assamese language. In 1965, one Elim Uddin Dewan, an eminent scholar of Assamese language from the Na-Asamiya community, began to edit an Assamese monthly magazine called Ajaan from Chenimari in Barpeta district. In Barpeta district the Na-Asamiyas played an active role during the language movement in the places like Mandia, Kalagachia, Kayakuchi, Moinbari, Baghbar, Alopati, Chenimari, Garala, Dongra, Chontali, Howly, Jania and other places. In the undivided Kamrup district, Na-Asamiya leaders like Sohrab Ali Ahmed, Abdul Hamid, Ismail Hussain and Siddiqur Rahman played a key role in the language movement. In 1972, Mozammil Hoque, a Na-Asamiya and one of the leaders of the language movement, died for the cause of Assamese language.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bhaumik, Subir (April 2011). "Risk of durable disorder". Seminar. New Delhi: Seminar Publications (620). Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  2. ↑ Khandakar, Abdullah (8 February 2016). Social Exclusion of Inhabitants of Chars: A Study of Dhubri District in Assam (PDF) (M.Phil.). Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Bokth, Humayun (December 2014). "Social Life in Char Area: A Study of Neo-Assamese Muslim Village in Brahmaputra Valley of Assam" (PDF). International Journal of Development Research. 4 (12). ISSN 2230-9926. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  4. ↑ Dutta, P.C.; Pradhan, B.C. (2006). "Issues and Problems of Ethnicity in Assam". In Deb, Bimal J. Ethnic Issues, Secularism, and Conflict Resolution in North East Asia. Contributed articles presented at the Seminar on Ethnic Issues, Secularism, and Conflict Resolution in North-East India held at Shillong during 25–26 April 2001. North-East India Council for Social Science Research. Concept Publishing Company. p. 164. ISBN 9788180691348.
  5. ↑ Subba, Tanka Bahadur; Ghosh, G.C. (2003). The Anthropology of North-East India. Anthropological Survey of India, North Eastern Hill University (Reprint ed.). Orient Blackswan. p. 144. ISBN 9788125023357. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  6. ↑ Rix, Meredydd (19 July 2016). "Na-Asamiya Muslims Remain Targeted in Assam". The Citizen. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  7. ↑ Begum, Farzana. "Study on Brahmaputra: The Lifeline of the People of Assam" (PDF). The Mahabahu Brahmaputra. Flood and River Erosion Management Agency of Assam. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ahmed, Shahiuz Zaman. "Identity Issue, Foreigner's Deportation Movement and Erstwhile East Bengal (Present Bangladesh) Origin People of Assam". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Indian History Congress. 67 (2006–2007): 624–639. JSTOR 44147982.
  9. ↑ Wadud, Aman (21 May 2016). "All Hindu Consolidation or the last battle to protect Assamese Identity: Assam Polls Results". Sabrang. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
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