Assam Movement

Assam was affected by an illegal influx of Muslims from East Bengal beginning in the 1920s. These illegal immigrants encroached on lands used as grazing reserves. The Muslim population increased rapidly, supported by the communal policies of the Assam Provincial Muslim League under the leadership of S.M.Sadullah only aggravated the situation. The concern for rapidly increasing refugee flows arriving from East Bengal and later newly formed East Pakistan in the 1940s, created tension among the Indigenous Assamese people and many tribes in the state.[5] The first influx of Muslim refugees in considerable number was in October 1946 following the Noakhali riots.[6] Between 1948 and 1971, large scale migrations of all faiths came from Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) to Assam.[7] By May 1949 the number of immigrants reached two-and-half lakhs, increasing to 2,74,455.[6]

Student leaders in 1979 came out in fierce protest demanding detention, disenfranchisement and deportation of illegal immigrants.[8] 1978 Hiralal Patwari died, requiring a by-election in the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha Constituency to fill his seat. During the election, observers noticed that the number of registered voters had grown dramatically. AASU demanded that the elections be postponed until the names of foreign nationals were deleted from the electoral rolls. The Assam Agitation developed thereafter.

On 27 November 1979, AASU-AAGSP called for the closure of all educational institutes and picketing in state and central government offices. Mass picketing was arranged in front of all polling offices where candidate filed their nominations, in the first week of December 1979. No candidates were allowed to file nomination papers in the Brahmaputra valley. On 10 December, the last date for submitting the nomination papers, was declared as a statewide bandh. The government proclaimed a curfew at different parts of the state, including the major city of Guwahati.

At Barpeta, then IGP K.P.S. Gill led the police force in escorting Bagam Abida Ahmed to file nomination papers; they attacked protestors. Khargeswar Talukdar, the 22-year-old general secretary of Barpeta AASU Unit, was beaten to death and thrown into a ditch next to the highway at Bhabanipur. Talukdar was honoured by the Assam Movement as its first Martyr.[10]

On 7 October 1982, while leading a procession from Nagaon to hojai in support of a bandh called by the All Assam Students Union, Anil Bora Was beaten to death at Hojai by people who opposed the bandh as well as the Movement.[11]

Subsequently, violence spread across the Brahmaputra valley. In a stunning incident on 18 February 1983, during the Nellie massacre, a mob of indigenous Assamese killed 2,191 suspected immigrants, in 14 villages in Nagaon district.[12]

The parliament passed the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act (IM-DT) in October 1983 and began to implement it in Assam. Negotiations took place between the government and AASU-AAGSP during the later parts of 1984 and first part of 1985. In May 1985, formal talks started and the Home Secretary led the central government team. Several rounds of talks took place during May-July 1985. Initially the Assam coalition wanted immigrants from the 1961-71 waves to be disfranchised and dispersed to other areas of the country. By August 1985, they had agreed to a new cutoff date of January 1966; immigrants who had entered illegally after that were to be detected, deported and disfranchised for 10 years.

• Assamese language movement

• Weiner, Myron (June 1983), "The Political Demography of Assam's Anti-Immigrant Movement", Population and Development Review, Population Council, 9 (2): 279–292, doi:10.2307/1973053, JSTOR 1973053

• List of martyrs
• Assam Agitation photos and info
• https://assamaccord.assam.gov.in/sites/default/files/swf_utility_folder/departments/assamaccord_medhassu_in_oid_3/portlet/level_1/files/Martyrs%20List.pdf