Miya people

The Miya people, (also Na-Asamiya), refers to the descendants of Muslim peasants from Mymensingh, Rangpur and Rajshahi that settled in the Brahmaputra Valley during the British colonisation of Assam in the 20th-century.[1]

Miya
Miya / Na-Asamiya
Total population
c. 7  million
Regions with significant populations
 India (Assam) 6.4 million (20.04%)
Languages
Assamese, Bengali
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Bengali Muslims, Assamese Muslims, Sylhetis

Etymology

Miya is derived from mian, an honorific of Persian origin used throughout the subcontinent when addressing a Muslim gentleman. Used pejoratively against the community, the term was re-appropriated by a group of Miya poets who have begun asserting their identity.[2] Miya or Miya Musalman has now begun appearing in serious discourse.[3] The term Na-Asamiya, in the Assamese language, literally means 'neo-Assamese' and was used by the community and the local elites as a new identity in Assam to establish a relationship with the Assamese language.[4][5] They are also referred to as Charua Musalman, literally meaning Muslims of the chars (riverine islands), because of their preference in settling in the chars;[6] and as Pamua Musalman, literally meaning Muslim farmers, as agriculture is their primary livelihood.

History

Migration to Assam

The migration of Muslims from eastern Bengal to Assam started during the census decade of 1901–11.[7] 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 underprivileged 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 East Bengal.[1]

The migration of Muslims peasants from East Bengal was officially encouraged prior to the Partition of India by the British imperialists, the All-India Muslim League as well as a section of the Assamese elite; bit it was only considered illegal after the Partition of India in 1947 when Assam belonged to India and East Bengal to Pakistan.[9] Many of these migrant Muslims settled on the chars or riverine islands on the Brahmaputra and other low-lying areas. After the Independence of India in 1947, the group gave up their Bengali linguistic identity, adopting the Assamese language as their native language. Gradually they adopted Assamese culture which has led to them being known as Na-Asamiya (Neo-Assamese). The Na-Asamiyas constitute the largest of the four major Muslim ethnic groups in Assam, who together constitute a third of Assam's electorate.[10]

The local gentry of Assam including matabbars, Barpetia matigiris, Marwaris and Assamese moneylenders encouraged the migration out of their own interests. The matabbars (literally meaning 'influential person' 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.

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.

Demography

Miya people constitute a majority of the three million population dwelling in the riverine islands of Brahmaputra. 70% of them live below the poverty line.[11] They occupy the Brahmaputra chars along the districts of Dhubri, Barpeta, Nalbari, Kamrup, Morigaon, Nagaon, Darrang and Sonitpur.[12]

Population

Miyas have a population of almost 6.4 million which is spread throughout Assam covering 20% of the state Population, though they are mainly concentrated in Barpeta, Dhuburi, Goalpara, Kamrup, Nagaon, Hojai, Darrang, Chirang, Kokrajhar, South Salmara, Nalbari, Morigaon, and Bongaigaon. [13] [14]]

Language

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. 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, 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 Koch, Kachari and Ahoms. By this time the migrant Muslims began to establish Assamese-medium schools and colleges, attempting 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.[15]

With the official acceptance of Assamese language and close proximity to Goalpariya speakers, the Miya have gradually also developed a creole Miya home language. The Miya officially adopted the Assamese language during the language movement.[16] In formal and official meetings, they are able to switch to Standard Assamese.

Culture

Many scholars from Miya community are trying to uplift the Miya society through poems. One of its aims is to reclaim the word "Miya", which is often used pejoratively by non-Muslims.[17][18] They have chosen poverty, child marriage, population bomb, illiteracy as their subject. The collection of these poems are termed as Miya poetry. In recent time, due to poetic context, Miya poetry has created a controversy in Assam, especially among its indigenous people.[19] [20] The movement started with the publication in 2016 of "Write Down, I am a Miya" by Hafiz Ahmed.[21] There have been complaints by the media and to police that such poetry is "anti-Assamese" even though it is written in the Assamese language.[22]

Notable people

See also

Notes
  1. "Entire households moved into Assam from the East Bengal districts of Mymensingh, Pabna, Bogra, Rangpur and Rajshahi." (Sharma 2011:100)
  2. (Baruah 2020:53)
  3. "In this book I will refer to this community as Miya or Miya Musalman—using the Assamese terms..." (Baruah 2020:53)
  4. "They gradually adopted a new identity as Na or Natun Asomiya Musalman (New Assamese Muslims), whose language was Assamese and whose religion was Islam." (Sharma 2011:103)
  5. "Along with other migrant groups like Tea planter labourers, they were also accepted and welcomed by middle class elites of mainstream Assamese society to the fold of Assamese culture and thus termed them as "Na-Asamiya". "Na" in Assamese means "new", "Asamiya" means Assamese. Thus Na-Asamiya means New Assamese." (Khandakar 2016:15)
  6. (Sharma 2011:102)
  7. "The disappointment of the nineteenth-century colonial officials, however, gave way to optimism by 1911, as dramatic trends of migration began to appear just prior to that census." (Baruah 1999:56)
  8. 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. "Miya, Muslim and Assamese Socio-Political History of Assam". Indilens.com. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  10. Bhaumik, Subir (April 2011). "Risk of durable disorder". Seminar. New Delhi: Seminar Publications (620). Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  11. Rix, Meredydd (19 July 2016). "Na-Asamiya Muslims Remain Targeted in Assam". The Citizen. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  12. 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.
  13. "Dehumanising Muslims in Assam". thehoot.org. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2019.[
  14. https://web.archive.org/web/20190327145905/https://indilens.com/514954-miya-muslim-and-assamese-socio-cultural-history-of-assam/ Miya on History
  15. Wadud, Aman (21 May 2016). "All Hindu Consolidation or the last battle to protect Assamese Identity: Assam Polls Results". Sabrang. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  16. "East Bengal rooted Muslim or Miyah and Line System in Assam-1920". Indilens.com. 11 December 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  17. Baruah, Sanjib (2020). In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast. Stanford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781503611290.
  18. Singh, Kanika (2020). "Building a Center for Writing and Communication: Inclusion, Diversity and Writing in the Indian Context". In Sanger, Catherine Shea; Gleason, Nancy W. (eds.). Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education. Springer Nature. pp. 209–227. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-1628-3_8. ISBN 9789811516283.
  19. "Interview | There is a Conspiracy to Show Bengal-Origin Muslims as Anti-Assamese: Hafiz Ahmed". The Wire. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  20. https://bengali.indianexpress.com/opinion/assam-miya-poetry-history-politics-identity-135975/ আসামের মিঞা কবিতার ইতিহাস, ভূগোল ও দেশপ্রেম
  21. Baishya, Amit R. (2020). ""Multipartner Mud Dances": The Uneventful Entanglement of Humans and Animals in Two Assamese Poems" (PDF). Café Dissensus (4).
  22. Zaidi, Annie (2020). Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation. Cambridge University Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 9781108840644.

References
  • Baruah, Sanjib (1999). India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-565840-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Baruah, Sanjib (2020). In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast. Stanford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781503611290.
  • Khandakar, Abdullah (2016). Social Exclusion of Inhabitants of Chars: A Study of Dhubri District in Assam (PDF) (M.Phil.). Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  • Sharma, Jayeeta (2011). Empire's Garden: Assam and the making of India. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-5049-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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