Assam Conflict: Chronology of Events ( Pre - Independence ).

Pre Independence Map of Assam ( 1932 )

Three intersecting strands: the Assam movement; the Bodo movement; and the movement for separate statehood for Karbi Anglong and North Cachar.

Assam Movement: Assamese vs Bengali,'Us' vs 'Them' feeling since colonial times; Creation of Pakistan (1947) and Bangladesh (1971) and the resulting inflow of refugees/illegal migrants; States' attitude to immigrants issue; Breakup of Assam; States' attitude; Assamese 'chauvinism' and its discontents-Bodo, Karbi Anglong, North Cachar. 

The Colonial Period

( The 19th century witnessed large-scale migration of non-Assamese labourers to Assam. They were brought by the British to work on the tea gardens. The British also brought bankers and traders from other provinces in the absence of a local business community in Assam. Bengali bureaucrats and clerks, lawyers and doctors who were trained in British administration were brought to Assam and the members of the traditional local aristocracy were reduced to insignificance. Apart from them, local Bengali artisans who had lost their jobs due to industrialization migrated to Assam to work as land tillers.)

1826: The Burmese ceded Assam to the British on February 24 as per the Treaty of Yandabo, thus bringing to end Ahom rule in Assam which had begun in the 13th century.  

1872: Formation of the Asomiya Sahitya Sabha in Calcutta to promote Assamese language and culture. This set a precedent for the establishment of similar associations. By a government regulation, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal was empowered to prescribe a line to be called the 'Inner Line' in each tribal area beyond which no British subjects and any foreign residents could pass without a licence or pass.  

1873: Recognition of Assamese as the language of court and schools. Bengali community continued to have separate Bengali schools for themselves.

1874: Goalpara and East Bengali district of Sylhet added to Assam and Assam was constituted into a Chief Commissioner's province (Until now, British Assam had been part of a territory comprising Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, northeast India and present day Bangladesh and was called 'Bengal'. It was placed under direct administration of the Government of Bengal.). The Bengali-speaking population increased rapidly now on.

1880: Karbi Anglong and North Cachar placed under the category"frontier tracts". (The British government had a separate policy to deal with the hill tribals based on the basis of economic needs without interfering with the internal affairs of the tribes as maintained by the Ahoms. No land tax was levied except poll tax, house tax and hoe tax.)

1901: Census throws up a majority of Bengali-speaking people in Assam.

1903: Formation of Assam Association which was an association of the politically conscious, Western-educated Assamese middle class. It was led by Manikchand Baruah. Though elitist in composition, it never failed to represent the landed and industrial interests of the poor.

1905: Partition of Bengal and the creation of a new province called East Bengal and Assam (including Chittagong). The partition was vehemently opposed by the Bengali people. The Assam Association did not oppose the partition as such but urged the government for adequate safeguards for the rights of Assam and the Assamese.

1909: Manik Chandra Barua, member of the Legislative Council of East Bengal and Assam, brought the issue of immigration of non-Assamese people to Assam to the attention of the Council.

1912: Annulment of Bengal partition; Assam restored as Chief Commissioner's province with a Legislative Council of its own in Shillong, the capital. A section of Assamese intelligentsia raised the demand for the separation of Sylhet (Bengali speaking) from Assam.

1915: Formation of the Naga Hills District Council.

1916: Formation of the Assam Chhatra Sanmilan, an organisation that focused on literary, social and economic development.

1917: INC accepted redrawing provincial boundaries on linguistic basis. Following this, the question of transfer of Sylhet to Bengal came up for discussion in the Legislative Council.

1918: Goalpara session of the Assam Association sent a delegation to Montague led by NC Bordoloi to present Assam's case for the award of major provincial status, which it succeeded in winning. It extended support for the Montague-Chelmsford reforms.

1919: The Government of India Act changed the status of Assam to a Governor's province with an enlarged Legislative Council of its own of 53 members; however, the composition was such that the Indians could not have a majority and non-officials and Indians got little scope to exercise their rights. GOI Act changed the status of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar to"backward areas/tracts".

1920: Assam Association merged with the INC. Implementation of the Line System -- according to this, areas earmarked for the exclusive settlement of immigrants were segregated by a line to be drawn in each of the districts under pressure. Assamese intelligentsia raised the issue that Assamese language was in danger and that the people of Assam were being reduced to a minority in their own homeland. Non-Cooperation Movement; widespread participation of Assamese. The Assam Chatra Sanmilan was the first to respond to the movement and large numbers of students joined in. Assam Association and the Assam Valley Muslim Association also supported it. There was an increase in political consciousness which also manifested itself in regional demands including the rights of the"sons of the soil" and safeguards to check immigration from nearby provinces.

1921: Formation of the Assam Provincial Congress Committee.

1923: Formation of the Khasi National Durbar.

1926: A resolution on Cachar's (Cachar had a Bengali speaking majority) separation was moved in the Legislative Council but it fell through. Sylhet members were not willing to tag on Cachar and conceded that it was part of Assam. Ambikagiri Roy Choudhary and Nilmani Phukan floated the Asomiya Samarakshini Sabha (Society for the Conservation of the Assamese).

1927: The Simon Commission was appointed. It discussed the constitutional position of the hill areas of north-east India. The District Commissioner of the Naga Hills, Dr JH Hutton, Superintendent of the Lushai Hills, NE Parry and few others advocated the exclusion of the hills citing racial, religious, political and cultural arguments. They suggested the formation of a separate sovereign independent state to be called Crown Colony consisting of all the hill areas of north-east India, the hill tracts of Chittagong, Arakan, Burma etc. However, the plan was foiled.

1929: Simon Commission visited Shillong. The Assam Chhatra Sanmilan took an active part in mobilizing the student community in the anti-Simon Commission agitation. Dibrugarh witnessed a complete hartal paralysing normal life in the state. Government of Assam brought up the Sylhet question before the Simon Commission and stated that it would not oppose Sylhet's transfer from Assam to Bengal so long as Assam's status as a major province remained unchanged. -Naga Club, Bodo community of Goalpara, various Goalpara groups, the Depressed People of Assam Valley, the Khasi National Durbar and the Cachari Juvak Sanmiloni made presentations to the Simon Commission demanding political power. In all, 27 representations were made to the Commission from the north-east region. Simon Commission designated the 'Backward Areas' in Assam as 'Excluded Areas' the reference being to areas excluded from application of provincial legislation.

1931: Noting the upward trend in Muslim settlement, the Assam Census Report called the Muslim Bengalis in Assam"invaders".

1933: Government in Assam decided to establish unilingual schools for the Bengali and Assamese students. All Assam Plains Tribal League formed under Bodo leader Rupnath Brahma.

1934: Formation of the Khasi States Federation.

1935: Government of India Act abolished dyarchy. Communal Award was adopted. The Act reorganized the backward areas of Assam in to the Excluded Areas of the North East Frontier Tract (now Arunachal Pradesh), Naga Hills District (now Nagaland), Lushai Hills District (now Mizoram) and North Cachar Hills District, while the Garo Hills, Mikir Hills and Khasi Jaintia Hills (later to become Meghalaya) were reconstituted as Partially Excluded Areas. The Act also reserved four seats in the 108 member Assam assembly for plains tribals and five seats for backward hill areas.

1936: Karbi Anglong and Cachar Hills fell under the Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas Act. Their administration was vested solely in the hands of the Governor. Jnananath Bora, a leading intellectual in Assam wrote an article in which he proclaimed that although the British had forcibly incorporated Assam into India, the Assamese had always considered themselves to be an independent nation. He also declared that it was the Congress movement which brought Assam under foreign (Indian) rule.

1937: Elections based on the 1935 Act. Though the Congress was the single largest party in the Assembly, it could not command enough majority to form the ministry and opted to form the Opposition under the leadership of GN Bardoloi. Saadullah formed a non-Congress ministry in Assam with the support of the European block and other tribal and non-tribal members. The ministry lasted from April 1, 1937 to September 18,1938. Ambikagiri Roychoudhary and Nilmoni Phukan, on behalf of the Assam Sanrakhini Sabha submitted a memorandum to Nehru stating that the withdrawal of the Line System would lead to greater inflow of immigrants into Assam. The memorandum pointed out how the Bengalis were developing an attitude of 'linguistic imperialism' towards the Assamese. Memoranda were also presented by the Asamiya Deka Dal which stated that the 'Bengali language and civilisation invaded Assam' and that the Assamese were being reduced to the position of a minority. Responding to these concerns, Nehru wrote to the APCC stating that the immigration issue was complicated and that it had become communal and that the real problem was how to"control and organise these immigrants."

1938: Saadullah resigned in February. First Bordoloi Ministry (19 September 1938-16 November 1939). Bordoloi achieved a coalition with the Tribal League. He promised a tribal belt in Assam where non-tribals would not be allowed to hold or buy land.

1939: A Working Committee of the APCC, appointed to look into the line system, decided that the Line System should not be abolished. Bordoloi ministry resigned. (Congress at the national level had decided to call for resignation of all its ministries following the Viceroy's decision to engage India in its war efforts.) Saadullah once again came in power. The government threw select professional grazing reserves open for settling more immigrants.

1940: Lahore Session of the Muslim League. It openly declared inclusion of Assam in Pakistan along with Muslim majority Bengal. 1941-50: The largest increase in urban population in Assam took place in this decade, largely attributed to the flow of Partition migrants primarily from the Sylhet district.

1941: Saadullah submitted his resignation. Formation of the second Bardoloi ministry. The Governor of Assam, Robert Neil Reid, supported the proposal of the Crown Colony and he enlarged the vision of the plan to include Tripura.

1942: Ambikagiri Raychoudhury proposed dual citizenship for Assam in the Indian confederation.

1943: Assam government led by Saadullah adopted, on the orders of the Centre, a new resolution on land settlement under the slogan of"grow more food." As per this resolution, grazing reserves in three districts were opened to the immigrant cultivators from Bengal. Also, surplus reserve areas in two other districts were opened for landless indigenous people. The Assam Jatiya Mahasabha and the All India Hindu Mahasabha raised cries of the Assamese and Hindus being in danger.

1944: The All Assam Ahom Association, formed in the late 19th century, declared,"Assam without Sylhet has a legitimate claim for free and independent existence in the event of India being divided territorially into Pakistan and Hindustan." The Muslim League wanted to include Assam in East Pakistan. The Assam Tribune, which mainly championed the views of the Assamese upper caste elite, in one of its editorials complained that the Saadulla Cabinet was"imbued with the idea of Pakistan" and the Land Development Scheme was"meant to reduce the importance of the Hindus both politically and numerically." These apprehensions that the people of Assam were harboring were aggravated by statements of people of political eminence at the Centre. For instance, Humayun Kabir, the private secretary to the Education Minister Maulana Azad wrote in his monthly review,"One can easily visualise a Bengali State, comprising of about ten million people and living in a compact area. Such a State would include the present administrative province of Bengal and some of the outlying districts in Assam and Bihar. In fact, the province of Assam may be wholly incorporated in it. Cachar and Sylhet in the Surma Valley and Nowgong and Goalpara in the Assam Valley are Bengali majority districts. There can hardly be an Assam if these districts join Bengal."

1945: Immigrant peasants demanded the abolition of the Line System.

1946: Last ministry before India gained independence; led by Bordoloi with support from the tribals. APCC bought off a pact with the tribal leadership -- the former promised constitutional safeguards like a tribal belt where land would be inalienable in return for tribal support. Appointment of the Cabinet Mission under Sir Stafford Cripps. Assam Congress rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan to group Assam and Bengal together. On the other hand, Muslim League favored the Grouping Plan. Popular protest under the Assam Pradesh Congress led by Gopinath Bordoloi forced the Central Congress leadership to cede their demand. AASU, Assam Jatiya Mahasabha, and a number of tribal students organisations protested against the Grouping Scheme of tagging Assam to Bengal. Gandhi's support to the state Congress tipped the scale in favour of Assam even though Nehru and Azad were unwilling to heed Bordoloi's concerns and blamed him for delaying the transfer of power. In his discussions with the Cabinet Mission, Bordoloi advocated that the Centre's powers be restricted to defence, foreign relations and special emergency powers. The state Congress was aware of the demands for sovereignty put forward by several sections in Assam and it consistently stressed maximum possible economic and political autonomy for Assam under a new federal set-up. Bordoloi in his discussions with the Cabinet Mission had wanted the Centre's power to be restricted to defence, foreign affairs and special emergency powers and demanded "fullest possible autonomy." He also pleaded for cutting off Sylhet from Assam. The Assamese members also demanded that the rights of the Assamese people be protected through Constitutional safeguards and economic exploitation by the Centre be stopped. The Assam members opposed Article 3 of the Draft Constitution (empowering the Union Parliament to redraw state boundaries) and Article 21 (relating to the appointment of state governors by the Centre). Ultimately, the Grouping Scheme fell through and Assam was not merged with Bengal. On the other hand, it lost its fight in the Constituent Assembly to secure greater financial and political autonomy for the provinces. The Khasi-Jaintia Political Association demanded that a federation of the Khasi areas be given full cultural and political autonomy within a sovereign Assam. Formation of the Naga National Council and Mizo Union.

We will continue in our next post with Post Independence chapter in the history of Assam Conflict: Chronology of Events.

Data Source : South Asia Forum for Human Rights. 

*NOTE : The above note published on behalf of PROJECT BUG - Build Up Guwahati is truely a content of  South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR). By publishing the note we are not endorsing any organization ( also this is'nt a publicity stunt ) and in the note if any information is found misleading & controversial ; we are not liable for it as the content is generated by SAFHR. Our aim of publishing the content is to bring the content into everyone's notice about our History of Assam ( as per South Asia Forum for Human Rights ).