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I am an Assamese. Is my identity in danger?

This article deals with the immigration issue in Assam and tries to see if it really is a threat to the
sovereignty and existence of the Assamese community at large. It also tries to look at the problem by
identifying the parties associated with the problem and their roles; the government, the immigrants
and the host community, i.e. the Assamese People. The article tries to remove some notions which
have been prevalent among some people in Assam and those staying away from their motherland.
This purpose of this article is not to hurt anybodys sentiments but to present clear and concise
information in order to comprehend the problem and arrive at solutions.

he news of the cross border immigration is not new to our ears. Immigration is a global problem

and every country in the world; specially the developed ones face this problem in one way or the
other. Countries like the UK, Germany and the United States still struggle with this problem despite
having a sophisticated immigration check system.
Immigration cannot be stopped, although steps must be taken to control it. No country in this world
is self-sufficient; be it in natural resources or human resource. As such, immigration is required to
bridge the skills gap. However, the question here is does immigration pose a threat to the existence
of the host community? The answer is NO. Although, I strongly believe that we cannot adopt a
carefree attitude. We have to remain cautious else we risk creating an Assamese Pakistan owing to
insecurity.
This question becomes more pertinent given the myriad influx of people into Assam from across the
border. Many people believe that it poses a serious threat to Assam, as a community, as a culture
and as a way of life. I would like to call it Assameism, yes it is a new word I have just coined. My
personal view is that there isnt any intimidation to Assameism. And this view is based on inputs
from people of different ages, research and past events in history. We need to answer one simple
question; is Assameism so feeble that it has to be defended; can it be easily wiped out? The answer
is again a NO. Our identity does not comprise only our motherland Assam. It also comprises our
culture, traditions, language and literature; most importantly our thoughts.
Let us suppose there comes an invader and he orders his military general to decimate everything
called Assameism. He will first have to kill the people and destroy our land. It is interesting to note
that the invader can only destroy which is material and tangible. He cannot destroy our culture, our
language and our literature. He may burn down our books but we have a scripture which is immoral.
Even if he manages to do it, how can our thoughts be decimated? This is one of the reasons why
despite many efforts by the US and the allied nations, Taliban insurgency could not be eliminated in
entirety because their radical thoughts could not be easily destroyed. Thousands of Assamese living
away from their mother land are still Assamese because they have preserved their culture, language,
literature and traditions. If domicile had been a factor, they wouldnt be Assamese anymore. Dr.
Bhupen Hazarika is still alive because his thoughts are alive. So will be Assameism.
Hitler was bent upon destroying the French literature as he understood that if he destroyed their art
and literature, he would be able to gradually destroy their identity. He burnt down many great
literary works, paintings and artefacts. But he could not destroy their thoughts. He eventually
realised that he was attempting something impossible. The morale is if we are not bent upon
destroying ourselves, no one else could.

The idea of Assameism is so strong that it has the ability to absorb other cultures into itself and give
it its own identity. Some Bangladeshi people have adopted our way of life by embracing our outfits,
cuisine and so on. This is only possible because Assameism is very robust.
Our forefathers had this idea of Brihattar Assam (Greater Assam) comprising all the ethnic and
dominant communities irrespective of religion, caste and creed. However, this idea is gradually
becoming ephemeral as we are trying to seek individual identities. We now have different
autonomous councils such as the ones for the Karbis and the Bodos. There may be demands for
other such councils in the future. The beautiful thread of unity is breaking apart and we are
responsible for this, not an outsider. We are increasingly taking pride in calling ourselves a Brahmin,
an Ahom, a Koch, a Chutia, and so on. We have different organisations clinging to their respective
communities and working for their betterment (which is what they tell us). Why cant we work for
the betterment of the Assamese community as a whole rather than working on individual fronts
thereby, making us more vulnerable to losing our identity?
The sad thing is that we are actually bent upon destroying ourselves. We buy Gamusas
manufactured in China just because we do not want to pay a few extra pennies for the hand woven
one. The person who has woven the Gamusa somewhere at a remote corner of Barpeta or Nalbari is
not just trying to earn her livelihood, but is also trying to preserve our culture and traditions. By
refusing to buy her Gamusa, we are taking these small steps to destroying ourselves. The same goes
when we see people who cannot read and/or write in Assamese, does not appreciate our ethnic
cuisine such as Til Pitha or Kumol Saoul. Why blame others when we are to be blamed the most.
However, I sincerely believe that the idea of being an Assamese should be cultivated in our hearts.
Another important reason that
makes me believe that cross
border influx is not a threat is
because of the idea of
Sovereignty. Sovereignty is a
sentiment rather than a word
or a concept. Crossing into
Assam and then the possibility
of declaring it a separate
sovereign nation is far from
pragmatic. Nations are not born
across a breakfast table. There
is a long gestation period
before a nation is created and this period is absolutely important to decide upon the fundamental
principles that eventually becomes the ground work for laying the foundation of a great nation
(Guha, 2007). This is one of the reasons why India is a stable state whereas, Pakistan never seems to
emerge out of her internal turbulences; much accredited to a notion that Pakistan emerged out of a
Resolution passed in 1940 at the Lahore
session of the Muslim League (Akbar,
2012).
India has been founded on strong
principles of Secularism, Equality and

Sovereignty. The principle of Sovereignty is highly imbibed within us. It is this sentiment that made
us feel humiliated when the Chinese incursion took place in 1962. Although the territories that were
taken were barren land and not commercially viable, still there was an uproar across India. More
recently, during the Kargil conflict of 1999 where hundreds of soldiers gave their lives protecting
rocks, mountains and barren lands where not even a grass could grow. In monetary terms, it was a
totally unproductive expenditure as we cannot make those mountains productive. But we fought for
it. A Tamil, a Telegu, a Kannad, an Oriya or even a Naga who might have never heard of Kargil before
the conflict, felt that they should support the defensive action of our forces; because it was an attack
on our sovereignty. The same sentiment was echoed during the recent Chinese incursion of our
territories in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
We may have differences and they are bound to exist because no country in the world is as diverse
as India. There is even a significant difference in the way Assamese is spoken in Upper and Lower
Assam. Girls from north eastern states may be called as Chinkis in Delhi. But we are united by a
common thread, the sentiment of Sovereignty.
Assam is an integral part of India and so are the other north eastern states. Any attack on this part of
India is an attack on the Sovereignty of India. Even if we set aside these principles, there is a
commercial need to defend us due to our vast Oil and Gas, and Coal reserves.
However, I am diffident about the status quo with regards to the politicisation of the immigration
issue. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has long been demanding the re-inspection of the
voters list in Assam. They have a legitimate reason to ask for this re-inspection as they fear and so
do I that there are many people in the list who may not be Indian citizens. It will also be not
surprising to see someone from that list contesting the assembly elections and making his way to the
legislative assembly. Bangladeshi people are given land, houses and even pocket money by our
politicians. This not only threatens our indigenous community but also messes up with our economic
planning, thus violating two important rights given to us by our constitution; economic justice and
equality of opportunity.
Having spoken to a number of my friends and relatives, I realised one thing; we may be far away
from our motherland, we may speak English more than Assamese but when our Sovereignty is
challenged, we will be there protecting our motherland and so the Union of India. The idea of India
is always greater than the idea of Assam. At the same time, India cannot be India without Assam.
Although I am proud to be an Assamese,
I, Pankaj Khatoniar, am an Indian first, Assamese later.

Acknowledgements:
Being a sensitive issue for Assam, while writing this article I sought encouragement and contribution
from the following people.
1. My parents Chandra and Monika Khatoniar

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Dilip Ranjan Baruah (Head of Dept. of Assamese, Sonari College)


Pinaki Pritam Baruah (LLM from National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi)
Purnima Kaushik Baruah (my sister)
Bidyut Khatoniar (my brother)
Babul Khatoniar (my uncle)
Dr. David Faulkner (Professor of Strategy at Magna Carta College, Oxford and Ex-Professor
Emeritus at Said Business School).
8. Dr. John Child (Professor Emeritus, Birmingham University and Associate Advisor to the
British Foreign Office and the Prime Minister of Britain).
References:
1. Akbar, M.J (2012), Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan, Harper Perennial, New York.
2. Guha, R (2007), India After Gandhi: The History of the Worlds Largest Democracy,
Macmillan, London.
3. Taylor, A.J.P (1963), The Origins of the Second World War, Penguin Books, London.

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