Why do left and right mean liberal and conservative?

During the election season the words left and right denote political affiliation more than spatial direction. But where do these associations come from?

The left hand has long been associated with deviance. The word “sinister” originally meant “to the left” in Latin. The word “left” comes from the Old English word lyft, which literally meant “weak, foolish.” To avoid the negative and superstitious associations of the left side, many languages used euphemisms for it. In Old English the left side was called winestra, which meant “friendlier.” In Greek it was called aristeros or “the better one.”

When did the political affiliation of these two common words arise? In fact, the association is not American at all. It originated during the French Revolution. In the 1790s, King Louis XVI  was fighting with the Legislative Assembly. Like our modern-day House of Representatives, seating in the French Legislative Assembly was arranged based on political affiliation. The King sat in front of the assembly. To his right sat the conservative Feuillants who backed the king and believed in a constitutional monarchy. To his left sat the liberal Girondists and radical Jacobins who wanted to install a completely democratic government. Oddly enough, in the U.S. House of Representatives the tables have turned: members of the Republican party sit to the left of the House Speaker and members of the Democratic party sit to his or her right.

It wasn’t until the early 20th century that Left and Right denoted political affiliation in Britain and the US, and the more politically loaded terms “leftwing” and “rightwing” were not widely used until after 1960 according to Google’s NGram viewer.

Read more at http://hotword.dictionary.com/leftright/#kb86f1jjtoRJvDHz.99

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Discipline As Falsified Uniformity

At the risk of called foucauldian, although I was never a disciplinarian, even before Foucault (it means reading Foucault) am skeptical about discipline. Disciplining at first instance is a power construct and regulated by power.Discipline is not at behest of commoners but it is created, controlled  regulated and modulated by the power. In that very sense power creates and depends on discipline. Foucault calls it penopticism, which simply means that through discipline governing and controlling is very easy for Foucault- 19th and 20th century is the highest point of disciplinary society.

Discipline is nothing but creating a falsified uniformity to regulate and control the governing subject, to make the strengthening of power easy and unquestioned, drawing an analogy from there, in school, we are not allowed to question; but questions are already raised for us, and we have to just answer them in order to succeed. The success is to find answer within the frame of question produced and from the prescribed text and solution zone.Discipline thus deliberately kills creativity - the creativity to produce concepts and to be critical of one's own self.

School for me is the epitome of disciplinary idea and the most fundamental institution of discrimination and intellectual corruption. The problem is therefore the language the very economy of the language which produces school. The challenge is not to reform it but how to deconstruct it and create an open space of learning where disciplining and regulating is alien. 

The author of this post Musab Iqbal is editor in chief of news portal Newzfirst. 

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The Accidents of History

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948

The accidents of history have a much bigger role in shaping a nation’s destiny than one usually thinks. That is because accidents cannot be broken down into causes and effects, which is the historian’s standard tool. Accidents are after all, just accidents. On a whimsical note I sometimes wonder about India’s tryst with assassinations and whether Naturam Godse, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, Thenmozhi Rajaratnam and whatever mysterious reason caused Sanjay Gandhi’s plane to crash have unknowingly done as much to further India’s ‘tryst with destiny’ as our national heroes.

While there is no doubting Gandhi’s greatness and his contribution to achieving India’s independence, one wonders whether Gandhi’s ideas about constitutional democracy completely aligned with Nehru’s liberal notions. And given the weight Gandhi’s opinions had with the Indian populace, making him a source of almost extra-constitutional power, I think Nehru would have found it far more difficult to lay the foundations of our democratic institutions. Indira Gandhi’s assassination, unfortunate as it was, ended her authoritarian brand of politics and paved the way for RajivGandhi’s limited but significant technological and economic reforms.  Something which would not have happened if Sanjay Gandhi hadn’t met the end he did.

What would India been like if Sanjay Gandhi had been alive and taken over after Indira Gandhi’s death? It is difficult to say with any certainty, but the emergency does give us some clues. And whether one thinks of the economic reforms, which Manmohan Singh inaugurated as a mistake or as progress, it is doubtful whether it could have come about if Rajiv Gandhi had continued to dominate the Congress. India had entered an era of successive coalition governments and it was doubtful if any party could have got anything near a majority based on politics alone. Rajiv Gandhi’s tragic assassination and the sympathy wave it generated meant P V Narasimha Rao, whom the Congress has written out of its history, had enough seats to steer forward unpopular reforms that a weaker government could not have.

If our national course has indeed been steered by political assassins, what does that say about us and our democratic political process?

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A Terror Tale With Plenty of Loose Ends

The Karnataka Police claim to have prevented a major catastrophe by arresting a dozen Muslim youth. But does it have a watertight case? Imran Khan finds out

The citizens of Bangalore, who have been limping back to normalcy after more than 30,000 north-easterners fled the city amidst rumours of communal violence, is now living with the grim specter of terrorists living in their midst posing as respectable, law-abiding citizens- as journalists, scientists, doctors and students.

The Karnataka police last week arrested 18 Muslim youths including two from Hyderabad and Maharashtra, for allegedly trying to assassinate several prominent personalities in the state.  The central crime branch of the Bangalore police claim that the arrested youths were part of the banned Pakistan based terror outfits Lashkar E Toiba and Harkat ul Jehad E Islami ( HuJI) and were running `sleeper cells’ in the southern part of the country.  The Bangalore police, who claim to have recovered two 7.65 mm Italian made Berretta pistols from the arrested youth, have officially charged them with attempting to assassinate two Kannada journalists Vishweshwar Bhat and Pratap Simha of Kannda Prabha known for their hindutva leanings, state Bajrang Dal leader Ganu Jartarkar and a Hyderabad based corporator.

However, a number of statements from the Karnataka Home Minster R Ashok and the Union Home Secretary R K Singh hinted at a much larger plot, one that targeted vital national security assets including the Kaiga nuclear power plant and a series of conflicting stories in the media attributed to the alleged terrorists, plans to carry out bomb blasts at the Hubli Ganesh festival, to assassinate prominent legislators and even reported at armed terrorists camps operating in the forests of Hubli-. All these stories attributed the information to unnamed police sources and a leading English daily claimed that the LeT and Hujji are operating ‘sleeper cells’ in Karnataka and that their agents have infiltrated the mainstream media. Shiva Sunder, a political analyst says that unverified leaks from the police and irresponsible media reportage are creating an atmosphere of terror and suspicion in the state.

Tehelka looks at the police version and finds that at the moment the police have little more than two pistols they claim to have recovered and the confessional statements of three of the accused. According to the Indian Evidence Act, Section 36, confessions given to a police officer is legally not permissible as evidence in a court of law. Worse, even going by the confessions which form the basis of the FIR, there seems little evidence at this stage to link the other accused with the alleged plot, let alone with international terrorist organizations.

According to the details of the First information Report (FIR) and the confession statements extracted from the accused Abdul Hakeem Jamadar and Shoaib Ahmed Mirza obtained by Tehelka, the beginning of the alleged conspiracy stretches back a year ago, when Shoaib and Hakeem came in touch with a shadowy figure called Zakir alias Ustad. 

The confessional statements paint him as the main instigator behind the alleged plot, and a fundamentalist ideologue who moved the youngsters with his emotional appeals to retaliate against the persecution of Muslims.

The confession statement says that, Jamadar and Dr. Zafar Iqbal wanted to travel to Iran and then on to Pakistan to join the Taliban. They took a one month visiting visa from the Iranian consulate in Hyderabad by telling them that they wanted to visit the shrine of Fatima in Iran. Abdul Hakeem’s passport number is H-8028149 and was issued to him in 2009 by the Bangalore passport office. The police are yet to get hold of Zafar’s passport details.  

After this point, the event recorded in the statement takes a bizarre turn. The statement says that on December 11, 2011 Jamadar and Zafar took the Air Arabia flight from Bangalore International airport to Tehran airport. And from there it says, ISI agents took them through the border to Pakistan where they were met by Abdul Wahab, Deputy Director ISI Karachi, Hamd, Senior Director, ISI Karachi, and Mustafa a senior official of ISI Karachi.

Interestingly, he says that, the ISI officials questioned about whether they had any RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) connections and threatened. ‘’ They asked us to go to India and work for them as ISI agent. For that they have promised us to provide necessary information and money’’.  Most strangely the statement says that these wannabe Talibanis denied this offer and further that the ISI tortured them for 10-15 days.  Later the ISI took the two to the Pakistani border and they were allowed to travel back to Iran. They flew back to India through Shivaji International Airport and came back to Karnataka.

The assassination plot, according to the police confession, was hatched just before Ramzan when Zakir alias Ustaad got in touch with Jamadar and asked him to assassinate Pratap Simha a columnist with Kananda Prabha and its editor Vishweshar Bhatt. The ostensible reason was anti-minority and pro-Hindutva articles written by the two journalists.

Interestingly the confessional statements and the FIR make no mention of how the pistols and ammunition were procured by Shoaib and Jamaadar and whether it was supplied by the elusive Ustaad. Interestingly, according to the police, while the first pistol was recovered from the possession of Shoaib and Jamadar when the police allegedly intercepted their assassination mission on 28 August, the second was recovered from Akram, who was arrested from near the Bangalore central bus stand on September 1. The manner as well as timing of the arrest of Shoaib and Jamaadar also raises questions.  The FIR says that Shoaib pulled out the pistol and aimed at the policemen, but that K V Jithendranath the head of the police team pounced on Shoaib and disarmed him physically. According to the FIR after arresting Shoaib and Jamadar, their flatmates journalist Muthi ur Rehman Siddique, Reyaz Ahmed, Muhammed Yusuf Nalabund and DRDO engineer Aijaz Ahmed Mirza, elder brother of Shoaib Mirza were arrested at around 3:30 pm .However, contrary to the FIR report, a missing complaint filed by residents of JC Nagar area says that the accused were picked up by the police at around 9am.

Even the stolen Hero Honda splendor bike bearing number KA-27-E-1035 used by them, according to the police, turned out to be of fake. The bike’s registration number has been traced to one Mr. Datatre Mudri Marthanda Rao in Ranebennur town. The registration details reveal that it is a Bajaj M80 scooter bought in 1991. The police however claim that, the number plate on the bike was fake and are unwilling to reveal details of the registration number. 

On 30 August, commending CCB’s feat DG & IGP Lalrokuma Pachau said that – by this arrest the Bangalore police has prevented a major – ‘ catastrophe’.  Civil society activists however remain skeptical of the police’s claims. The family of the arrested men however, has accused the police of arresting them on false charges. And Muslim groups have accused the police of fabricating the case and victimizing the innocent members of the minority community. They point out to several previous instances where high profile arrests made by the police resulted in acquittals.  “All these cases followed the same pattern. All the arrested were youth mainly from the lower middle class of the Muslim community. After their arrest stories started appearing regularly in the media quoting unnamed police sources claiming that the accused were members of Indian Mujahideen, LeT or even the Al Qaeda.  After spending several years in prison the court finally acquitted many of the accused citing lack of evidence, ‘’ said Irshad Ahmed Desai of Association for Protection of Civil Rights.

Desai cited the last Wednesday’s acquittal of Faheem Ansari and Sabhuddin Ahmed who were wrongly charged by the Mumbai police for their connection in the 26/11 case.

In 2008, a month before BJP came to power in Karnataka; a bomb went off in the magistrate court in Hubli where seven SIMI members were to be produced. Police had blamed SIMI for that. Later however it turned out that, the blast was carried out by Nagaraj Jambagi, leader of a criminal gang with links to Sri Ram Sene. In 2008 again, in Belgaum (86km from Hubli and 499 km from Bangalore) the police arrested 15 people based on the material found on the hard disk. After spending three years, they were acquitted in December 2011 adds Desai.

 While the police investigation continues, the jury is still out on whether they have cracked a sinister terror plot that could have threatened the fragile communal harmony of an entire state, or whether the young men arrested and branded terrorists paid for nothing more than who they are

Note: The above article was first published in Tehelka magazine. 

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Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia

Hussain Zaidi is famous crime reporter of Mumbai and author of several books on the Mumbai mafia. A life time spent reporting on the mafiosi compared to bigger than any other mafia in the world, Zaidi has been its chronicler and historian of par excellence bringing detail and depth to his cherished subject.

Though, Zaidi has written three books earlier covering the Mumbai mafiosi, including the famous Black Friday and Mafia Queens of Mumbai, his latest- a chronological history of the Mumabi mafia brings out the best of him, both as a writer and the practioner of his trade. From Dongri to Dubai is as much a history book on Mumbai mafiosi which runs like nerve center of the entire mafia in India ; is as much a book on the rise of noted underworld Don and fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, about whom Zaidi says would be like no other.

Zaidi using his extensive field reporting experience and even digging out some old connections lists the famous dons of the Independent India. Karima Lala, Vardarajan Mudaliar and noted smuggler Haji Mastan's lives have been written about and have been also played out in the bollywood movies. But Zaidi manages to bring more tales and even details to the already said tales of these famous trio, who until early 70”s were the undisputed dons of Mumbai. Until, the three dreaded dons ruled the entire Mumbai, blood was not spilled on the streets of the city. However, that changed when new gangs emerged, especially the pathan gangs and Dawood's, blood flowed like water in the intra gang rivalry. The rise of Dawood also saw a corporate style of functioning of the underworld which until then had worked more on muscle.

Dawood says Zaidi changed that. And largely to his shrewd and cunning brain, he kept both police and politician in good terms which the other gangs failed to do so. Born, a constable's son, Dawood and his siblings very early in life took to crime like a bee to a flower. Their operation base Dongri, soon became the head quarter of "D'' company from where they came to rule the entire city. With Hindu don Chotta Rajan joining him as his manager operations, his strength increased and the Don increased his area of work to Dubai, South Africa and other asian countries.

But the riots in Mumbai changed everything for both Dawood and India. Large scale killing of Muslims in the 1992 riots had brougth resentment and a feeling of venegence for the blood of the innocent spilled. According to Zaidi, Pakistan's ISI contacted Dawood, who by then had shifted his base to Dubai for help in logistics and local network to carry out a serious of bomb blasts and bring the financal nerve of India to a halt. A relctuant Dawood budged later, says Zaidi and the rest in hsitory. One of the worst ever attacks happened in the Indian soil more than 275 innocent lives were lost. Mumbai came to a stand still, and a shocked nation chocked in breath at the large scale destruction.

Since then Dawood has been India's no 1 fugitive and has been residing under constant protection from Pakistan, partly thanks to Chotan Rajan because he surrendered to the India embassy, Dawood had to close his shop in Dubai. Zaidi who interviewed Dawood once recalls that he is a soft spoken and well behvaed Don unlike others who drop explectives before every sentence.

The book also touches Abu Salem and makes a passing mention of Chotha Shakeel. But, the main highlight of the book is to know the way the system uses Dawood to cut through the others and how Dawood uses the same system to establish his hold on both the mafia and the city.

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Drought in Karntaka

Even as the infighting among various factions continues within Karnataka BJP for the post of ministers and party president, the state is facing one of the worst droughts in the last 40 years. While, the state government claims that all the needed measures are taken in order to mitigate drought, critics however point out, the disaster have been brought about by lack of policy initiatives by both the central and state government.

`` Both the central and state government should have initiated contingency plans a week earlier. Now it would be difficult to rescue various crops in many areas.  Lessons haven’t been learnt from the drought of 2009. They cannot depend completely on rainfall for agriculture’’ says agri scientist Devinder Sharma.

According to the central met department there has been a 23 percent deficit of monsoon rains this year. Kharif crops in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra are under severe threat with Karnataka the most affected had said union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar in July this year.

Devinder says, ideally, Karnataka state should have invested in rain water harvesting years in advance to avert such a crisis, especially after the failure of the north east monsoon in 2011. `` Both the central and state government should evolve an agricultural plan that matches water consumption of crops to the arability of the land so that the crops can withstand lower then expected rainfall. While such plans have been under discussion for years nothing has been done about them.  Every drought effects not only production, but sets back the farming sector by at least three years’’, he says.

The failure of the measures as suggested, and truants by rains have wrecked havoc in Karnataka this year. According to the local meteorological department, the state has received more than sixty percent of short fall of rains this year. Barring the coastal belt, through out the state there has been a deficit of rain fall. According to the data, in some districts the deficit of rainfall is around somewhere between 60 to 90 percent. The state government itself out of the 176 taluks has declared drought in 163 taluks making Karnataka the Rajasthan of the south.

The situation is such grave that due to long spells of no rain many of the reservoirs in the country are going without water. According to the central water commission bulletin (July), important reservoirs are down to 55 percent of last years storage, and seventy six percent of the last ten years. Out of the 84 reservoirs of India monitored by the central water commission, the storage capacity has been reported to be just 36.321 BCM, of the total capacity of 154.421 BCM. Last year, the storage was 66.180 BCM.

In Karnataka too, out of the 14 reservoirs, there has been a deficit of more than 40% of water. The capacity holding of the largest reservoir in the state Almatti has been reduced to 24 tmc out of 123 tmc capacity holding. Last year, it was reported to be 80 tmc. According to officials of the state water board, this 24tmc was always stocked for contingency plans. But this year, first in such case, they had to release the reserved water not leaving even the last drop. Almatti has been a major source of water for farmers of the Northern belt. Districts like Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Raichur form the North belt of the state; where in the people of the Lingayat caste is dominant, who form the back bone of the state BJP. In the recent Global Investors Meet, the state government has planned to supply water to 12 mega projects from the same reservoir. If these projects come through, there would be a need of 15 tmc of water from Almatti and the Krishna Basin.

Cities are also witnessing the pinch of the rainfall deficit. Whereas Bengaluru, Mysore, Mandya, receives their water from Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam, the deficit of rainfall this year (Mysore received 35 percent deficit rain, and whereas Mandya received a deficit of 45) has drastically reduced the capacity holding of the KRS dam to mere 1 percent, as compared to last year’s of 67 percent. If the situation persists, there might be an acute shortage of drinking water in the coming days, which in turn can lead into power crisis if the same situation persists.

The cumulative effect of the deficit of rainfall and non- availability of water for irrigation has resulted in heavy loss of crops to the 16 lakh drought hit farmers of the state. ‘’ Out of the 74 lakh hectares planned for Kharif cultivation, only 20 to 24 lakh hectares have been sown. And around 90 percent of the crops that have been sown have been affected by moisture’’ says Raje Gowda, agri meteorological scientist from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

While this year, there has been no estimation done yet to ascertain the total loss of crops. An official of the disaster management wing of the revenue department says, last year, the total crop loss was Rs. 6,013 crores (4,245.84 – Kharif crop loss and Rs. 1768 crores Rabi crop loss). He says, on condition of anonymity, this year’s estimation would be known only by September end.  The state government however has been demanding a relief package of 2500 crore from the centre for this year’s crop loss. Secretary of the Revenue department was unavailable for comment.

In the meanwhile, the central government has announced that it will put into motion contingency plans for drought in all the states. The contingency plan announced by central govt will have farmers re-sowing kharif crops (like groundnut, gram, maize and ragi) in expectation that rains would hit the first week of October.  Farmers have also been asked to grow short term crops like jowar, sunflower and potatoes in uncultivated land. ‘’ But both sowing and re-sowing of crops needs seeds to buy, which small farmers would not be able to afford with even 50% government subsidy. The government should make efforts to distribute free seeds to farmers’’ says farmer leader and president of the largest farmer co-operative in the state Kodihalli Chandrashekar. Once we experience a drought, even after a relief of three years of good rain, the farmer will be unable to come out it. All the measures taken by the state BJP is inadequate and would have no impact in the long run. Says Chandrashekhar, `a joke is being played out in the name of relief’.

While the relief is yet to reach the distraught farmers, both the ruling government and the opposition are at logger heads over measures to mitigate drought. While newly inducted CM Jagadish Shettar thinks that Rs. 3500 crore farm loan waiver is enough to mitigate the crisis. Opposition parties however have accused the ruling government of doing an eyewash and publicity gimmick. Replying in assembly, Shettar said that, farmers who took loans up to Rs. 25,000 and defaulted from co-operative institutions between August 2011 and June 2012 are only eligible for this waiver. Condemning the government’s stand, opposition Congress leader Siddaramaih in the assembly said, `` around 90% of farmers have already repaid the loans and the interest. What about farmers who have obtained loans from nationalised banks? What about those who have taken loans more than Rs, 25,000? What about those who have not availed loans but are drought affected? The farmers have incurred a total loss of Rs. 10,000 crore due to drought and if the BJP government was serious about providing relief to drought victims, it should wave off the entire crop loan unconditionally’’.

With rains playing truant, the saffron party has now turned towards gods and recently splurged Rs. 17 crores from the state coffers to 34, 000 temples to pray for rain. The move highly critised by civil society and general public alike was however strongly defended by the government. 

Note: The above piece was written two weeks ago; so some of the data is old.

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Assam Violence- Minority Perspective

The summer of 2012 has been very inauspicious for the state of Assam which is known for its diverse and vibrant culture especially gender equality and religious tolerance. This summer Assam has witnessed massive flood which took away many lives and livestock and left many houses damaged, little known to the outside world. However, the Guwahati molestation case, where a reporter of a regional news channel allegedly instigated a group of men to molest an underage girl and filmed it, shocked one and all. The topic remained hotly debated and pursued on national media, which otherwise ignores the North East, till two ethnic groups in western Assam  - Bodos and Bengali Muslims started burning each others’ houses.

 The Bodos are an ethnic and linguistic community, who were one of the early inhabitants of Assam. They are part of the larger ethnic group called Bodo-kachari and are mainly settled in the north western part of Assam which is presently divided into four districts viz. Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Odalguri. They continued to live their pristine tribal way of life disconnected from the world which, fortunately or unfortunately, progressed materialistically giving rise to complex societies and way of life.

 In late 19^th century and early 20^th century, under British India, Muslims from East Bengal started to settle down in Western Assam. The main reason behind this large scale migration was the exploiting zamindars who stripped off the peasants from their land by various tricks. The fertile land of Assam which was mostly unoccupied became the perfect alternative for these peasants. They came, cleared the forests and claimed their land. For the British government, it meant more revenues. By the middle of the last century when India was being torn apart on religious lines, the western part of Assam was so overwhelmingly Muslim populated that the Muslim League asked for many of its districts to be part of East Pakistan. However, Pakistan was created with only one of district of Assam called Sylhet while the rest remained in Assam, so are its Muslims, majority of whom didn’t migrate back to the newly created country for Muslims.

 But Muslims had to pay price for the decision to stay back in Assam. In early 60s, there was a movement in Assam over language. Assamese speakers are less than 50% in the state which meant it couldn’t automatically become the official language of the state. And the reason for this was the presence of Bengali speaking people. But a sacrifice was made – Bengali Muslims of Western Assam would declare their mother tongue as Assamese which would make Assamese as the majority language in the state which became the medium of education for next generations to come. Though they would speak Bengali at home, they would read or write in Assamese creating a dual identity but never to be really considered an Assamese.

Almost a decade later, East Pakistan sought to be a separate country from West Pakistan over language. The Pakistan army indulged in all kind of cruelty which compelled mass exodus to India – West Bengal in the west and Assam in the east. The presence of Bengali Muslim population in Assam was never accepted wholeheartedly by the majority of Assamese Hindu population. And this sudden swelling of population was certainly not acceptable to them. After Bangladesh was created the refugees went back to their land but it was suspected that a lot of people have stayed back. In late 70s and early 80s, Assam was under agitation to expel the illegal immigrants to Bangladesh. There was deep anxiety among Assamese Hindus that increasing Muslims would eventually make them a minority in their own land.  The agitation turned violent in many places specially the Nellie Massacre where more than 2000 Bengali Muslims were killed in one day in Morigaon district. The agitation came to end with the signing of Assam Accord in 1985 which set 1971 as the deadline for immigrants to settle in Assam meaning migrants who settled before 1971 would be considered citizen of India while after that would be considered illegal and deported back to Bangladesh. The students union which led the agitation came to power after general elections and did hardly anything concrete to expel the ‘illegal’ immigrants. As between 1983 and 2000, only 1400 illegal immigrants have been identified and been deported to Bangladesh.

Soon after the Assam Accord, the Bodo community had an awakening giving rise to Bodo nationalism. Bodo nationalism was quite necessary among the Bodo people who have been quite innocent in earlier times and victim of lack of interest from the national as well as state government. The other communities have also been insensitive toward their identity. They were easily been fooled by the other communities in business and other worldly affairs. Bodos demanded a separate political entity for themselves which would ensure development of the community. It is to be noted that this region has been witnessing number of communal clashes ever since. Way back in 1994, the ethnic clash between Bodos and Non-Bodos made thousand homeless who are still living in relief camps. Thousands of Santhalis, Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Assamese Hindus were affected. Strange but true- even after almost two decades, there are thousands of people still living in refugee camps away from basic amenities like healthcare, education etc. It then witnessed similar episodes in ’96 & 2008.

In 2003, autonomy was given to Bodos with the formation of Bodoland Territorial Administered District (BTAD) to be administered by the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council with the districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Odalguri. Bodoland has been a very vulnerable area since the rise of Bodo nationalism and after the inception of BTAD. As time passed and as it happens with most armed revolutions, Bodo nationalism was losing its good spirit. Gun culture, kidnapping, extortions were becoming commoner. There was ideological divide which led to formation of two armed insurgent faction namely Bodoland Liberation Tiger (BLT) & National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The formation of BTAD led the BLT leaders into power while the NDFB was still running in jungles and was further dividing into factions. Incidents such as kidnapping, extortion, and killing were common happenings in the BTAD. Even the people of adjoining districts were also suffering. It is an open secret that the people of BTAD have to give away a certain amount of their earnings to these extremist outfits. And the horrible thing is that even a school teacher or one small shop owner is not spared. It was so evident that in 2011, all the doctors had left Bodoland protesting the ransom culture imposed on them.

The leaders who came into power have been doing nothing for the commoner. The progress and development is only visible when one looks into the brand new SUV or the car showrooms owned by these leaders or their relatives. These leaders have always been exploiting the separatist ideology inserted into the minds of the commoners in Bodoland and want the issue to be continued with hints that they indeed want a separate state for Bodos. The Bodo population is still far away from the basic amenities. Every now and then they make into news for malpractices, witch-hunting etc. The common people whether Bodos or non-Bodos, has virtually gained nothing from the autonomy. Although infrastructural development has happened in Bodoland as with other part of Assam, many aspirations of common Bodos still remain unfulfilled.

 The division of Bodoland was done callously as many non Bodo majority villages were included in it. The non-Bodo population of this area has always been accusing the autonomous council, which consists mainly of Bodo people, to be favouring the Bodo population. The non-Bodo population mainly consists of Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Koch-Rajbongshis, Assamese Hindus, Santhalis, North-Indian etc.The All Bodoland Minority Students Union (ABMSU) which is mainly comprised of the Bengali Muslims and few numbers of Bengali Hindus and others has been demanding their rights. They claim that they are not being inducted in the government jobs in these autonomous districts according to the proportion of their population. Amongst all their demands one was to exclude the non-Bodo majority villages form the autonomous council.

A series of strikes led by ABMSU & Obodo Suraksha Samiti demanding the exclusion of non-Bodo majority villages from the Bodoland was the main reason for tension in last few months. The situation was turning hostile every day. The situation took communal colour when four ex-BLT cadres were beaten to death in a Muslim village which was in retaliation to the shooting of two ABMSU leaders. Soon the entire zone came into conflict. People from both the communities are being killed. Houses of both are being burnt. People are being gunned down, burnt alive; neonates are being cut into pieces. There is complete lawlessness in the region. More than 50 people have been reportedly dead (the actual figure could be much higher) and almost 2 Lakh people have been displaced from their houses.The state government could not sense the tension brewing. By the time the government could react the situation was almost out of control.

 Bandh culture is a very common phenomenon in Assam. If one community calls for 100 hours bandh another will call for 1000 hour. Another prominent community present in Bodoland is the Koch-Rajbongshi. They are also demanding for a separate Kamatapur. Ironically, the proposed Kamatapur coincides with the present BTAD in many areas. They are known for calling marathon bandhs which once lasted for 1000 hour! The Darwin’s principle has become quite a reality in Bodoland. It is all about survival of the fittest i. All the communities are in a do or die situation. Peaceful coexistence is not an option. The communities are in constant fear of ethnic cleansing.

The mainstream Assamese population was also late in reacting. It may be because either of the groups was not a matter of concern to them. One group is constantly trying to get separate statehood while other group is seen as ‘illegal immigrants’.

 Even if we assume that there are indeed illegal immigrants in Assam in huge numbers, the majority of Bengali Muslims are still Indian citizens. However the entire community is branded as Bangladeshis. Their main occupation i.e. small-scale agriculture, illiteracy, poverty, uncontrolled birth rate, typical look and a suspicion of being illegal migrant has made them victims of racism. Moreover, the politicization of the ‘illegal immigrant issue’ (beard-skull capwalas are the illegal migrants) and lack of government interest in solving the issue it have affected the Bengali Muslim population severely.

  Whenever any issue regarding Bengali Muslims are taken up, the illegal immigration part always comes up and the media reinforces the popular perception without seriously investigating it. The Bengali Muslims want Assam to be illegal immigrant free as much any other. But there is genuine fear that in the name of it, actual citizens would be harassed as the non-Muslim sentiments are mostly hostile regarding this issue. But government should take genuine steps to stop cross border infiltration by sealing the porous border and identify and deport the illegal migrants. When that happens the general population must wholeheartedly accept the Bengali Muslims as part of the greater Assamese society, treat them with respect and dignity they deserve and provide equal opportunities. In an ethnic diverse society like Assam, communal harmony is the key to its peaceful existence

 The government has been able to contain the violence in Western Assam as of now. But many concrete measures are required. The government must take away all the illegal guns form the BTAD. Had the central government been serious in 2003 about taking away all the weapons from the surrendering cadre and had the land allocation into the BTAD area been done according the norms then the present day scenario probably would not have arisen. Investigations into the riots must be done with central agencies and culprits should be brought to book to warn those who believe rioters could get away with anything.

 However we know the present peace is very fragile. The state machinery should make concerted efforts to address issues of all communities justly to consolidate it.

By Dr Shamim Ahmed and Baharul Islam. Dr Ahmed has just graduated from Guwahati Medical College and waiting for his turn to serve in rural Assam, a govt initiative to improve rural healthcare. Mr Islam graduated from Delhi University and is an executive in an MNC in Mumbai.

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