"I will die but I won’t allow the Citizenship Amendment Act in Assam”.
This strong warning was given by Assamese singer Zubeen Garg in a recent interview. Garg is emerging as an extremely vociferous spokesperson against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Assam. He has also become symbolic of how artists and intellectuals are playing a lead role in the protests in Assam.
Garg, along with several other Assamese artists, have called for a “non-violent” agitation against the Act.
“It is very sad that children of Assam lost their lives in this struggle for the self-respect of our land. We will not let their sacrifice go in vain. The only way to ensure that our protest survives, is a non-violent movement. Any act of violence will give our opponents a chance to weaken our movement,” Garg wrote on his Facebook page.
The Artist Association of Assam, of which Garg is a member, has decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Several prominent artists in Assam and also Assamese artists residing in Mumbai and Delhi are expected to become signatories to the petition.
Need for a Political Alternative
Assam has witnessed the fiercest protests after the Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed and made into an Act.
Unlike the protests in Delhi or Mumbai, the anger in the Assam and rest of the Northeast isn’t because it excludes Muslims or that it is seen as an assault on secularism. Here it’s a fight for identity.
There are four aspects to why the impact of the Act will be maximum in Assam.
- Unlike Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, the Act doesn’t grant exemption to much of Assam. It will be applied on 26 out of 33 districts in the state.
- Many people in Assam see the Act as a violation of the 1985 Assam Accord. Under the CAA, any Bangladeshi residing in India for 6 years can apply for citizenship instead of the requirement of 11 years as before. The cut-off date of entry in India which earlier was 23 March, 1971, has now been relaxed to 31 December 2014.
- Therefore there is a fear that the Act would lead to an influx of Bangladeshi Hindus into Assam, threatening the indigenous people’s culture, livelihood and access to resources.
- The Act would also render irrelevant the National Register of Citizens exercise as the lakhs of Hindus left out of the NRC, would now be eligible for citizenship under the Act.
Given this, many people in Assam see the CAA as a betrayal by not just the BJP, but also the Asom Gana Parishad, that voted in favour of it in the House.
Though the anger against the Congress is lesser, there is still some discontent as it is felt that the party is focussing more on the ‘assault on secularism’ aspect of the Act than its ‘grave implications’ on Assam’s indigenous people.
Therefore there is a clamour for a “political alternative” and people are looking towards the All Assam Students Union and activists like Akhil Gogoi.
Garg too recognises the need for an alternative and reportedly said that he would form a political party if needed.
He further said in an interview that the BJP “won’t return to power (in Assam) in 2021” when Assembly elections are scheduled in the state.
Cultural Uprising
Though among the most prominent, Garg is only one of the many Assamese artists and intellectuals who are protesting against the CAA.
For instance, actor Rabi Sharma led a few of the protests in Guwahati.
A song of protest titled ‘Odhikar’ was also released.
Assamese artists in Mumbai, including singer and composer Joi Barua and actor Dipannita Sharma, held a protest at Azad Maidan in the city on 15 December.
Singer Angrag ‘Papon’ Mahanta cancelled his show in Delhi, saying that he won’t be in “state of mind to entertain, when Assam is burning”.
According to political analyst and head of Swaraj India Yogendra Yadav, “whenever Assam’s students and intellectuals join a movement, it is the sign of a larger political change underway”.
Even historically, intellectuals have played a key role in the Assam movement.
The Asom Sahitya Sabha, founded in 1917, played a key role in strengthening the Assamese identity. It has over thousand offices across Assam.
Along with several cultural organisations and the AASU, the Asom Sahitya Sabha formed the All Asom Gana Sangram Parishad in 1979. And the main demand of the new umbrella organisation was to put pressure on the government to check illegal immigration. This marked the beginning of the Assam agitation.
Minority ethnicities like the Mishing, Bodo, Rabha and Koch communities also formed their own Sahitya Sabhas but they made common cause with the Ason Sahitya Sabha in opposing illegal immigration and preservation of Assam’s distinctive identity.
The new generation of Assamese artists and writers appear to be following the example of what an earlier generation did nearly four decades ago. And this partly explains why Assam is witnessing its biggest agitation since the 1980s.
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