Assam likely to conduct survey to identify ‘indigenous’ Muslims

February 10: The BJP-led government in Assam has decided to conduct a socioeconomic census from March this year to identify and segregate indigenous Muslims from Bangladeshi origin people. As per reports, the survey will be conducted to identify people of four communities — Goria, Moria, Desi and Jolah of the tea tribes, considered as indigenous. For these groups who consider themselves distinct from the Bengali-speaking Muslims who migrated from East Bengal or Bangladesh, the demand for a census is not recent.

Assam Welfare of Minorities Minister Ranjit Dutta has convened a meeting on Tuesday with various organisations of the four communities and other stakeholders to finalise the plan. Ranjit Dutta said, “A sum of Rs 100 crore was announced to form the ‘Khilonjiya Muslim Development Corporation’ in the 2019-2020 state state budget. To that end, the government will first do a survey or census to identify the population of the community.”

Assam Minority Development Board Chairman Muminul Aowal, who is also the Convenor of Janagosthiya Samanway Parishad Asom (JSPA), said the entire rationale behind such an exercise is to give protection to the indigenous people from demographic changes in the state. Muminul Aowal said, “Assam has about 1.3 crore Muslims population, of which around 90 lakh are of Bangladeshi origin. The remaining 40 lakh are from different tribes and they need to be identified.” The indigenous Muslims are deprived of benefits of the government welfare schemes in absence of proper identification, he claimed.

After the anti-CAA protest agitation in Assam, this exercise may trigger a fresh controversy in the state. Some fear such a census will “further marginalise” the descendants of Bengali-speaking migrants in Assam.