– Arshad Shaikh
Language is a powerful tool both to unite and divide people. Unfortunately, In the north eastern state of Assam in India, it is being abused by the political class to demonise Muslims as “outsiders” by creating a fear-psychosis among the majority Assamese speaking community. Eviction exercises by the government and administration with inflammatory and Islamophobic speeches by those in the highest echelons of power have created an environment of terror and ostracism for Muslims, and more so those of Bengali descent.
The question of language, combined with that of identity, has become an instrument of persecution, pushing thousands of people out of homes and endangering Assam’s plural cultural landscape.
A History of Tension
The demographic landscape of Assam has been influenced by migration. Since colonial times, steady migration took place most notably from today’s Bangladesh. The Assam Students Movement of the 1980s was started by fears regarding illegal immigration. The student leaders who later became politicians and governed the state attempted to safeguard Assamese identity and the Assamese language. This set up an Assamese non-Assamese (Bengali) narrative. It stoked fears in the native population that if this migration did not stop, Assamese would become a minority in their own state.
All this ultimately led to the process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise. The NRC was finalised in 2019, leaving out 1.96 million individuals. Of which, 1.2 million were Bengali Hindus and hundreds and thousands of Muslims who were declared as foreigners. This is the background of the present-day controversies, where language, or rather the decision of choosing between Assamese and Bengali as the native tongue, has become a core political issue.
Stoking Division
In July 2025, Assam Chief Minister Sarma sparked outrage by suggesting that registering Bengali as one’s mother tongue in census forms could help identify “foreigners” in Assam. This statement was interpreted as an insinuation against Bengali-speaking Muslims. It meant that anyone speaking Bengali became equivalent to an unlawful immigrant from Bangladesh.
The Chief Minister made these remarks as part of eviction drives that have left more than 4,000 Muslim families or an estimated 20,000 to 24,000 individuals displaced. This eviction drive completed in less than 30 days was spread across Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur districts. These evictions were carried out without any scope for rehabilitation. They have been presented as efforts to recover illegally grazed or occupied government land.
However, many view them as disproportionately targeting Muslims as part of the manipulation of voting patterns. All BTC Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) reacted defiantly. Their leader Mainuddin Ali allegedly urged Bengali-speaking Muslims to register Bengali as their mother tongue in the next census, in order to reduce Assamese to a minority language. The Assamese CM averred that Assamese would remain the official language. He called such pronouncements as “blackmail” and asserted that 70% of people residing in char (riverine) districts, where numerous Bengali-speaking Muslims reside, already register Bengali as their first language.
Eviction Drives: A Human Toll
This crackdown on Bengali Muslims in Assam in the form of illegal evictions is causing a humanitarian catastrophe. On July 12, 2025 more than 1080 families witnessed 2700 buildings and 140 hectares of land cleared in a single day in Goalparas Paikan Reserve Forest. Nearly 1400 families were uprooted from 3500 bighas of land in Dhubri, some of which the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) had designated for a solar project.
Police have responded to protests against these evictions with arrests and lathi charges. Although residents say they only questioned the selective targeting of Muslim families, yet protesters were arrested on suspicion of inciting communal hatred. Families become homeless as a result of these evictions. Most often there was no compensation offered nor other housing options. Despite having lived in Assam for generations many impoverished landless Indian citizens are viewed with suspicion because of their language and religion.
The Opposition which includes the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Congress has denounced these acts as discriminatory and accused the government led by the BJP of ulterior motives and dividing voters keeping in mind the 2026 Assembly elections.
Political and Social Backlash
Debangshu Bhattacharya, leader of Trinamool Congress (TMC), has criticised CM-Assam. He pointed out at the irony to target Bengali speakers when India’s national anthem is in Bengali. “If speaking Bengali makes one a foreigner, does singing ‘Jana Gana Mana’ question Sarma’s citizenship?” Bhattacharya asked on X. He cited the exclusion of 1.2 million Bengali Hindus from the NRC as proof of wider linguistic prejudice.
In a memo to the governor of Assam, AIUDF condemned the climate of fear and anxiety among Muslims pointing out that even those who have legitimate documentation are facing harassment. However, Sarma accused the TMC of spreading lies to protect illegal Muslim infiltrators by giving the evictions a communal colour. He accused Bengali-speaking Muslims of committing a demographic invasion, saying they travel hundreds of kilometres to settle in Assamese-dominated areas as part of a political strategy. Intercommunal tensions are heightened by this narrative that portrays Muslims as a threat to Assam’s political and cultural fabric.
Broader Implications
In Assam the persecution of Muslims goes beyond evictions. Approximately 34% of Assam’s 31 million residents are Muslims of whom about 7 million speak Bengali. So, this campaign runs the risk of alienating a sizable section of the populace. Assamese, Bangla, Bodo and other languages have coexisted in Assam since a long time. A pluralistic legacy of the state is being undermined by those in power by framing the “Bengali” language as a sign of an “illegal immigrant”.
The insistence that Assamese be the only accepted language ignores the contributions of Muslims who speak Bengali, many of whom have long enhanced Assam’s cultural and economic life.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, while delivering the Farewell Sermon during his last Hajj pilgrim, had declared that no Arab had any superiority over a non-Arab and vice-versa. The only criteria for judging a person should be piety. It’s time to emulate such noble teachings in our polity. Else, communalism, xenophobia, violence and a climate of fear will only increase by the day and that would not be in our national interest.
