Telling The Hate Tale

It is unfortunate to arrive at a stage where, pushing aside all kinds of developmental thoughts for the establishment of strong philosophical foundation, most of the youths of attained age in the state have to deal with issues of identity crisis today. Identity is something that is passed on to us by our grand and great grandfathers. This is not something that people will sit around the round table and discuss one’s choices of identity to be given. This is as stupid as christening a name of a newly born baby on the basis of religion and community. Identity is something that is yet not defined conclusively. 

Assam, a state in the eastern part of the country is though referred to as ‘the gateway to the South Asian Countries’ have failed to make the gateway of its own identity today. Right from the beginning, generations have been taught that people living in a space speaking the dominant language can be termed as simply as an identity on the basis of that language. People living in Russia, speaking Russian language are called Russian; similarly Chinese for China, French for France, Spanish for Spain. Whereas, it is not surprising to say that Indian for India do not refer to any language called Indian. In fact, India is a multi-lingual states, where each of the states possess their own linguistic identity. In this very context,  despite having its own linguistic identity as ‘Assamese’, Assam is situated at the most boiling stage of identity crisis today.

By ‘Assamese’ I do not mean my mother tongue but an adopted identity, which is predominantly spoken in this land of Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and many stalwarts of Assamese language. It is important to adopt the linguistic identity of a region to sustain one’s mother tongue. I adopted the Assamese language to sustain my mother tongue ‘Bengali’, while living in Assam for the last so many years today. The identity conflict in Assam arose with the influx issue of foreigners from neighboring countries, predominantly from Bangladesh in 1971. The liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971 and India-Pakistan partition in 1947 has always remained as a scratch in the history of India. Most of the people were displaced and lived a refugee life for years even after the Indian government approved them as Indian citizens. The scratch mark is so deep that most of those who witnessed these bloody incidents of history, are still living a life of wanderer. Now, this has got a difference in between those who bore the pains and sufferings, underwent a huge trauma; lingering to Indian identity and those who tried to stole Indian identity secretly after the deadline of 1971, especially in case of Assam. This difference in identity is still sparking the state  to an unstable stage, for which there arose a competition among the linguistic identities that each state possess. And this has made the people of other states living in Assam, especially Indian Bengali speaking people irrespective of the native Indians and refugees, who by choice came to the Indian dominion after the partition and declared Indians, angry. The term ‘angry’ is used as questioning the identity of an Indian by supposedly another Indian is not tolerable. If the same question is reversed, this could have established more engagements in Identity-conflict. There spread shadows of prejudices over the ‘Indian Bengali-speaking people’ by the Assamese, though I mean it as those who predominantly speak the language, whereas the real definition of ‘Assamese’ is still making its round among the intellectual section of the state. This prejudices is making the diversified identities of the country to diverge away, which means the breaking of ‘unity’ that is defined by the diversities in Indian constitution. Thereby, it becomes important for every ‘Indian Bengali-speaking people’ to declare themselves as an ‘Assamese Bengali’ and not a foreigner, while residing within Assam. But, whether this fabric identity of ‘Assamese Bengali’ should only deal with the adoption of Assamese language or should it also be mandated to adopt its culture and society, will depend upon the definition of Assamese, which is yet to come.  

This phenomenon of identifying oneself by the overshadow of one’s mother tongue in order to secure oneself should not become a tradition or be followed by any other states in future as this is disintegrating the democratic features of India. Both assimilation and acceptance must go hand in hand. Moreover, it must regularly take care that the former should not dominate the latter or the vice versa. The issue of identity in Assam has become more complex at the presence of Citizenship Bill (Amendment), 2019 which is already passed in the Lok Sabha amidst uproars and huge protests, and still making its count at Rajya Sabha. Now, this is something, which along with the Assamese has made life more tougher, for ‘Assamese Bengali’ living in Assam now. As of now, many eyes have already frowned upon them, seemingly identifying the group as ‘other’ in one’s own land. It will remain a question, whether the situation has been created for the two major linguistic identities divided between the two valleys of Assam or for unnecessary political driven motive behind the situation. If it is true that the Bengalis living in Barak valley of Assam has assimilated the Assamese way of language, culture and tradition; then where does the reason of supporting the bill lie. Or else, the Bengalis in Barak valley, where they are already linguistically dominated are nurturing the motive of creating another state of Hindu Bengali-speaking  people, separating from Assam at the hindsight right after the enactment of citizenship amendment law. They must self-declare their motive to justify their stand. On the other hand, question must also be raised upon the Bengalis in Brahmaputra valley showing support of sympathy for the Barak valley. If it is so, then it will further make the life worse of Bengalis living in Brahmaputra valley, unless they also nurture a motive to leave Brahmaputra valley and join the other side. In both cases, the situation can be resolved at the creation of identities through assimilation like ‘Assamese Bengali’ and their acceptance by the Assamese as not a ‘Foreigner’.