From: f43703a@nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp (SUPRATIC GUPTA)
Subject: Re: The Assamese and the Bangladeshi illegals
Organization: Nagoya University Computation Center, Nagoya, Japan.
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:20:27 GMT

In article <1k4k14INN8o3@harpo.uccs.edu> kalita@pikespeak.uccs.edu (Jugal Kalita) writes:

 |
 |I must inform this uninformed,  venomously ethnocentric (Bengali-
 |centric) Chatterjee of something he doesn't seem to know, but everyone else
 |does: 99% of Bengali residents in Assam, Hindus and Moslems, are illegal.

I would vigorously wish to contradict this. We people of Bangladesh,
that have crossed to Inndia before 1967 are considered as Indian Citizen.
It is not our faultt that India made our own land a different country.
It is not our fault that we became home less over night.  

Immigration is not such a easy process. It is like leaving all lang all
established profession to come to a unknow jungle. My father imigrated
1942. My famify did with many others between 1947~50. O know a lot
of families in Assam who are there more then 100 years. This will
surely make more then 1% if not as high as 50%

Agartala district is a bengali mazority place. It was so before independence. 
That itself will make more the 1%


 |They didn't get a Bangladeshi (or Pakistani) passport and an Indian permanent
 |residence visa when they migrated to India.                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  ^^^^^^ and ^^^^

Indian permanent residence and Visa are two totally different things. The
former is required for all citizens of india, I think even for a Assamese.
Visa is required for a foreigner. This Indian permanent residence visa is
a new term to me.

Don't talk like fool.  Refuge camp certificate is OK. Name in voter list is 
OK. Parmanent residency certificate is Ok. How can you talk of Pasport and
Visa.  Does your parents have a birth cirtificate or a Passport to prove 
that they are Indian citizen?

Non bengali Indians are changing the demographic situation in assam too. 
All buisness is controlled by marwaris. This is one mazor reason of the
economic crisis.


 |They just came, crossed the border, found a pocket where there were
 |already a lot of Bengali (Hindu or Moslem) immigrants and decided to 
 |stay put. I would think Deb Chatterjee's parents may fall into the same 
 |category. (I apologize if I am wrong).
 |

Sorry, I think his parents migrated to Bengal. But My parents did to 
Assam.



 |Now, there have been different reactions in different states to this
 |enormous, and illegal immigration of Bengalis. 
 |(1) In West Bengal, the Bengali Hindus regarded the Bangladeshi Bengalis as 
 |	  their harrassed brothers and sisters, and welcomed them. 
 |	  I don't think it was done out of love for India. It was more
 |	  a response which was based on the fact that the immigrants were
 |	  Bengalis. In other words, it was  based on ethnocentric feelings,
 |	  not out of Indian patriotism.
 |(2) In Tripura, the tribals were too weak to do anything. In due course of
 |	  time, the Bangladeshi immigrants became majority. Now, Bengali 
 |	  is the state language and all their chief ministers for a 
 |	  long time have been Bengali Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh.
 |(3) In Assam, the Assamese people did not feel the closeness the Bengalis
 |	  in W.B. (see (1) above) felt toward the Bangladeshis, not even to
 |	  the Hindu ones. That's why they protested.
 |
 |
 |Slowly, over the years, the Bangladeshi immigration to Assam
 |has continued unabated.
 |This is caused tremedous amount of strain on the Assamese psyche, because
 |the mathematics of population has caused the Assamese to fear
 |that they will be outnumbered by the Bangladeshi immigrants in 
 |a matter of decades. 
 |
 |So, when the Assamese people rebelled in the 1960s
 |demanding that the Central Goverment put an end to immigration by taking
 |tough measures, the Calcutta-based "national" press described it
 |as "Bongal Kheda" to vilify it. In fact, it should have named 
 |"Aboidha Pakistani Kheda" (Deport the Illegal Pakistanis)
 |or "Bangladeshi Kheda" (but Bangladesh had not come into existence
 |then). The Assamese used the term "Bongal" to describe the East Pakistani
 |illegal immigrants (Hindus and Moslems). And, I repeat, 99% of Bengalis
 |at that time in Assam (as it is now) were illegal immigrants from East
 |Pakistan (Bangladesh).
 |
 |So, the stand taken by the Assamese against illegal immigration has been
 |demonized by the Calcutta press based on Bengali-centric judgements,
 |not based on patriotic love for India. It has always been so. For the 
 |Calcutta press which forms the opinion of people in W.B. and through 
 |newspapers like the Statesman and magazines like Sunday throughout the 
 |country hasn't changed its stand. 
 |
 |
 |Finally, I would like to remind Deb Chatterjee and people like him 
 |that Assam has been a state which has accepted outsiders (Bangladeshi
 |illegal immigrants as well as other other Indians) in vast numbers
 |over the past 45 years or so. As a result the Assamese people are on the 
 |verge of becoming minority in their own state. The Assamese people need
 |protection from the onslaught of continued influx of Bangladeshis. This 

I agree to this hole heartedly. But I would add to this one fault of assamese
people. They are not Progressive. How many students of assam (leave
alone Assemese, get through national compition. Basically people
of Assam are lazy.


 |is a national problem; the whole of India must support the fervent wish of
 |the Assamese that illegal immigration be stopped forthright, 
 |that the sanctity of the international border not be violated any longer. 
 |It's the duty of every 
 |patriotic Indian. If some  people of West Bengal don't like it, they
 |must be branded anti-national. Their opinions (like the one 
 |stated by Deb Chatterjee) must be ignored, and the whole country will
 |have to stand behind the Assamese and spend its
 |energy in protecting the invasion of land-hungry and
 |job-hungry Bangladeshis (Hindus as well as Moslems).
 |
 |
 |----
 |Jugal Kalita
--
With regards
 
SUPRATIC GUPTA