Bill set to revive ‘tribal vs Assamese’ rift

Guwahati: The Government of India’s bid to provide constitutional safeguards and finding a definition of the word “Assamese” by forming a high-powered committee to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord may lead to a fresh division among the indigenous population of Assam, with several indigenous tribal groups refusing to be defined as Assamese.

Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, which was signed in 1985 after the 1979-85 Assam agitation, envisages appropriate constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards should be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the “Assamese” people. The home ministry recently constituted a 13-member high-level committee with Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma (Retd) as chairman.

Veteran tribal leader Holiram Terang, also president of the Autonomous State Demands Committee, attacked the government for not including a hill tribe member in the committee. He said hill tribes of the state like the Karbi, Dimasa, Kuki, Rengma and Baite do not categorise themselves as “Assamese”, but call themselves the hill tribes.

Mr Terang asserted that any recommendation by the committee for the protection of indigenous people’s rights in Assam should not cover them as they claim to be only hill tribes, and not “Assamese”.

Another tribal body, the Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha, has opposed the implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, saying it will threaten the very existence of the “real indigenous” people.

Clause 6 is meant to guarantee the constitutional safeguards for the Assamese. Attempts to define who is an Assamese in the multi-ethnic state have not been successful.

“The Assamese want to guarantee their political rights and facilities and impose their language, culture and religion on the tribal communities through the implementation of Clause 6,” the Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha said in a statement.

“This has been a conspiracy for 400 years. We appeal to the Centre not to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. If constitutional safeguards are required, they are for the communities, who are the real bhumiputra (sons of the soil). The tribals are not Assamese and they have their own language, culture and history,” said the Mancha, which claims to represent the Bodos and other tribes in the Bodoland Territorial Council.

However, the All Assam Tribal Sangha welcomed the Centre’s decision to set up a 13-member committee to work out a plan to implement Clause 6.