India: The Agony of Assam

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The government has shown unusual patience in dealing with the Assamese. Spurred on by a militant student group, the dissidents began agitating in 1979 for the expulsion of all "foreigners" from the state. By that they meant the Bengalis, who began coming to the state when the entire region was part of British India and who now make up about 8 million of the state's estimated 20 million population. For two years, the agitators succeeded in virtually paralyzing all official and economic activity in Assam. They forced closure of Assam's oilfields, which supply one-third of India's petroleum needs. The action cost the government nearly $1.5 billion in additional oil imports in 1979 and 1980, and eventually forced it to send in army troops to take over the oilfields. When national elections were held in 1980, the students prevented balloting in twelve of the state's 14 constituencies. The following year the dissidents prevented the national government from taking a census that was intended to help address some of their grievances.

In an effort to defuse the situation and find a resolution to the crisis, New Delhi engaged in negotiations with the student leaders for nearly three years. The government and the students agreed tentatively that anyone who settled in Assam before 1961 could stay. They also agreed to consider that anyone who came after 1971 would be repatriated to other parts of India, a decision that would affect almost 1 million people. But the students were adamant that those who had arrived between 1961 and 1971 be either denied the right to vote or forced to leave, an enormous exercise that could involve 3 million people. Prime Minister Gandhi was equally adamant that all immigrants who arrived before 1971 and had proof of their Indian citizenship had every legal right to live, work and vote in Assam. As she told Parliament, "I asked the students, 'Where are we going to send these people? Where in India? To what country outside India?' " Hopelessly deadlocked, the talks, which were being held in New Delhi, broke down in early January. When the student leaders arrived back in Assam, they were arrested.

Although the leaders were released last week as a conciliatory gesture, it seems unlikely that their movement will soon simmer down. Thus far the dissidents have not called for independence for Assam, but separatism is never very far from the surface. One group even boasts its own flag, a green map of Assam with a mailed fist in the center. Except for a narrow passage, the state is separated from India by Bangladesh. Since ancient times, its ethnic and cultural ties have always been closer to Burma and Tibet than to the rest of India. In tribute to their proud and independent past, the students have taken to calling their movement "the 18th war of independence," a reference to the 17 wars fought by Assam's legendary King Lachit Borphukan, who in the 1600s was the only ruler in the region to repulse Mogul invaders.