India: The Agony of Assam

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Even then, the territory was an exotic ethnic mix that included Indo-Aryan Assamese, Assamese-speaking Hindus in the Brahmaputra valley, dozens of hill tribes of Mongoloid stock, and indigenous plains tribes. Then came successive waves of Bengalis, both Hindus and Muslims, who were first brought in by the British to run the tea plantations and the civil service of the British raj. Bengali immigration intensified during partition in 1947 and again after the creation of Bangladesh. Although its population is one of the fastest growing on the subcontinent, Assam has only 254 people per sq. km. West Bengal, by contrast, has 614, one of the highest population densities in the world.

The Bengalis made enormous contributions to the development of Assam's oil wealth, industry and administration. But the native Assamese came to fear that their language and culture would be submerged by the Bengalis. Moreover, many of the Bengalis are Muslims, while the native Assamese are either Hindus or animists. As a result, the population is now 25% Muslim, a high percentage for an Indian state.

As Parliament considered ways of dealing with what Indian President Giani Zail Singh called "the virus of communalism," the ballots were finally tabulated late last week. The Congress (I) Party won a clear majority, taking 90 out of the 108 seats in the state legislature and four of the five seats for Parliament. That came as no surprise, since the small Communist Party (Marxist) was the only other party contesting the election. Officials said that voting had been heavy (70%) in the Bengali districts, where there was no violence, but that 18 state and seven parliamentary contests had had to be nullified. It was not a victory that anyone could take satisfaction from — and hardly a happy note on which to welcome the 80 heads of state who will arrive in New Delhi next week for the summit conference of nonaligned nations. — By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by Dean Brelis/New Delhi