raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghu Ramakrishnan) (08/16/85)
An accord has been reached on the Assam immigrants issue. In essence, those who immigrated to Assam after 1965 will be disenfranchised, and those who did so after 1971 will be deported. The number of deportations that this will involve was not mentioned in the article (New York Times, Aug 16). New elections are to be held soon. For those who are unfamiliar with the Assam problem, several people from Bangla Desh (adjoining Assam) illegally immigrated for the usual reasons - better living conditions, jobs... The Assamese, again as usual, resented the newcomers since they felt that this affected their livelihood. To complicate matters, most of the immigrants were Muslims and Assam is predominantly Hindu and this has lent a communal tinge to the acrimony. During state elections in 1983, there was an eruption of violence resulting in over 5000 deaths. Students (and other Assamese) have been agitating for the expulsion of the immigrants and the present accord is pretty much what they've been asking for.
debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (08/19/85)
> For those who are unfamiliar with the Assam problem, several people > from Bangla Desh (adjoining Assam) illegally immigrated ... The Assamese > resented the newcomers ... To complicate matters, most of the immigrants > were Muslims and Assam is predominantly Hindu and this has lent a communal > tinge to the acrimony ... More like several million ... :-) My recollection (I grew up in Assam/Meghalaya/Nagaland, and spent a lot of time there upto 1981) is that the divisions were more along linguistic lines than religious ("Assam for the Assamese"). The more radical of the "student leaders" didn't even consider themselves Indians -- slogans like "Indian Dogs Go Home" were quite common on walls in Gauhati! > An accord has been reached on the Assam immigrants issue. In essence, > those who immigrated to Assam after 1965 will be disenfranchised, > and those who did so after 1971 will be deported. Hmm ... now that we have the specs, I'd love to see an implementation. (Am I being hopelessly cynical when I don't see Bangla Desh welcoming the deportees back with open arms?) -- Saumya Debray SUNY at Stony Brook uucp: {allegra, hocsd, philabs, ogcvax} !sbcs!debray arpa: debray%suny-sb.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CSNet: debray@sbcs.csnet