[Assam] assamese bashing

[xourov pathok]

santanu roy wrote:
>  Political assertion by the community therefore threatens many. There is
>  an aspect of yet another assertive group adding to the ethnic
>  fragmentation and potential conflict in Assam - always unnerving to the
>  nationalist Assamese cause.santanu-da,

i am surprised that you feel the ethnic fragmentation and the potential
conflict can be unnerving only to the assamese nationalists and not to the
others.

but first, a few comments on the assamese bashing.  i would let it
pass, but it really has a bearing on the issue.

when a mob set on the arsonists at beltola, and did what only a mob
does so well, the responsibility was laid at the feet of the assamese---
by insinuation, and sometimes quite explicitly.  so now, it seems,
the assamese are not only responsible for the beltola incident, 
the general plight of the tea laborers but also for opposing the 
santhali demands for st status.

nothing can be more perverse that this.  for one, it adds to the ethnic
fragmentation and conflict.  it is also historically inaccurate.
the people of assam were not responsible for bringing in the santhalis 
to work in the tea gardens.  they too were victims of the same
process.  the segregation of the tea laborers from the rest 
of the community, which you mention, benefits the tea industry, 
with its capital in kolkata, and with which the assamese have very 
little to do.

what you seem to ignore is that the ethnic fragmentation is caused
by the very model of ethnic development (st status in this case),
which has been foisted on us.  the bodos and other groups that
already enjoy the benefits of this status, are opposing it.  what 
sanjib-da does in his article is bring this very model into question,
but it seems you are more comfortable in discussion this in the
context of assamese nationalism.  unfortunately, it does nothing
but hide the real issues.

x





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