[Assam] Who is the Sentinel of Freedom?

[xourov pathok]

--- "Roy, Santanu" <sroy at mail.smu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Xourov, 
> I will reply to your other mail later. But lest I
> open up a very old can of worms, let me say that I
> was NOT using term "Bongal" to refer to the
> anti-Bengali feeling in Brahmaputra Valley. We have
> talked about this before. This is actually part of
> my attempt to legitimize the term Bongal as used
> today. The migrants who speak Bengali or refer to
> themselves as Bengali speaking may be anywhere
> between 30 - 45% of the population of Assam 
> (depending on how the na-oxomiyas are put). This is
> a legitimate sub-nationality of Assam - no matter
> how carefully they are ignored in the discourse of
> the oxomiya bhadralok - even the very intelligent
> ones. Generations have now grown up in Assam. Large
> proportion of them have not "assimilated"; they will
> not. They have, however, evolved into something
> different - their langauage and culture is going
> through a process of adaptation. (If only someone
> would care to look -the dynamics are  fascinating
> for a social scientist actually). Most of them are
> really not connected to Bengal except in terms of
> historical group memory and myths. Soon they will
> resemble the Caribbean plantation workers from Bihar
> and Chhotanagpur that are not really Indian except
> in a mythical sense.  They cannot be wished away.
> They are not indegenous but they are native now. Two
> hundred year from now, their progenies will probably
> be virtually indistinguishable from the children of
> indegenous peoples of Assam (no matter how
> irritating the thought is to some). Unless, some
> major ethnic cleansing occurs in between. Meanwhile,
> they need to have a name. What better than Bongal? 
> 

if they are evolving into something new, why use an
old and loaded term?

x


       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Need a vacation? Get great deals
to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/