[Assam] Who is the Sentinel of Freedom? Reply to Xourov I.

[Roy, Santanu]

Dear Xourov, 

Here is my response to the first part of your longer mail. 

First, thanks for your comments. 

The term colonialism is very frequently used to describe the root of all
evils so much so that it has lost much of its meaning to me. The
colonial state in India was not an unknown monster - it was a fairly
well ordered set of people with definite objectives - many of which were
economic.

The economic differentials and conditions that attracted migration to
Assam are also, in my view, the very same ones that prompted the
colonial state to facilitate and promote such migration. 

This is not an accident. In most situations where economic surplus can
be created for individual agents by choosing certain actions - the
political and social institutions eventually recognize and facilitate it
- the agents that control and design such institutions stand to
privately and collectively gain from it. 

Thus, the 19th century changes in the property rights structure, the
alienation of collective property rights, the changes in the revenue
collection mechanism - all of this created basic conditions for
realization of the gains from migration - but this was the intention all
along. Institutions are not givens. They respond to economic incentives.


[In my view (and this is debatable), even a sovereign national
government of Assam would have instituted most of these changes, allowed
some of the migration for purely Leviathan reasons.]

If the 1901 census superintend lamented the lack of migration, he was
probably expressing the frustrations of the colonial state that not
sufficient amount of institutional change had occurred to attract the
migration they were praying for. 

It is not sufficient to look at institutions as they came were, one has
to ask why they came to be the way they were, what incentives played
their roles.

I, of course, totally agree with you that the changes that facilitated
migration were directly and particularly harmful to the indigenous
peasants - they lost their historical assets and rights. There is
absolutely no doubt about this. It is a general fact that all migration
must hurt those the migrants compete with. It hurts even now by driving
up the market price of land and inputs.   

I also agree that migration creates opportunities for further migration
and the network effect is very strong. 

I will write separately to respond to your comments about the losers not
having a voice, what can be done and the need for transparency. 

So much for now. Take care -

Santanu-da. 

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: xourov pathok [mailto:xourov at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 7:11 AM
To: Roy, Santanu; assam at assamnet.org; Dilip/Dil Deka
Subject: RE: [Assam] Who is the Sentinel of Freedom?

 

santanu-da,

 

thank you for your response.  it is good to hear from

you.  i am afraid this might get a little long.  but

do give it a read and i look forward to your comments.

 

 

 

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

 

> 

> The flow of human beings from the plains of Bengal

> (including

> Bangladesh) to Assam is and has always been driven

> by differences in

> economic opportunities except possibly the middle

> class Hindus who moved

> after 1947. 

> 

> [Even in the latter case, it is not clear that all

> of the migration to

> Assam is driven by the fear of political persecution

> - for after all,

> poor Hindus (not babus) from these areas had moved

> into Assam throughout

> 20th century.]

> 

> The differences in economic opportunities arise

> mainly from differences

> in availability of natural resources per person

> (land, fishing water,

> forests) and from differences in availability and

> the degree of access

> to common property and state owned resources. 

> 

> These differences in economic opportunities are

> dying out for obvious

> reasons - except possibly in tribal/hill areas of

> Assam, Arunachal

> Pradesh, Nagaland etc where natural resources are

> still up for grabs. 

> 

> [Sanjib Baruah has written very authoritatively on

> the historical

> process related to some of these issues.] 

> 

 

difference in economic opportunities is only a partial

explanation for immigration, and even then it is not

as innocent as it sounds.

 

from sanjib-da's works, we get that the immigration of

peasants from bangladesh did not start till between

1901 and 1911.  this was preceded by the british

creating economic opportunities for the immigration to

occur.  but that alone did not trigger the

immigration.

 

the economic opportunities, land, existed in abundance

in assam.  the moamaria uprising and civil war reduced

the population of the ahom kingdom (mostly upper

assam) to half (late 18th century). the burmese

invasion depopulated it further (early 19th century). 

the decennial lease and new property laws of the

british (later half of 19th century) led to a

dispossession of land for the assamese peasants,

something sanjib-da discusses in great detail in one

of his papers.  at the end of the 19th century, with

all economic opportunity differentials in place,

immigration was still not occurring and this puzzled

the british.  sanjib-da writes:  'the 1901 census

superintendent also expressed similar regret that

assam had not attracted "spontaneous" immigration.'   

    

 

i wanted to make a couple of points with this aside. 

first, difference in economic opportunities alone does

not explain immigration.  second, economic

opportunities are not always spontaneous, and they are

created by interested agents, in this case, colonial

agents.  and third, economic opportunities were

created by taking away economic opportunities from the

native peasants.  

 

the immigration  did not become a torrent immediately,

 and in fact it decreased for some time immediately

afterwards.  and the immigration reached only the

westernmost portions of assam.  my explanation for

this is inertia.  it took some time for the peasants

of bangladesh to catch on to the idea of immigration,

and for the immigration networks to establish

themselves.   from the "coyotes" that smuggle them

across the border, to the bsf guards, the government

clerks that give them false documents, the contractors

who benefit from the cheap labor to the brokers and

finally to the politicians who get their votes.  

 

this is a powerful network.  this network is capable

of creating more economic opportunities for more

immigration.  in other words, immigration explains

immigration.

 

i don't even have a problem with that.  my problem is

with the clandestine nature of this operation.  i know

you accept corruption as a means of overcoming

regulated economies.  but you ignore the fact that

they are also a means of monopolizing the system.  

 

if there exists a demand for immigration, there exists

a corresponding demand against it.  this corruption

denies the opposing voice any expression, and leaves

the field open for the demand for immigration.  a

monopoly situation.

 

flies at the principles of free market, unfortunately.

  

 

i am not the first person asking this operation to be

above board.  sanjay hazarika made a case for work

permits, etc, in his book "rites of passage...".  in

other words, he argues, let this entire operation be

done in full view of everyone.  based on policies that

all of us agree on.  currently, we don't know anything

about this operation.  leading to rhetoric, and a

situation that is creating jingoism, chauvinism, and

what not.   have you been reading the aamsu and aasu

threats and counter-threats in the last couple of

days?

 

unfortunately, that book by hazarika is not popular,

and when the suggestion is made that we need to look

at the networks on the indian side of the border it is

so out of the blue people say "oh, you are looking for

independence".  duh!  or in the spirit of things,

doh!!        

 

> Migration should then cease after a period of time. 

 

from the look of it, this will not cease for a long

time.  the population density in bangladesh is in the

900s.  it is in the 300s in assam.  the situation in

bangladesh countryside can only deteriorate, with

decreasing land and increasing population, how long do

you think it will take to catch up with the

bangladeshi countryside?  

 

i think it is already getting too long.  i shall leave

the rest for later.

 

cheers,

x

 

 

 

 

> As for politicians encouraging migration and the

> existence of corruption

> in state agencies that legitimise illegal migration

> - these should seen

> as mere exploitation of the fact that migrants want

> to move in search of

> economic opportnuities. The migrant is willing to

> pay with money and

> vote for the right to live here - there is a market

> - the politicians

> and the bureaucrats will be suppliers in this

> market. Nothing that one

> can think of can prevent this. 

> 

> And then all this talk about Bangladeshi versus

> Indian migration. If

> Bongals had not filled up the land, the vacuum

> created by the wedge

> between per capita resource availability in Assam

> and rest of "Bharat"

> would have meant a huge migration of people from

> mainland India.

> Counterfactual history is always dangerous. But

> think about it for a

> moment. If walls of fire were erected to prevent

> people from coming to

> Assam from East Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1947, the

> Indian constitution

> would not have defended the state from potential

> migration that the

> economic mechanism would have engineered instead

> from mainland India.

> The pace would be different. The fact that the poor

> arid regions of

> central and eastern India do not have the skills to

> exploit wet areas

> would have been a factor. In the long run, however,

> the socio-economic

> picture would probably not be very different. The

> faces would have

> looked different. Less of lungis, less Bengali, more

> Hindi, more Hindu

> possibly.   

> 

> Then, what remains of the 1979 agitation? Perhaps,

> an awareness of the

> reality that just won't go away. A gnawing feeling

> in the indigenous

> soul that something has changed, something has been

> lost - realized in

> hard facts. For the urban dwellers, the veils have

> been lifted. And as

> the last thirt years have taught, the change is

> irretrievable. The

> politics of camouflage has been replaced by the

> politics of ethnic

> polarization. The middle class has learnt that

> language. Even the

> oxomiya bhdralok has.  

> 

> Santanu. 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: assam-bounces at assamnet.org

> [mailto:assam-bounces at assamnet.org] On

> Behalf Of xourov pathok

> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 10:17 AM

> To: assam at assamnet.org; Dilip/Dil Deka

> Subject: [Assam] Who is the Sentinel of Freedom?

> 

> > I can see you are trying to steer the discussion 

> > to the same issues that you are so fond of and 

> > have discussed here so many times - that India has

> > totally failed and Assam will be better off by

> > opting out of India.

> 

> dilip-da, that is c-da, not me.  could you show me

> where i have argued assam is better off opting out

> of

> india?  the possibility of that happening is too

> remote, imho, and there is not point in speculating

> on

> it.  it is not going to happen.  period.

> 

> i am trying to keep to the issue of immigration, and

> not going on a tangent on freedom.  independence.

> principles.  or thought experiments.  

> 

> i am trying to focus on the failure of the assam

> agitation and what it means for assam.  also, i am

> trying to focus on the mechanism how immigration is

> happening.  what sustains it.  etc.

> 

> >  On your email below - All of your allegations are

> >  valid, not always but in many instances. India is

> >  still experimenting with democracy 

>    [snipped]

> 

> i am not interested in the discussion on indian

> democracy in the present context.  i am strongly

> interested in the issue of democracy, of course. 

> but

> that is an entirely different issue.

> 

> x

> 

> 

>        

> 

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> 

 

 

 

       

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