WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Identifying ‘Immigrants’ through Violence: Memory, Press, and Archive in the making of ‘Bangladeshi Migrants’ in Assam Iqbal, M. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Dr Musab Iqbal, 2018. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] Identifying ‘Immigrants’ through Violence: Memory, Press, and Archive in the making of ‘Bangladeshi Migrants’ in Assam Musab Iqbal A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy PhD 2018 in the fond memory of my late father, who left his thesis unfinished, but inspired me to never stop learning and exploring ABSTRACT This research studies the violent conflict between Bengali Muslims, who mostly migrated from the former East Bengal during colonial times, and the Bodo Tribe, who mostly follow the Bathou religion in the Bodoland region of Assam. This conflict is often seen through the pre- existing lens of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in India. Here, conflict between a religious minority and an ethnic one is investigated in its locality and this investigation highlights the complex history of the region and its part in shaping this antagonism. It does so by looking into the colonial archive which introduced the category of ‘immigrant’ to the region, together with Urdu and English press coverage of four violent events that essentialize the categories ‘Muslim’ and ‘immigrant’, respectively. Defying simple categorization, the Bengali Muslims in the Kokrajhar district have devised their own strategy for narrating time. Through archival and ethnographic research this study shows the shifting meaning of the concept of an ‘immigrant’ and its implication for social and political realities. This research addresses some less studied dynamics of the clash between two minorities and its representation in both the English and Urdu Media. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is possible only because of the people around me who have helped me to evolve. Some inspiring and some uninspiring conversations have contributed to my growth and decay - both important to a life. With them, I both learnt and unlearnt. I am grateful to Prof. Jean Seaton, my director of studies, for her relentless support and ever inspiring conversations. Her passion and energy are contagious, thus making a work like this possible. Thank you for teaching me the importance of history anew and the importance of thinking it through before making a theoretical claim. I am also indebted to Roza Tsagarousianou, my second supervisor, course leader and a teacher friend, without her support and guidance this journey would not have been possible. I am also grateful to Britta Ohm for always being there to listen to my ideas and give valuable comments, and thankful to Hilal Ahmed for initially providing me with the opportunity to explore the politics and society of Assam and think about the Muslim question in India. I am thankful to the University of Westminster for providing me with the scholarship and opportunity to carry out my research in a very inspiring department. I am indebted to Anthony McNicholas for being always there to guide, support and encourage me, and to my colleagues at CAMRI, always helpful and motivating, Tarik Sabry, Anastasia Kavada, Doug Specht and Anastasia Denisova. I am also thankful to Charusmita and Natasha Fernando, who made the University a special place. I owe a big vote of thanks to all the people who opened their doors and hearts and hosted me during my fieldwork in Kolkata, Guwahati, and Kokrajhar. My enormous thanks to the family of the late Lafiqul Islam for taking care of me, and to the late Lafiqul Islam, who helped me understand the area better. My thanks to Jalal for being ever ready to take me around villages. Aman Wudud, Abdul Kalam Azad and Syed Miraz Ahmed, in Guwahati, who were always willing to help and guide, and to Abhijit Roy and Rafat Ali at Jadavpur and Sohail, and Hafeez and Khalid Khan in Kolkata for making my stay comfortable. My special thanks to all the librarians who helped me during the research, particularly Allan Parsons at the University of Westminster, Naba Saikia in the Assam Tribune Library, Guwahati, and the librarians at the British Library Asian and African Studies Section, London. Although I cannot mention all of my friends individually, I owe all of them many thanks, since they helped me during the various stages of the research by taking care of my different needs. I owe special thanks to Ilyas Malik, who I cannot thank enough for being a great support, and Anne Gray for always being kind and supportive in this journey. I would like to thanks Abdullah Akbar, Bangalore, who always took care of my worries. I am glad for the lasting friendships that I found in Lubna and Mehran. I am especially indebted to Mira for her relentless care and support. I am very grateful to Maryam Sikander for always being there to share my PhD panic, to exchange ideas and to provide very efficient edits. I am also indebted to my brother, Maaz, and my sister, Asma, for their love, support and care: my first teachers in peace-making. I am also thankful to my cousins and extended family who made me think and realise my dream. Finally, a big thanks to Ammi for teaching the first lesson in patience and being always a great motivator on this journey, without her prayers and love I cannot imagine any achievement. DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Musab Iqbal, hereby declare that all the material contained in this thesis is my own work. CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements Declaration of Authorship Contents List of Figures List of Tables Abbreviations Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE: Violence, identity and issues of Representation in Modern India. 8 CHAPTER TWO: Contextualizing the violence in Assam 49 CHAPTER THREE: The Immigrant in the Colonial Archive 75 CHAPTER FOUR: The Assam Tribune: Reporting violence and Identifying Immigrants in Bodoland 92 CHAPTER FIVE: Bare Moment: The Historical Victimization Narrative of Muslim Minority 127 CHAPTER SIX: A Long Time: Memory of Violence and Production of Presence 152 Conclusion 200 Appendix 204 Bibliography 206 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Political map of Assam today Figure 3.1 Map of Assam to illustrate the immigration report Figure 4.1 Circulation of Publication during 2017-18 (language-wise) Figure 4.2: Variation in the percentage of Muslim population in Assam, 1901-2001. Figure 6.1 Locations of my field work in Kokrajhar district Figure 6.2 District map of Kokrajhar Figure 6.3 A rough sketch of Duramari village Figure 6.4 School building, old (burnt and dismantled) and new in the same campus in Duramari Figure 6.5 The CRPF camp and the temple built on Eidgah Figure 6.6 A representational image from one of the villages Figure 6.7 A barber shop in Bhumrabil village with multi religious calendars Figure 6.8 Copy of the Judgment on Amina Khatun & others by the Foreigners Tribunal LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Ethnic clashes in Assam in the BTAD region (1992-2014) Table: 6.1 Number of erased villages in Assam Table: 6.2 Number of D voters (1998 -July 2012) ABBREVIATIONS AASU - All Assam Students Union ABSU - All Bodo Students Union BJP - Bharatiya Janata Party BTAD - Bodoland Territorial Area Districts BTC - Bodoland Territorial Council NRC - National Register of Citizens INTRODUCTION We live in a time when screens large and small flash scenes of horror at us and terrorize us, but now, additionally, our hands feel the tremors as the news relentlessly breaks in our palms. Amidst the flow of the news of suffering we may perhaps be moved, or our attention caught by one subject which draws empathy. Sights of children being separated from parents at the Mexican-U.S. border, boats capsizing in the Mediterranean, Rohingya refugees running from the terror of the state with their fearful faces, refugees at the gates of borders waiting hopelessly to enter a new territory, and the lesser known sight of people locked in detention centres because their Indian citizenship is doubted in Assam, waiting to be deported to an unknown country. These are headlines that make the 21st century look grim. We certainly know these stories because the media have communicated them to us, but similar pictures perhaps disguise many different circumstances. Painful news address certain sensibilities and feelings, it arouses emotions and connections but often tears generated by these images “inevitably turn attention away from the causes of the tears”, and do not reflect on the particular history of the pain, as Jean Seaton notes: “more political realities are transformed into emotional narratives” (Seaton, 2005: p.133). The pertinent question she asks “Is ‘news’ blood influenced by changing mores around ‘entertainment’ blood - the gore that features in fiction? The blood effect must be calculated as it should “fit an aesthetic” and is not there “to mimic reality” (Seaton, 2005, p.21). This featuring of fiction and the need for news to grab attention and entertain mask the history, and the making of rational judgments by contextualizing the news within its particular history becomes difficult. The debate around migration has become a major policy and political issue that is re- shaping political cultures, policy and countries’ future direction, causing anxiety to people worldwide.