Muslim-Bodo mistrust exists for many decades

GUWAHATI: Located on the western edge of Assam along the state's border with West Bengal on the west and Bhutan on the north, Kokrajhar district is a cauldron of simmering communal tension. Four ethnic clashes over the last 60 years - involving the Bodos, the first human race in this part of the country, Bengali-speaking Muslims and adivasis - have been borne out of mistrust among the communities.

The mistrust is based on land - while Bodos continue to seek a separate political identity, the non-Bodo groups live in apprehension of losing their land and getting ousted and their resistance is manifested in waves of clashes. "All the clashes are of similar nature. The mistrust is so high that just a small spark is enough to create an inferno," a top Assam Police officer said. He added: "Dozens of people are rendered homeless in every such clash, but we have seen that these people return to their land even after living for 10 years in relief camps."

The only marked difference in the current clashes is that so far no Bodo militant element has been found to be involved. Additional director general of police (special branch) Khagen Sarmah said: "Most people have been killed by ordinary citizens. Some have been shot and there could be unaccounted arms here and there, but we have not seen any involvement of militants."

The current clash is also a result of mistrust, the seeds of which were sowed a few months ago. Much before the flare-up on Friday, one 'fake' NDFB militant was killed at Howraguri in Kokrajhar district on May 25, while he was extorting money from a Muslim. The slain militant was not only found to be fake, but he was a Muslim.

On June 30, a Muslim carpenter was killed in Sapkata in the district and all the people of the community took out a rally with the body of the deceased and blamed the dominant Bodo tribals for the crime. The killers were later found to be members of an adivasi militant outfit. On July 5, two more Muslims were killed at Antihara under Dotoma police station in the district and this time, too, the killers were not Bodos but from the Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO). However, the Muslims' backlash against the Bodos only gained momentum, which culminated in the killing of four Bodo youths last Friday. The next day, three more Bodos, all elderly persons, were killed.

It was in 1952 when the Bodos first clashed with Muslims. But then, the Bodos were only a part of a larger battle between the Hindus and Muslims when several Muslims wanted to join parts of Assam, mainly Goalpara district, with East Pakistan. Kokrajhar was then part of the undivided Goalpara district. In 1993 and 1994, Bodos clashed again with Muslims after the Bodo Accord, giving autonomy to the Bodos, was signed by the Centre. The clash was termed as 'ethnic cleansing' by the then state government. More than 100 people were killed and at least 60,000 others from both the communities were rendered homeless. The Accord did not work out, but the scars of the hatred only deepened.

The genesis of the mistrust lies in the Bodos seeking a separate political identity, which range from autonomy to separate state and even sovereignty. Their struggle for separate identity dates back to 1960s. They struggled for recognition of Bodo as an official language of the state, which was granted in 1976. Their hardened stand to attain separate identity made other coexisting communities apprehensive of losing their land. As the accord of 1993 failed, Bodos resumed their struggle for identity and turned so fierce that there were merciless killing of Santhals in two back-to-back clashes in 1996 and 1998, when over 300 people were killed and more than 3 lakh rendered homeless. The last time the Bodos clashed with the Muslim was in 2008, but that was far away from the heartland in Udalguri district, where the dominant Bodos are surrounded by areas dominated by Muslims. The two major non-Bodo land owners in the Bodo heartland are the adivasis and the Bengali-speaking Muslims. While the adivasis have occupied the forest areas, the Bengali-speaking Muslims live on the chars (riverine areas) and nearby land. The population of Bodos, which is largest tribal group among the 23 notified STs, is just over 5% of total population of the state while Muslims constitute nearly 33% of the population.