Assam Accord

In News 

• Recently, the Assam government informed the Assembly that nearly 1.44 lakh illegal foreigners had been identified in the state until January 31 this year based on the 1985 Assam Accord.
  • Around 30,000 of them had been deported to their country of origin. 
  • The government added that definitions of phrases mentioned in the Accord such as ‘Axomiya janagan’ (Assamese people), ‘khilonjia’ (indigenous) and ‘adi basinda’ (original inhabitants) were yet to be determined.

About Assam Accord

• The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 by the Centre and the Assam government with the All Assam Student Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, which had spearheaded the 1979-85 Assam Movement against migration from Bangladesh.
• To implement the various Clauses of Assam Accord a new Department has been established in the name of “Implementation of Assam Accord Department” during the year 1986.
• The Accord set March 24, 1971, as a cut-off. Anyone who had come to Assam before midnight on that date would be an Indian citizen, while those who had come after would be dealt with as foreigners. 
• The same cut-off was used in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Expressions for which the definitions have not been determined

• The context is Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, which promises “constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”, but doesn’t provide clear cut definitions to identify who would be the “Assamese people”.
  • Clause 6 is important because many felt the 1971 cut-off was inadequate. 
• The Assam Movement had demanded 1951 as the cut-off. 
  • Given that the cut-off for the rest of India is 1948, many noted that the Assam Accord would grant citizenship to a section of migrants who would be counted as foreigners elsewhere in the country.
•  Clause 6 was, therefore, seen as a protective provision that would guarantee certain benefits to the Assamese people, while excluding some sections among those granted citizenship on the basis of the 1971 cut-off.

Why is the definition difficult?

• Because Assam’s demography has been shaped by decades of migration. 
  • Many of the migrants had settled here during the colonial era. While they might not be native speakers of an indigenous language, such as Assamese or Bodo or Karbi, the question was whether the definition of “Assamese” could exclude someone, for example, whose family might have lived in Assam for 100 years.
• Axomiya or Assamese is a contested phrase and there is no specific universal definition to it. Many feel people whose ancestors were living in Assam before 1826, when Assam was merged with British India, are Axomiya.
  • Others feel the word ‘Axomiya’ means anyone who was a permanent resident of Assam before 1951 when the first NRC was drawn up. 
  • Still, others feel anyone speaking Assamese (or any other indigenous language) is an Axomiya. 
  •  Those from Barak Valley, where Bengali is the local language, would want Bengali-speaking residents of Assam to be included as “Assamese”.

Other terms for which no definition has been finalised

• Khilonjia: In common parlance, khilonjia refers to all indigenous communities. The question is who would be considered indigenous. One line of argument has been that the definition should include various communities whose history in Assam dates back before the 1826 annexation with British India, but others contest this because of the groups that would be excluded.
• Adi Basinda: ‘Original inhabitants’, as the phrase suggests, would mean the tribes who have lived for generations in Assam. Some in Assam want this to extend to tribal communities settled by the British during colonial rule, but even this is not a settled definition.

Source:IE