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 THE MUSLIM QUESTION IN ASSAM AND
NORTHEAST INDIA

This book presents a systematic study of the transformation of the specific

socio-political identity of Muslims in Assam. It discusses the issues of
Muslims under India’s ‘indigenous secularism’, Hindu nationalism and the
rise of majoritarian politics; Muslim immigration into Assam after indepen-
dence; the Assam Movement and the shift of Muslims from being a vote
bank to an autonomous force in the post-Partition politics of Assam; the
role of Jamiat; and the divide between the Assamese and the neo-Assamese.
It explores the history and contemporary politics of the state to show how
they shape the new context of Muslim identity in Assam, where previously
an Assamese identity often prevailed over religious and linguistic identity.
With the current debates on illegal immigration, the National Register of
Citizens of India (NRC) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, this
book will be a timely addition to the existing literature on Muslim minority
politics in Assam and northeast India.
This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science,
sociology, political sociology, minority studies, northeast India studies,
demography and immigration studies, and development studies. It will
interest those concerned with minority politics, communal politics, identity
politics, migration, citizenship issues and South Asian studies.

Monoj Kumar Nath is Associate Professor at the Department of Political

Science, Dibrugarh University, Assam, India. He previously taught at
Nowgong College, Nagaon, Assam (2003–19). He received his postgraduate
degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and completed his
PhD from Gauhati University, Assam. His publications include research
papers in journals such as Economic and Political Weekly, Strategic Analysis,
Studies in Indian Politics and Dialogue Quarterly. His areas of interest
include minority politics, ethnic politics in northeast India and identity
politics.
THE MUSLIM QUESTION
IN ASSAM AND
NORTHEAST INDIA

Monoj Kumar Nath

First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Monoj Kumar Nath
The right of Monoj Kumar Nath to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this book are solely
those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.
The analyses, interpretations, data and figures based on research
material are intended here to serve general educational and informa-
tional purposes and not obligatory upon any party. The author has
made every effort to ensure that the information presented in the book
was correct at the time of press, but the author and the publisher do not
assume and hereby disclaim any liability with respect to the accuracy,
completeness, reliability, suitability, selection and inclusion of the
contents of this book and any implied warranties or guarantees. The
author and publisher make no representations or warranties of any kind
to any person, product or entity for any loss, including, but not limited
to special, incidental or consequential damage, or disruption alleged to
have been caused, directly or indirectly, by omissions or any other
related cause.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or repro-
duced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-42967-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-75294-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00048-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by SPi Global, India
To my wife Santana and daughter Saranya

v
 CONTENTS

Abbreviations viii
Acknowledgements ix

Introduction: The Muslim question in India’s northeast 1

1 Muslims in Assam till independence 15

2 After independence: Social and political alliance of Muslims 49

3 The Assam Movement: Muslims as the issue 75

4 After Assam Movement: Muslim political mobilisation

and demographic change 100

5 The divides: Electoral dominance, citizenship and the

idea of ‘Assamese’ 142

Conclusion: The question of identity among the

Assam Muslims 166

Bibliography 178
Index 187

vii
 ABBREVIATIONS

AAMSU All Assam Minority Students’ Union

AASU All Assam Students’ Union
ABVP Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
AGP Asom Gana Parishad
AIUDF All India United Democratic Front
ASS Asom Sahitya Sabha
AUDF Assam United Democratic Front
BJP Bharatiya Janata Party
BPF Bodo Peoples Front
CAA Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
CRPC Citizens’ Rights Preservation Committee
GASS Ganatantrik Adhikar Sangram Samiti
IM(DT) Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983
MLA Member of Legislative Assembly
MP Member of Parliament
NRC National Register of Citizens
RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
SCs Scheduled Castes
STs Scheduled Tribes
UMFA Unisted Minority Front, Assam

viii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Before independence, like many other regions of British India, Assam’s poli-
tics was heavily influenced by the Muslim League because of the state’s then
administrative set-up and population strength of Muslims. In the post-inde-
pendence period, however, the Assam Muslims remained unique to their
counterparts living in other parts of India for several reasons. The perennial
controversy of Muslim immigration from East Pakistan and then Bangladesh,
the issues of high population growth among Muslims, the Assam Movement,
citizenship issues like Doubtful voter and recent up-gradation of NRC etc.
have made the Muslims living in Assam an exception from their counter-
parts. The community, during this period, has even drawn the attention of
the international community on several occasions. However, the Muslim
issue in the politics of Assam has not received the academic attention it
deserves until now.
The Muslim question in Assam is peculiar. The Assamese Muslims are
always considered as a community more Assamese than Muslim. The
immigrant Muslims of Brahmaputra valley became the Assamese by sacri-
ficing their language and culture. The liberal Assamese society accepted the
Muslims as an integral part of Assamese nationality. Assam emerged as a
place inhabited by kind and humanistic people in a secular liberal society.
It became an example of Hindu-Muslim unity in South Asia. But in recent
times, it has become apparent that these communities that were once fused
together are now divided, disrespectful and almost hateful towards one
another. It seems, in Assam, as though the Assamese people are increasingly
becoming ‘Hindus’ and ‘Muslims’ by abandoning their secular Assamese
identity.
This book is a modest attempt to understand the Muslim question in the
politics of Assam during the post-independence period. While it shows the
journey of the Assam Muslims in the politics of the state since the colonial
period, at the same time it traces the growing divides between the Hindus
and Muslims in recent decades. In this attempt, any error of fact or interpre-
tations of this book remains mine alone.
I must take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who
supported and helped me in my endeavour to publish this book. I would

ix
 A cknowledgements

like to thank Professor Sandhya Goswami (Retired) of Gauhati University,

Guwahati who supervised my PhD research. Professor Bhupen Sharma of
Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development (OKDISCD),
Guwahati deserves sincere gratitude for his constant inspiration and critical
inputs on the initial draft of this book. I am grateful to Dr. Joydeep Baruah
of OKDISCD, Dr. Chandan Kumar Sarma of Dibrugarh University,
Dibrugarh, Professor Pulin Patgiri of Assam Agriculture University, Jorhat,
and Dr. Ananya Hiloidari of Nowgong College, Nagaon for going through
some of the manuscripts and offering valuable suggestions.
I gratefully acknowledge the generous support and advice I have always
received during the writing of my book from Dr. Sanjay Barbora of Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, Dr. Rubul Patgiri of Gauhati University,
Dr. Dibyajyoti Dutta, Dr. Obja Borah Hazarika and Dr. Palash Dutta of
Dibrugarh University, Dr. Nabaprasad Nath, Kularanjan Bhuyan, Dr. Sangita
Bora, Dr. Pallabi Goswami and Dr. Ranjit Kr. Mazindar of Nowgong College,
Dr. Sonaram Nath of A.D.P College, Nagaon, Dr. Kishore Sarmah of
Nowgong Girls’ College, Nagaon, and my friends Dr. Nilotpal Borooah, Dr.
Mahananda Pathak and Hemanta Saikia. My deepest gratitude to my car-
ing and supportive wife, my little daughter and close family members for
sharing some of the stress and strains while writing the book. Finally, I
sincerely thank Routledge for agreeing to publish my manuscript. I am
thankful to Dr. Shashank S. Sinha, Antara Ray Chaudhury, Shloka
Chauhan and Rimina Mohapatra at Routledge for their kind help at dif-
ferent stages of this work.

x
 INTRODUCTION
The Muslim question in India’s northeast

Muslims started to settle in Assam at the beginning of the thirteenth century

CE. In the seventeenth century, Shihabuddin Talish, a writer who accompa-
nied Mir Jumlah, the governor of Bengal, on his invasion of Assam during
1662–63, wrote about the local Muslims of Assam who had been taken
prisoner in former times and had chosen to marry and settle here: ‘Their
descendants act exactly in the manner of the Assamese than towards asso-
ciation with Muslims’ (Gait 2004: 141). This indicates that Muslims living
at that time in Assam were more Assamese and less Muslim. This is still the
general impression of the Assamese Muslims living in Brahmaputra valley.
But after two and a half centuries of this portrayal of the Assamese Muslims
by Shihabuddin Talish, during the final years of India’s freedom struggle
they had largely rallied behind the Muslim League for the creation of
Pakistan, opposing the Assamese people. In contrast, the Muslims who had
immigrated from East Bengal in huge numbers under the patronage of the
colonial administration – already becoming a large community in
Brahmaputra valley by the time of independence – became Assamese after
independence by accepting the Assamese language as their mother tongue.
This was a rare situation that a large community accepted the language and
culture of the place where they had recently settled by discarding their lan-
guage and culture. However, almost four decades later, they started to dis-
sociate from the Assamese language. Consequently, since the 1991 census
the number of Assamese speakers in Assam has started to decline.
The aforementioned situations indicate two time periods (till indepen-
dence and after independence), two groups of Muslims (Assamese and
immigrants) and a process of dissociation from the idea of Assamese. In
both situations, the Muslims assimilated with the Assamese language and
culture and then they dissociated themselves from the idea of Assamese. The
dissociation occurs despite the fact that the cultural divide between the
Assamese Hindu and Muslims is not as pronounced as in many other
regions of the Indian subcontinent. The pre-independence period can be
considered as a different context in Hindu-Muslim relations because of the
colonial policy of divide and rule. But the post-independence period also
witnessed the desertion of the Assamese language by Muslims after they

1
 I ntroduction

became an integral part of Assamese culture and nationality. Then, the

question arises: is it simply the dissociation of Muslims, or, they have been
compelled to dissociate? This book tries to answer the question.
The Muslim question is a complex one in present-day Assam. This is
evident from the media attention the community received across the world
in February 1983 when thousands of Muslims were killed in one night by
supporters of the Assam Movement (1979–85). They were in the spotlight
again when the Supreme Court of India repealed the Illegal Migrants
(Determination by Tribunals) [IM(DT)] Act of 1983, calling it ‘undemo-
cratic’. Finally, they were grabbing headlines throughout the world during
2015–19 when the process of the upgrading of the National Register of
Citizens (NRC), 1951 in Assam was ongoing. These three different inci-
dents, in a span of three and a half decades, indicate one common issue:
immigration. The immigration of Muslims into Assam at different times
under different circumstances has made the Muslim question in the state
both special and very complex.
Except for Assam, no other states in India after independence have expe-
rienced any prolonged anti-immigration movement like Assam Movement,
have followed an anti-immigration law like IM (DT) Act for 22 years that
was separate from the rest of the country, or have sought to update the
NRC of 1951 to record genuine citizens (and identify illegal ones). Muslims
have remained at the centre of all these events. This centrality posits Muslims
in a very different situation in Assam from their religious counterparts liv-
ing in other Indian states. This difference creates a situation in Assam that,
unlike other Indian states, Jamiat-ul-ulema-e-Hind (Jamiat), a religious
organisation of Muslims, plays an overground political role in the state. It
even formed a political party, Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), in
2005 which has significantly influenced the politics in Assam since its for-
mation. Very interestingly, the origin and success of AUDF have helped
majoritarian politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to grow, even
though Assam’s demographic structure and socio-cultural tradition is not
favourable for the growth of BJP in the state.
However, when the demography of Assam is discussed, the unfavourable
atmosphere appears to be creating opportunities for majoritarianism to
grow in recent years. As per the 2011 census report, Muslims account for
34.22 per cent of the total population of Assam. From 1961 to 2011, the
Muslim population grew by ten per cent with a subsequent decline by nine
per cent of the Hindu population. The high growth rate of the Muslim
population has become the crux of the present-day Muslim problem in
Assam. The non-Muslim Assamese people are now convinced that their
political dominance in the state is about to be decimated by Muslims. This
threat perception has become politically so attractive in Assam that in the
2016 Assembly election, the main theme of the BJP campaign was to save
the community, land and base of the indigenous Assamese from the
immigrant Muslims. The BJP so skilfully exploited the fault-line that it was

2
 I ntroduction

able to register extraordinary success in the election, allowing it to form its

first-ever government in Assam.
The threat perception, on the other hand, has triggered a process of
‘othering’ of Muslims in Assam, both socially and politically. But what is
interesting in this respect is that despite this threat perception, the Assamese
people depend on the immigrant Muslims living in Brahmaputra valley for
the majority status of the Assamese language in Assam. Realising this, the
immigrant Muslims have recently started to dissociate from the Assamese
language in response to the ‘othering’ of the community by the Assamese
people.
This book strives to understand the changing context and content of
Muslim politics in Assam, particularly in the post-independence period. It
traces the journey of the community in Assam from their first immigration
to the land until they came to be seen as a threat to the indigenous population
in the politics of the state. It examines, based on historical and political
context, the process of ‘othering’ of Muslims as a community on religious
lines in the politics of Assam. At the same time, it shows the emergence of
Muslims in Assam as an autonomous political group as a result of the
increasing strength of the population of the community, which, in turn,
reinforces the politics of ‘othering’ in Assam.
Muslims in Assam, like anywhere in the world, are not a homogenous
community. In Assam, Muslims are divided based on their time of
immigration into the land and language. They are divided into indigenous
and immigrants depending on their arrival in the state, and Assamese, neo-
Assamese and Bengali based on the language they choose to speak. Between
these divisions, the contemporary politics of Assam concentrates mainly on
indigenous-immigrant classification. The socio-cultural divide between
these two communities has remained very strong and this has, in the post-
independence period, worked against the emergence of Assam Muslims as
a monolithic group in the politics of the state. The opinion and concerns of
these two groups of Muslims, most often, differ in the same issues. On the
other hand, although not so prominent politically, the linguistic categories
among Muslims also play an important role in the social dynamics of
Assam. In some occasions, however, they have become sensitive political
issues concerning the Assamese language, making the question of Muslims
in Assam very diverse in orientation and scope.
Among the states of Northeast India, this study focuses mainly on
Muslims living in Assam. It is only in Assam that we find Muslims as a
community which can effectively influence the politics of the Northeast
region. Because of historical reasons and population growth, the Assam
Muslims are larger in number; and due to perennial controversies, they
particularly represent a significant political community in comparison to
their counterparts living in other states of Northeast India.
Assam witnessed the growth of communal politics of the Muslim League
before independence. The organisation’s Muslim politics ended with the

3
 I ntroduction

separation of Sylhet from Assam and India’s independence. Following

independence, Muslims had lost political ground in Assam for about three
decades. However, the Assam Movement again made Muslims an issue of
contestation, and the issue has become increasingly complex over the last
three and a half decades since the end of the movement. The changing
political discourse vis-à-vis Muslims in Assam during the post-Assam
Movement period deserves serious academic discussion. Existing literature
like Assam Muslims: Politics and Cohesion by B.J. Deb and D.K. Lahiri
(1985), Muslims in Assam Politics by Makhanlal Kar (1990), Planter Raj to
Swaraj: Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam authored by
Amalendu Guha (Reprint 2006) exclusively show the Muslim question and
League politics in Assam till independence. Sanjib Baruah’s India Against
Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality (1999) and Udayan Misra’s
India’s North East: Identity Movements, State, and Civil Society (2014)
throw light on some aspects of the Muslim question in Assam after
independence, however, only partially and according to the need of their
subjects. On the other hand, Monirul Hussain’s The Assam Movement:
Class Ideology and Identity (1993) and Makiku Kimura’s The Nellie
Massacre of 1983: Agency of Rioters (2013) particularly discuss the Assam
Muslims in the light of the Assam Movement.
This book specifically explores the changing dynamics of the question of
Muslims in the politics of Assam after the Assam Movement. Muslims are a
religious minority group in India. In the entire world, minorities have always
grappled with three types of inter-related issues: identity, security and equity.
However, the concerns surrounding these issues are not identical across all
minorities (SCR 2006: 3–4). The concerns of the minorities are mainly spe-
cific to the location where they live. It is heavily influenced by their social
relations with the majority community and the political relations with the
state. Because of India’s diverse geographical and social setting, Muslims
living in different states represent specific cases. This book discusses the
Muslim minority in the context of Assam. When the Muslim question in
Assam is examined, it has at least four constituents: Muslims, non-Muslims,
the politics of different groups, and the state. This study assesses the politi-
cal strategies of each group on the issue under discussion. However, in this
regard, apart from the state, Muslims, non-Muslims and the political groups
cannot be considered as a single group/unit. In this situation, this study
mainly follows a method of analysis of historical facts and contemporary
literature. The existing literature on the Muslims of Assam, from both pri-
mary and secondary sources, has been extensively used in this analysis. My
quest for understanding the Muslim politics in Assam has been enriched by
the field survey that I carried out during my PhD at Gauhati University
(2003–09), in which I tried to find out the role of the Muslim minority in
the electoral politics of Assam. After concluding the work, I undertook a
field survey among the indigenous and immigrant Muslims living in
Brahmaputra valley in 2010–11 in an attempt to understand the existing

4
 I ntroduction

socio-cultural and political barriers between the communities. The survey

was carried out for a research project under the University Grants
Commission. The experience and the insights I gathered from these field
surveys have aided my explanation and analysis.

Muslims as a political community in India’s northeast

India’s Northeast, comprising seven states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – is an area of about
2.6 lakh square kilometres which accounts for less than eight per cent of
India’s total geographical coverage. More than 90 per cent of the boundary
of the region is an international border. The north-eastern region of India,
on a smaller scale, presents itself as a replica of the subcontinent both
physically and culturally. It reflects the complexities of the sub-Himalayan
ranges, the Indo-Burmese hills of Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, and
the eroded surfaces of the Meghalaya plateau – all encircling Brahmaputra
valley (Mipun and Nayak 1999: 18). Although Northeast accounts for only
four per cent of India’s total population, the region is a conglomeration of
around 475 ethnic groups and sub-groups, speaking over 400 languages
and dialects. Of the 635 communities in India listed as tribal, more than
200 are found in the Northeast. Of the 325 languages listed by the People
of India project, 175 belonging to the Tibeto-Burman group are spoken in
this region (Bhaumik 2009: 1).
The religious composition of the region is also very interesting. There is a
significant influence of Christianity in the Northeast. Four states of this
region – Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland – are
Christian majority. Although only 2.3 per cent of India’s population are
Christians, the percentages of the Christian population in the north-eastern
states are Arunachal Pradesh – 30.26, Meghalaya – 74.59, Mizoram – 87.16
and Nagaland – 87.93. With 30.26 per cent of the total population,
Christians make up the largest religious group in Arunachal Pradesh.
Against the dominance of Christianity in the hills of Northeast, Assam and
Tripura – mainly plains – are Hindu dominated. In Manipur, which has
substantial hill areas, Christians are almost equal to the Hindu population
(Christian – 41.29 per cent; Hindu – 41.39 per cent). Christians are negli-
gible in Assam, and they comprise less than four per cent of the total popu-
lation of the state. However, in the two hill districts of the state, Christians
are the majority (Dima Hasao – 70.9 per cent, Karbi Anglong – 56.3 per
cent) [Census of India Report 2011].
The demographic composition of Northeast is an implication of British
colonial policies. After the annexation of Assam valley in 1826, the British
annexed Cachar plains in 1830, Khasi hills in 1833, Jaintia plains in 1835,
present Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao in 1838 and 1854 respectively,
Naga hills during 1866–1904, Garo hills in 1872–73 and Luchai hills
(present Mizoram) in 1890. The British province that came to be known as

5
 I ntroduction

Assam took shape in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and
territorially, it included the entire present Northeast India except Manipur
and Tripura (Sarmah 2002: 88). The kingdoms of Manipur and Tripura
were made princely states and they were allowed to continue with their
internal affairs as long as they paid tributes. A British political resident was
stationed in these two princely states to ensure suzerainty and monitor
political activities (Bhaumik 2009: 7).
The British were not interested in administering the hills of Northeast.
The colonial government was convinced that bringing the hills under British
administration would not be financially remunerative. British officials were
interested only in the Assam plains where they started ventures in tea, oil
and coal, and started cultivating jute as a cash crop. They wanted the hills
to be untouched, and subsequently they invented the policy of ‘least
interference’ for the hills. The safeguard of the unique culture of the tribal
people became the basis of this policy. The Bengal Eastern Frontier
Regulation of 1873 provided for the Inner Line system. The Inner Line
marked the extent of the revenue administration beyond which British
subjects or foreigners were not allowed to go without permission. The tribal
people were left to manage their affairs in the areas beyond the Inner Line,
provided they demonstrated good behaviour. On the other hand, a
considerable part of Assam, mainly hill areas, was declared ‘backward’
areas under the Government of India Act, 1919. This gave the Governor-
General-in-Council the power to declare any territory in British India to be
a ‘backward tract’, where the prevailing laws of the rest of India would not
be applicable. Furthermore, the Government of India Act, 1935 changed the
nomenclature and regrouped the backward tracts as ‘excluded’ and ‘partially
excluded’ areas. In this new administrative arrangement, the governor was
to administer the excluded areas himself using his discretion, while the
administration of the partially excluded areas was made his special
responsibility. Thus, the powers of the provincial legislature were not to be
extended to the excluded and semi-excluded areas.
The hill areas of Northeast protected by the Inner Line and under back-
ward tracts and excluded/partially excluded areas are now Christian major-
ity. Under the Inner Line system, permission was required from the British
administration to enter the hills for both British subjects and the people of
the plains. Only Christian missionaries were allowed to enter these areas
without any hindrance from British officials. At that time, a large section of
tribal people did not follow any organised religion and pursued traditional
rituals. The Christian missionaries exploited this situation and tried to
spread Christianity among those who did not follow any organised religion.
This is the story of the spread of Christianity in the hills of Northeast. The
colonial administration, through its policy of least interference, left the hills
to the missionaries to spread Christianity.
But the story of the Assam plains, particularly of Brahmaputra valley, was
different from the hills. Here, the British administration was interested in

6
 I ntroduction

doing business and making a profit. For colonial interests, the percentage of
Muslims started to grow rapidly in Assam since the beginning of the last
century. The colonial administration wanted to grow jute as a cash crop in
lower Assam and therefore started to encourage a huge immigration of
Muslim peasants from East Bengal to Brahmaputra valley. This is how the
Muslim population grew in the Assam plains despite the spread of
Christianity in the state’s hill regions under colonialism.
The Muslim population is negligible in four hill states of Northeast:
Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. In contrast,
Assam has more than 10 million Muslims, comprising 34.22 per cent of the
total population of the state (2011 census). Compared to Assam, the
percentage of Muslims is not very significant in Manipur and Tripura, two
plain states of Northeast. According to the 2011 census report, Manipur’s
total population is 28.56 lakh, of which 8.4 per cent is Muslim. The
percentage of the Muslim population in Manipur declined from 8.8 in 2001
to 8.4 in 2011, although their headcount increased from 1.91 lakh in 2001
to 2.39 lakh in 2011. In the case of Tripura, according to the 2011 census,
Muslims accounted for 8.6 per cent of the total 36.74 lakh population of
the state. In Tripura, the Muslim population declined from 21.43 per cent
in the 1951 census to 8.6 per cent in the 2011 census. Contrastingly, the
Muslim population in the state rose from 1.37 lakh in 1951 to 2.39 lakh in
the 2011 census. The percentage-wise high decline was due to the huge
influx of Hindus to the state from East Pakistan after the partition of India
and during the India-Pakistan war of 1971, which created Bangladesh. The
Muslim population of Tripura declined from 21.43 per cent in 1951 to
20.14 per cent in 1961. This percentage declined further to 6.68 in the 1971
census. After that, the Muslim population grew in the state to 8.6 per cent
in the 2011 census. It can be argued that Muslim growth in these two states
is steady when compared with the other Northeast state with a substantial
Muslim population – Assam.
Colonial rules had helped Muslims to emerge as a large community in
Assam until independence. In addition, after independence the number of
Muslims has been rising quickly in Assam in comparison with the other
states of Northeast India. Issues like illegal immigration and citizenship
apply only to Muslims living in Assam. This made the question of Muslims
unique in Assam among the states of the Northeast. Geographically, Assam
is located between 24o3/ N and 27o58/N latitude and 89o5/ E and 96o1/E
longitude. The state has an area of 78,433 sq km, representing 2.39 per cent
of the total area of India. It is surrounded on its north, south and east sides
by hills and mountains. To the west, it merges with the plains of West Bengal
and Bangladesh. The state has two valleys: Brahmaputra valley in the
northern part, bordering Arunachal Pradesh; and Barak valley in the
southern part. In between these two valleys is the Karbi plateau, succeeded
to the south by the North Cachar Hills. Assam is bordered by Bhutan to the
north and Bangladesh to the south. It also shares a boundary with seven

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