Context

Months ahead of the Assembly elections, a proposed “Miya museum” reflecting the “culture and heritage of the people living in char-chaporis” has stirred up a controversy in Assam.

About

Who are the Miyas?

• The ‘Miya’ community comprises descendants of Muslim migrants from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Assam.
• They came to be referred to as ‘Miyas’, often in a derogatory manner.
• The community migrated in several waves — starting with the British annexation of Assam in 1826, and continuing into Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War — and have resulted in changes in demographic composition of the region.
• Years of discontent among the indigenous people led to the six-year-long (1979-85) anti-foreigner Assam Agitation to weed out the “illegal immigrant”, who was perceived as trying to take over jobs, language and culture of the indigenous population.

The Controversy The proposed museum reflecting the culture of 'Char-Chapori' people in the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra premises in Guwahati has led to the controversy. The Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra - where the 'Char-Charpori' museum is proposed -  is a cultural institution named after the saint scholar, social-religious reformer Srimanta Sankardeva  - a Vaishanavite, adding a religious clash to the controversy. Moreover, the complex was set up under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, signed in 1985, to 'preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the people of Assam', after the bloody anti-foreigners agitation in Assam.

What are char-chaporis?

• ‘Char’ in Assamese means sandbar while ‘chapori’ is flood-prone riverbank. These areas are associated with migrant Muslims of Bengali origin who are viewed as ‘Bangladeshis’.
• The Char-Chapori area denotes the riverine area of lower and central Assam which mainly comprises of Bengali Muslims.
• They are used interchangeably or with a hyphen. They keep changing shapes — a char can become a chapori, or vice versa, depending on the push and pull of the Brahmaputra.
• Prone to floods and erosion, these areas are marked by low development indices. 80% of the Char population lives below poverty line.
• A UNDP Assam Human Development report (2014) describes the char areas as suffering from “communication deficits, lack of adequate schooling facilities beyond primary, girl child marriage, poverty and illiteracy”.
• While Bengali-origin Muslims primarily occupy these islands, other communities such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, Nepalis also live here.
• In popular imagination, however, chars have become synonymous to the Bengali-speaking Muslims of dubious nationality.