Anti-Bengali sentiment
According to Subir Deb, the author of Story of Bengal and the Bengalis, anti-Bengali sentiment in Assam was deliberately fomented by the British in the colonial times.
The general consensus of the committee was that "the line system was a temporary mechanism created to check the unrestricted inflow of the immigrants into open areas and to protect the demographic composition against disruption and disturbance".
[citation needed] In June 1960, frequent attacks on Bengali Hindus started in Cotton College in Guwahati and then spread to the rest of the state.
The District Magistrate of Guwahati, who was a Bengali Hindu, was attacked by a mob of around 100 people inside his residence and stabbed.
During the assembly election on 14 February 1983, the activists of the Assam Agitation blocked access and cut communications to the Bengali enclaves.
[22] According to Indian Police Service officer E.M. Rammohun, more than 100 immigrant Bengali Hindus refugees were killed in the massacre.
[23] In Silapathar, undivided Lakhimpur district, Assam, Bengali Hindus had been residents for two decades, as an ethnic minority in the region.
In February 1983, Assamese mobs attacked the Bengali villagers with machetes, bows and arrows, burnt houses, and destroyed several bridges which connected the remote area.
[citation needed] Journalist Sabita Goswami claimed that according to government sources, more than 1000 people were killed in the clashes.
Trains were attacked, and central government employees of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Indian Airlines and the Railways were intimidated and asked to leave the state.
[33] Various incidents of unrest occurred, including a young Assamese man stabbing his childhood Bengali friend, who had just joined the Indian Air Force, to death in the middle of the street.
[5] Effigies of then- West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, hung from light posts and trees.
[33] On 1 November 2018, five Bengali Hindus were killed on the banks of Brahmaputra near Kherbari village in the Tinsukia district of Assam.
[citation needed] Some examples of discrimination include: In the first half of the 20th century, Bihar had a large population of middle class and professional Bengalis from Madhubani, Ghatshila, Hazaribagh, Purnia, Mithila, Darbhanga and Bhagalpur.
Most of the Assamese left the area after Assam was formed, but Indian Bengalis and refugees from East Bengal stayed there.
[41][42] A separatist militant outfit, Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), was created, and instigated several riots in 1992.
[43] In February 2020, the HNLC warned all Bengali Hindus to leave the Ichamati and Majai areas of the district within one month.
In a statement, HNLC general secretary Sainkumar Nongtraw warned of "mass bloodshed" if the Bengali Hindus did not leave Meghalaya.
[44] After two days, more than a dozen non-tribals (including Bengalis) were assaulted by a group of masked tribal assailants in different parts of the Khasi Hills, and ten men were stabbed in Shillong.
[citation needed] Members of the Student's Union tried to burn down a house, which led to retaliation from the local non-tribals.
[3] In 1977, a section of the Tripuris formed a political party called Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS), which began to back extremist movements.
[47] Mandwi, an obscure village located about 60 km north east of Agartala, is inhabited primarily by Tripuri with a Bengali minority.
On the night of 6 June 1980, armed Tripuri tribal insurgent groups began to block the nontribal localities and to commit arson, violence and murder.
[71] On 5 February 1961, the Cachar Gana Sangram Parishad was formed to protest the imposition of Assamese in the Bengali-speaking Barak Valley.
[72] On 24 April, the Parishad flagged off a fortnight-long padayatra in the Barak Valley to raise awareness among the masses, which ended after 200 miles reaching to Silchar on 2 May.
[71] On 18 May, the Assam police arrested three prominent leaders of the movement, namely Nalinikanta Das, Rathindranath Sen and Bidhubhushan Chowdhury, the editor of weekly Yugashakti.
[72] Soon after that the paramilitary forces, guarding the railway station, started beating the protesters with rifle butts and batons without any provocation from them.
[71] After the incident and more protests, the Assam government had to withdraw the circular and Bengali was ultimately given official status in the three districts of Barak Valley.
[74][75] [Others: Anandabazar Displaced People's Committee, All India Bengali Refugees Association, Unnayan Mancha, Bangalee Oikya Mancha, Tripura Joint Movement Committee, Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanway Samiti, Banglabhasha Bachao Samiti, Jana Jagaran Morcha etc.
