Subject: The Tragedy of Sylhet
Dear Umesh,
Your sentence "Barring Assam, Jinnah managed to get full or in part the rest of
the five" needs editing, because Jinnah did get Sylhet District, a part of
Assam.
Refer to creation of Pakistan with Muslim majority areas of India : Based on an
assumption that Muslim population in Sylhet District were almost equal to
Hindus, the "Indian Independence Act of 1947" passed by the British Parliament
in London in July 1947 included the provision of a "Referendum" for the Syhet
District, as per the recommendation of Sir Cyril Radcliffe who partitioned
India by drawing a line on the map.
In Sylhet, the so called "Referendum" was held in 1947 very casually without
any military protection. According to what we heard from Sylheti families who
became refugees in Assam later, Hindus in Sylhet were not organized for the
Referendum. Although they were a majority, Hindus could not come out of their
houses to cast their vote because they were afraid of attack by Muslim
hooligans who were well organized. Jinnah won the Referendum and Sylhet became
a part of Pakistan.
Nobody listened to the outcry of Sylheti Hindus. Politicians led by Jawaharlal
Nehru who crowded in New Delhi for the dream of their new power were not
prepared to listen to anything that would delay their power. At this last phase
of his life, Mahatma Gandhi was passing through his new experience of
widespread disobedience of his own followers. It took him several months to
take a complete stock of the situation and launch a fight against Nehru
Government by starting a fast on January 13, 1948, the last year of his life.
The "Tragedy of Sylhet" is exceeded only by the Tragedy of the Chakma Buddhists
who were 97% in Chitagong Hill District. They were annexed to Pakistan without
any referendum, without a word of discussion, without any logic --- maybe just
over another "chota peg" of Sir Cyril Radcliffe.
It is important to know history, sot that it may not repeat.
With the best,
Himendra
----- Original Message -----
From: umesh sharma
To: Barua, Rajen ; Bartta Bistar ; AssamNet
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 6:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] (1) Jinnah okayed partition after Nehru+Patel
(2)1971events show Assam would have destroyed EastPakistanandbecome Sovereign
by 1951 (3) 500 yrs ago only about0.001%Muslims in Assam. (4) India sponsored
increase is 1.9+m1951to 8+ m by 2001.
interesting!
***In fact, the roots of the malice in Assam are much deeper and go back to
the pre-partition ambitions of Mohammed Ali Jinnah who wanted all six provinces
- Punjab, Sind, the NWFP, Balochistan, Bengal and Assam - to be included in his
dream Islamic state of Pakistan. Barring Assam, Jinnah managed to get full or
in part the rest of the five. Today ISI, through ULFA, is working towards
completing Jinnah's unfinished agenda of partition.
Umesh
"Barua, Rajen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In such a situation, sending some high-level or low-level teams and some
more forces to Assam will not help. What is needed is a clear policy of
non->appeasement of both ULFA and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and thus
giving a clear message to the people of Assam that New Delhi cares for the
regional >sentiments.
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bartta Bistar
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 2:26 AM
To: AssamNet
Subject: [Assam] (1) Jinnah okayed partition after Nehru+Patel (2)
1971events show Assam would have destroyed EastPakistan andbecome Sovereign by
1951 (3) 500 yrs ago only about 0.001%Muslims in Assam. (4) India sponsored
increase is 1.9+m 1951to 8+ m by 2001.
Jinnah's agenda included Assam
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=punj%2Fpunj99.txt&writer=punj
The latest brutal killings of Hindi-speaking labourers in Dibrugarh and
Tinsukia districts of Assam has evoked the usual episodic response from the
Indian establishment. Our political parties have made statements on predictable
lines. The Centre, too, has followed the usual drill; it has rushed Ministers
to the affected State for "on the spot assessments".
So, when the Centre announced that security measures had been beefed up,
more forces were being sent and a high-level meeting had been held to review
the security situation in the districts, there was a general wave of disbelief
among the people of the State and the rest of the country. We have heard all
this before. Every time there is an ULFA attack, the same story is repeated and
the same text is read out by the Union Home Secretary, with only the locations
changed.
The current spate of atrocities against people symbolic of a "cow belt
dominating the Indian Union" is not an isolated act of violence by the
trigger-happy deranged group, as the Indian establishment sees and deals with
it. In fact, the roots of the malice in Assam are much deeper and go back to
the pre-partition ambitions of Mohammed Ali Jinnah who wanted all six provinces
- Punjab, Sind, the NWFP, Balochistan, Bengal and Assam - to be included in his
dream Islamic state of Pakistan. Barring Assam, Jinnah managed to get full or
in part the rest of the five. Today ISI, through ULFA, is working towards
completing Jinnah's unfinished agenda of partition.
Assam's geographical position in the Indian Union has always been
precarious. Out of its 5,800-km long border, it shares 34 km with other parts
of India through "chicken's neck"; the rest it shares with Bangladesh and
Bhutan. Infiltration from Bangladesh continues unabated and 'secularists' have
made special laws to facilitate it. First, the IMDT Act was brought in. After
the Supreme Court nullified it as ultra vires, the UPA Government brought about
amendments to prevent anybody bringing charge against the illegal immigrants.
This measure, too, has been struck down by the court.
Meanwhile, the damage has been done. The demographic character of the State
is changing fast. The percentage of Muslims in the State, which stood at 24.68
per cent according to the 1951 Census, was recorded at 30.92 per cent in 2001.
In the Bongaigaon district, their population rose by 31.84 per cent between
1991 and 2001. In the same period, Muslim population rose by 29.58 per cent at
Dhubri and by 19.15 per cent at Kokrajhar. In Karimganj and Hailakandi, the
growth was 58 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.
Today Pakistan's ISI-controlled ULFA does not consider Bangladeshi
infiltrators, but only those coming from the rest of India, as outsiders. In
its December 17 issue of Swadhinata, the banned outfit said it was "determined
to uproot those illegal migrants who threatened Asom's existence, created
chaotic situation in its social formation and occupied the political and
economic sphere by making the indigenous people homeless". In 2003, ULFA made
its agenda public when it killed 61 labourers from Bihar after a prior warning.
The ISI, through ULFA, is seeking to create a volatile situation along the
Assam border with West Bengal by targeting non-Assamese Indian migrants into
the North-Eastern State. It could then take advantage of the situation to
infiltrate the State with its arms and ammunition. The Bangladesh Government is
giving full support to ULFA in a bid to create problems for India in the
sensitive North-East.
Earlier, the BJP-led NDA Government had persuaded Bhutan to evict all ULFA
camps along its border. But even as the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government was
getting tough with Dhaka, there was a change of regime at the Centre and the
momentum was lost. Bangladesh is increasingly becoming a paw of ISI, with the
extremist parties in that country backing this tie up.
The ISI strategy is obvious - encourage Muslim infiltration from Bangladesh
and force Hindus to flee from Assam, thus attaining a critical mass of Muslim
population in the State. This tactics has worked successfully in Jammu &
Kashmir where select killings of Pandits resulted in the mass exodus of the
community from the Valley.
All this is a prelude to sever Assam from the rest of India and avenge the
break-up of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh. In contrast, the Indian
response to this challenge is inept. For the 'secular' establishment, the
entire issue boils down to Muslim votes, even if they are from foreigners. It
is of little consequence to them that in the process, the integrity of the
country gets compromised.
It is against this background that one has to see how the Congress
Governments at the Centre and the State have been running in circles with ULFA
in the tow. Only a few months back, the two Governments began a series of
meetings - this time with a few self-appointed middlemen - on resuming the
peace talk with ULFA. The security forces were told to hold their fire. This
completely upset the plan of our forces that were planning to flush out the
ULFA cadre.
A year ago, as the election to the Assam Assembly loomed large, the
security forces were told not to pursue the 'encirclement' of ULFA leaders. How
damaging such orders are to the morale of the forces that are battling the
guerrilla militants in the most hostile jungles of Assam is anybody's guess.
The repeated bursts of "peace talks" have only been eroding the morale of the
security forces. How could the security forces be expected to work efficiently
when every time the anti-insurgency movement picks up, the Government presses
for slowing it down?
There is this widespread belief in Assam that in the last Assembly
election, the Congress had a deal with ULFA. After the secessionists were
licking their wounds caused by the previous NDA regime that succeeded in
persuading the Government of Bhutan to take action against ULFA in that
country, the UPA Government once again left the people of the North-East at the
mercy of these insurgents.
In such a situation, sending some high-level or low-level teams and some
more forces to Assam will not help. What is needed is a clear policy of
non-appeasement of both ULFA and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and thus
giving a clear message to the people of Assam that New Delhi cares for the
regional sentiments.
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Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
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