I am ashamed of what happened at Beltola. The shame that 3 men brought us in the international front page. This is not Assam that I know and am proud of! and these men do not represent the whole community.
As for the poor girl and her family, she has my moral support. If there is any way I can help, I would like to do so. But I also agree with you that all these people who have been here for such a long period of time, should not be still calling themselves adivai's. By now they should be mainstream assamese people. By no means I would call them tribal people. They have a regular income which is far more than the average assamese people who do not work in Tea Gardens. To be in a Schedule Tribe or Schedule Caste status it is advantageous only if one is looking for Goverment Jobs. All this will no longer be important when privatization of Public sectors takes place. Assam Government and society should come forward and change the satus of the Adivis's to a more assamese status, so that they are not alienated. We should not be doing the same mistakes made by our forefathers. After all Assam is a mix of several different communites. Remember if our forefathers did not alienate the Naga's socially, They would be a part of Assam. So would the seven sisters be a whole integrated family. Mohan R. Palleti _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
