This article was published in the TOI Guwahati edition. There is a lot to read in to the article. The yearning of many "Bangladeshis" to blend into the mainstream Assamese community is depicted well. Do you think - opening Assamese medium elementary schools to replace Madrasas as suggested in the article by one who has partially blended in - will help solve part of the problem? Then again - will Bodos insist on Bodo medium? A healthy and productive discussion can be held on this article. Any comments? ==============================================================
Suave English-speaking Muslim lawyer spared the rod in Assam's riot-hit hotbed Naresh Mitra, TNN Sep 4, 2012, 06.28AM IST Tags: The View| BTAD| Assam| Anjuman Ara Begum GOSSAIGAON (KOKRAJHAR): Mukhlesur Rahman is in his early thirties and practises law at Gauhati High Court. A resident of Gossaigaon, one of the worst violence-hit areas in Bodoland Territorial Area District ( BTAD), he speaks English fluently and is always clean-shaven. Despite being a Bengali-speaking Muslim, Rahman thinks his educational background and lifestyle have spared him from being experiencing the slight of a "Bangladeshi". He is, however, well aware of the stereotypical attitude that works in referring his community members as "Bangladeshis" even before proper verification of their citizenship. "Had I been uneducated, kept a beard and wore a lungi, instead of a trouser, I would have been more likely to be looked down upon as a Bangladeshi. As I don't have any of these characteristics, I have been spared from the tag. Over the years, the application of the word Bangladeshi has become stereotypical, increasingly targeting poor Bengali-speaking Muslims wearing lungis and sporting beards," said Rahman. While Rahman and many educated youths from the community agree that the government should take proactive steps to stem immigration from Bangladesh, they are against the attitude of looking at the backward sections of the community as "Bangladeshis". They are of the view that had modern education been made available, people of the community would have been able to get rid of "Bangladeshi" tag to a great extent. "Today, a significant number of Bengali-speaking Muslims do not have access to modern education. Instead, traditional madrassas have mushroomed, which cater more to religious education rather than imparting modern knowledge. I blame the government for not providing modern education facilities for which people of the community have remained backward and are dubbed as 'Bangladeshis'," feels Saiful Islam Khan, a teacher of history at a Guwahati-based college. Writer-activist Hafiz Ahmed said tagging of "Bangladeshi" has to do more with "class" than with the genuine application of the word. "The rich and educated sections of Bengali Muslims do not have to suffer from the tag as much as the poor and illiterate from the community do. A few years ago, I attended a literary seminar in upper Assam where I was given a warm welcome by the organizer. I told them that if I had come to your place wearing a lungi and sporting a beard, I would easily be branded as Bangladeshi even though my forefather born and perished in this land," added Ahmed. According to Ahmed, out of 20 lakh people displaced in floods and erosion in the Brahmaputra valley over the last six decades, 12 lakhs are Bengali Muslims. "Whenever these displaced people move to different parts of the state for jobs, they are harassed as Bangladeshis," he said. "We are all against sheltering Bangladeshis in Assam or anywhere else in the country. We all want them to be deported. But why you keep a whole lot of Bengali Muslims citizens, who have adopted Assamese as their mother tongue, away from mingling with the larger Assamese society," he added. He said the first Assamese-medium primary school for the community was established by Hussain Ali Sarkar in 1897 at Moirabari. The second one was set up in 1902 in Nagaon by Usman Ali Saudagar. On Sunday, Muslim youths and professionals had a threadbare meeting in Guwahati on how to tackle the "Bangladeshi" stereotype for fostering communal harmony. Human rights activist Anjuman Ara Begum, who chaired the meeting, said, "If you keep branding people as Bangladeshis just by looking at their beard and the clothes they wear, it will not help in promoting a harmonious society." _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
