MIYA COMMUNITY
1. Context
The inauguration of a museum showcasing the culture of Bengalispeaking or Bengal-origin Muslims in Assam was sealed on October 25 after it sparked controversy.
2. Key Points
- A private centre showcasing the culture and heritage of Bengal-origin or Bengali-speaking Muslims was inaugurated primarily by members of the All Assam Miya Parishad at Dapkarbhita in the Lakhipur circle of Goalpara district on October 23.
- They named it the Miya Museum. The Parishad had on October 17 intimated to the district head about the opening of the Museum.
- The museum was sealed because violation of the rules, the house was allotted in 2018 under the Prime Minister's Awas Yojana-Gramin.
3. 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 which have resulted in changes in the 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 the jobs, language and culture of the indigenous population.
4. Char-Chaporis
- A Char is a floating island while chaporis are low-lying flood-prone riverbanks,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.
- The population of chars at 24.90 lakh as per a socio-economic survey in 2002-03. The population is bound to have increased since.
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Prone to floods and erosion, these areas are marked by low development indices. "80 per cent of the Char population lives below the poverty line".
A UNDP Assam Human Development report from 2014 describes the char areas as suffering from "communication deficits, lack of adequate schooling facilities beyond primary, girl child marriage, poverty and illiteracy".
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- While Bengali-origin Muslims primarily occupy these islands, other communities such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, and Nepalis also live here.
- In the popular imagination, however, chars have become synonymous with the Bengali-speaking Muslims of dubious nationality.
5. Controversy
- The genesis of the controversy lies in the politics of polarisation in Assam fuelled by the fear of a demographic invasion by illegal immigrants or Bangladeshis.
- Although a respectable address across Hindi and Urdu-speaking belts, Miya is used pejoratively against the Bengali-speaking Muslims and to sift them from the Assamese Muslims accounting for more than 34 per cent of the state's 3.3 crores people.
6. Counter-campaign against NRC
- The Bengal-origin Muslim Community began promoting "Miya Culture as a counter-campaign against the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens in Assam.
- This found expression in Miya literature underlining the plight of migrant Muslims. A section of the indigenous communities found this objectionable.
7. How do the Miyas identify themselves?
- Over the years, the Miyas have often been stereotyped and derided as "Bangladeshi".
- That's an odd term to use since the community's roots in Assam are much older than in 1971 when Bangladesh was born.
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It is a very complex community many are generations removed from immigrant ancestors.
Over the years, the community has tried to integrate into the larger Assamese society, by speaking Assamese, sending their children to Assamese schools and declaring Assamese as their language since the 1951 census.
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- The community had a significant presence in Assamese literary and cultural life. The high quality of the Assamese spoken and written by many people from this background.
- Prominent Assamese personalities such as the late human rights activist-journalist Parag Kumar Das have made efforts for greater acceptance of char dwellers.
He explored the char areas and started writing about them in Assamese publications like Prantik. - He brought to light that they studied in Assamese medium schools, that they were not Bangladeshis and that they had lived here for over a hundred years.
- The first Assamese school in a char area was set up as far back as 1899 and runs the Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad, a literary body.
Today, the community is not just made up of farmers, drivers and labourers. - There are doctors, writers, researchers, and engineers but no one wants to recognise that.
8. Why a claim of a distinct culture?
- While identifying as Assamese, the "Miya" community feels that like other ethnic groups, they too should celebrate their own culture and heritage within the larger Assamese fold.
- Mi-Chang stories showcase char culture. The community's cultural motifs and heritage are related to agriculture and the river.
| The community has a variety of songs (bhatiali related to the river, Magan geet or harvest songs, noi Khelor geet or boat songs etc.) instruments and equipment to catch fish, as well as different kinds of boats. |
- While this heritage may or may not have similarities with residents of present-day Bangladesh, it is unique to Assam's char dwellers because it is a product of a hundred years of assimilation with the Assamese society.
- For example in an ancient performative martial art called the Lathibari.
- While the norm is to traditionally wear colourful clothes our version has us donning a white vest and dhoti, an Assamese gamosa on heads and waists these are unmissable Assamese elements.
- The bhatiali geet speaks of the Brahmaputra river. Now is that not Assamese culture?
9. Why are some Assamese uncomfortable with that?
- The museum has been proposed in the Kalakshetra, which is a cultural complex in Guwahati named after neo-Vaishnavite reformer Srimanta Sankardev and which was set up as part of Clause 6 (" to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people") of the Assam Accord, signed at the culmination of the Assam Agitation.
- The fact that the Museum is proposed to be part of Kalakshetra, a product of the Assam Accord, hurts Assamese Sentiments.
- The Assamese feel that these claims of a distinct cultural sphere/ identity by the community may eventually lead to political or ethnic assertions in the future.
- This is not a fear that has been conjured up overnight but a fear of decades.
- In 2019, a controversy had broken out regarding poetry written by the Miya community in their native dialects.
- Given Assam's sensitive political history, where language is the biggest fault line, the poetry faced backlash from the Assamese-speaking community.
10. Miya's views
- The community feels the issue is being politicised for vested interests.
None of them has said that they are separate from Assamese society and it is within that they just want heritage whether art or culture to be preserved. - Even if our songs culture etc are displayed or exhibited what is the inconvenience? It will just add a layer to the culture of Assamese society and make it even richer.
- The migration and assimilation of the Bengali-origin communities reflect an amazing success story of Axomiya culture's capacity to integrate new people.
The Kalakshetra should find ways to incorporate newer elements of our culture into its collection to show that this integrative capacity has not diminished.
For Prelims & Mains
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For Prelims: Miya Museum, Miya Culture, Prime Minister's Awas Yojana-Gramin, All Assam Miya Parishad, illegal immigrant, Char-Chaporis, Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, and Nepalis, Assam Accord, NRC,
For Mains:
1. What is Miya culture? and discuss their relations with Assamese (250 Words)
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Source: The Indian Express
