Post
independence
After the independence from British rule
in 1947, Assam spawned four more states to become one of the
seven sister states in the 1960s and 1970s. The new states
were Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. The
capital of Assam, which was in Shillong, had to be moved to
Dispur, now a part of an expanding Guwahati.
In 1961, the Government of Assam passed a
legislature making the usage of Assamese language compulsary.
The legislature resulted in widespread protest across Assam.
In one such incident, 11 people were killed due to police
firing in Silchar in southern Assam. Coming under intense
pressure, the Government withdrew the legislature.
In the 1980s the Brahmaputra valley saw a
six-year Assam Agitation that began non-violently but became
increasingly violent. The movement was triggered by the discovery
of a sudden rise in electorates in electoral rolls. The movement
tried to force the government to identify and deport foreigners
who, the natives maintained, are illegally inundating the
land from neighboring Bangladesh and changing the demographics.
Critics called it a xenophobic reaction of a racist people.
The agitation ended after an accord between the leaders of
the agitation and the Union Government. Most of the accord
remains unimplemented today, a cause for a simmering discontent.
This was followed by demands for greater
autonomy especially by the Bodos in the later 1980s and 1990s.
The period also saw the growth of armed secessionist groups
like United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and National Democratic
Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The union government responded by
deploying the Indian army to control the situation in November
1990, leading to claims of human rights violations. The Indian
army deployment has now been institutionalized under a Unified
Command. Worsening inter-ethnic relationships also marked
this period.
The 2000s saw inter-ethnic killings, especially
in the Karbi and Cachar hills (e.g the Hmar-Dimasa conflict). |
