BODOLAND MOVEMENT

Bodo people are an ethnic and linguistic group in Brahmaputra Valley in the state of Assam, in the North-eastern part of India.Bodos are recognised as the Plains Tribe under the Sixth Schedule of Indian Constitution.

Historically, Bodos are known as Meche Tribe, which is one of the scheduled tribe of India belong to Kachari group of tribes.Dimsa Kachari or just Kachari is a generic term used  to the members of ethnic groups predominantly in Assam. The fall of Kachari kingdom after the arrival of Ahom king in 12^th century is considered as a tragic point in Bodo history, which led to the gradual disintegration of Bodo Kachari identity followed by the spread of Hinduism and Christianity respectively.

Among Dimsa-Kachari, Bodo Kachari represent largest ethnic group in Assam. According to 1971 Census Bodo’s were the 8^th largest scheduled tribe in India. Bodo’s speak Sino-Tibetan language. Sino-Tibetan languages are the family of more than four hundred languages spoken in East-Asia, South-East Asia, and South Asia. In India Seno-Tibetan language is prevalent among the tribes in the sates of Tripura, Nagaland, and Mizoram, Assam etc.

Bodo people worship many god and goddesses. But among all they worship Bathou as there chief deity and hence, practice Bathouism. They consider Bathos as the creator of five principles, I.e., Air, sun, earth, fire and sky. In Bodo it is called as Bar, San, Ha, and Okrang.

Until very recently Bodo’s used Roman script. The use of Bodo language as one of the official language in Assam was largely debated. On 9^th April 1975, by the then prime minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed Devanagari script on Bodo’s.

Bodo’s are largely depend on agriculture for their livelihood. They are completely or partially depend on forest and other natural resources. Shifting cultivation was the major agricultural practice among Bodo’s until very recently.

The of background of the Bodo Movement was prepared during colonial period with the systematic immigration was allowed by the Britishers, in order to undertake the development and cultivation of waste land, tea plantation, oil field and coalmining, road construction etc. The process of immigration from East Bengal, now Bangladesh opened a new flood gate to immigration not only in the state of Assam but also to the other north-eastern states mostly to the Bodo settlement area I.e., Brahmaputra Valley.

Thus the problem of encroachment and the alienation of land started to a large extend. As mention earlier, after the fall of Kachari kingdom and the rise of Ahom marked the Hindu Assamese domination and exploitation to the tribal minorities. Thus it is under the leadership of socio-religious leader Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma, a movement started popularly known as Brahma Movement in order to protect the Bodo culture and tradition, to spread education among Bodo youth and to distance Bodos from the clutches of Hinduism and Christianity.

IN 1928, Assam Kachari youth Association and Goulpara District Bodo Association, met the Statutory Commission commonly known as Simon Commission in Shillong (Meghalaya) and submitted memorandum for the reservation of seat in the state legislature and government services for the tribal communities in Assam and protection from immigration and land encroachment. Thus in 1937 Assembly set up a Committee headed by F.W .Hocken Hall to look into the entire issue of immigration, tribal right to land line system. In his report submitted a year later, Hockenhall observed that the indigenous people by themselves would not be able to develop the waste land but he insisted that the line system should continue n suggested stronger and more effective steps to prevent alienation of tribal land.

Gopinath Bordoloi led by the INC (Indian National Congress) initiated several measure aimed at freeing the protected tribal land from encroachment. However the things turn differently when in November 1939, the Bordoloi ministry was overtook by Syed Mohamad Saadulla with the full backing of Muslim League. In august 1943 the Saadulla ministry adopted a new resolution on land settlement which provide for the opening up of grazing reserve areas and waste land to the migrants from east Bengal (now Bangladesh) as a part of the Grow more Food programme aimed at helping war economy.

The massive influx of immigrants and their illegal settlement create problems to tribal. It shaken the fabric of tribal economy, culture and society as a whole and also appeared to be a serious threat their survival and development as a tribal entity. One of the most important reason for the massive immigration could be the availability of natural resources and fertile land in Brahmaputra Valley. These result in the considerable eviction of tribals from their own land and put them into sever strain for livelihood as well as necessary resources.

After India got independence in order to protect tribal land alienation from outsiders 33 belts and blocks were created in the state of Assam, under the Assam Land Regulation Act 1947. But this Act also failed to protect tribals from eviction of land. And in the absence of constitutional safeguard the tribal community begun to experience high degree of socio-cultural uncertainty and become natural victim of forced assimilation, exploitation and subjugation.

The successive failure of state government to address the grievances of tribals put them into constant vicious cycle of underdevelopment and marginalization. Therefore, a section of educated Bodos came together to form multiple community-centric organization to work for the welfare of their community and negotiate with power that be for the socio-cultural, economic and political rights of the community.

Thus, in 16^th November 1952, Bodo Sahitya Sabha also known as Bodo Literature Organization founded under the leadership of Joy Badra Hagjer. There main agitation was to introduce Bodo language as the medium of instruction in the school level and also make it one of the official language in the state of Assam. However their agitation was rejected for the reason that Bodos does not have script and Roman script is ambiguous. As mention earlier the imposition of Devanagari script and introduction of Assamese as solo medium of instruction turned out to be hugely discriminatory against linguistic minorities in Assam.

A vigorous movement of Self Determination was launched in 1967 by Plain Tribal Council of Assam (PTCA) also known as Udayachal movement to press for the equality, economic and social justice, political rights, right to land, language and culture. So the year 1967 marked the beginning of new phase of evolution in Bodo movement.

However, PTCA with a demand for full autonomous state for Tribals of Assam lost its political appeal among the common Bodo people. Because common Bodo people thought that PTCA seeks only to establish their political field in Assam, and as a result they overlook the main political aspiration of Tribals. This division led to a split in the organisation in 1979. The year followed by All Assam Student Union movement (1979-1985) also known as Anti-Foreigner movement. It was a non-violent movement and become more violent by the decision taken by the then prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi to give voting right to four million migrants from Bangladesh. Thus, a massacre led to the killing of more than three thousand individual in less than twenty-four hours.

Thus from 1987 onwards the Bodo movement was totally dominated by the Assam Bodo Student Union (ABSU) led by a charismatic leader Upendre Nath Brahma with a demand for separate state which has to be named as Bodoland. On 10^th November 1987 ABSU submitted a memorandum expressing its bitter feeling of Assamese chauvinism and its exploitation to Bodo culture and tradition. Meanwhile an umbrella organisation named Bodo people’s Action Committee (BPAC) was formed to unite all Bodos irrespective of age and political application. They coined famous slogans such as- Divide Assam Fifty-Fifty and N Bodoland No Rest. Since then these slogans becomes the most important moto for the Bodos.

The split among the Bodos took place as a result a section of Bodo youth turned into militant and formed extremist organisation, such as Bodo Security Force (BSF) in 1986 aimed to liberate Bodoland with armed struggle and to create a sovereign state of Bodoland. BSF was renamed as National Democratic Front of Bodos (NDFB) on 25 November 1994.  The organisation was Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) demanded for separate state for the Bodos in the North bank of river Brahmaputra within India. These ideological polarization and differences in approach set the stage for the emergence of rivalry between the two outfits and resulted in killing of more than 200 individuals from each group. Thus Memorandum of Settlement popularly known as Bodo Accord was signed on 20^th February 1993 in kokrajhar district in the presence of the following dignitaries-Mr. SK Basimuthary, chairman of BPAC; Mr. SK Rao, additional chief secretary GOI; Sri Hiteswar Saikia the then chief minister of Assam; Sri Rajesh Pilot, the union minister of state of Home Affairs.

As a result Bodoland Council Bill was introduced in Assam State Assembly on 5^th April 1993. It provide for the creation of Bodoland Autonomous Council within the state of Assam, within the frame work of the Constitution of India.

However the Bodo militant organization rejected the Bodoland Accord and demanded an independent Bodoland. At this stage the Bodo militant started ethnic cleansing operation in kokrajhar districts in 1996, which latter resulted in ethnic riot between communities in Assam. About more than one lakh people were killed and thousands were being displaced.  The communities who were killed are mostly Nepalese, santhals, Muslim immigrants and also Assamese speaking individuals. These clearly shows that Bodos are determined to drive all the non Bodos from their land no matter how long they have stayed together.

As a result of mass killing other communities also started forming militant groups and organisations in order to protect their own communities from the onslaught of Bodos. Such groups were Adivasi Cobra Force (ACF), Birsa Commando Force (BCF), Bengal Tiger Force (BTF) and many other have emerged. Apart from mass killing NDFB AND BLTF had also indulged in extortion bid in the name of Bodoland Tax. The victims were mostly businessmen, government servants, contractors, petrol pump owners, tea companies etc.

As mentioned earlier the Bodoland Accord had been rejected by the militant groups, on 20^th February 1999, in the 31^st annual conference of ABSU in Kokrajhar the ABSU and BPAC again declared fresh movement demanding the creation of separate state as Bodoland , in the way the three new states were created i.e., Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and  Uttrakhand in 2000.

Thus, after a series of talk it reached to a cease fire agreement between the Bodo militant organization and Government of India on 29^th march 2000. Finally the memorandum of settlement was signed on 10^th February 2003 in New Delhi by the following signatories- Mr. Hagrama Basumutary, the BLT chairman; Mr. RCA Jain , secretary to ministry of home affairs GOI; Mr. PK Dutta chief secretary Government of Assam; Mr. Tarun Gogoi the chief minister of Assam; Shri LK Advani honourable Deputy Prime minister of India (2002-2004). The main objectives of the agreement was to create self- governing body to known as Bodoland Territorial Council Assam (BTC) within the state of Assam and to administer a territory spanning 3082 villages making four districts – kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, and Udalguri under the provision of sixth schedule of the constitution of India, to fulfil economic, linguistic and educational aspiration and preservation of land right, socio cultural and ethnic identity of Bodos and to speed up infrastructural development in the newly formed BTC area.

References:

• Choudhury Topu, 2015.Bodoland Movement: A study: International Journals of Humanities and Social Science Studies

• Mochachari Monjib, 2014. State Hegemony, Identity Politics and Resistance in Bodoland: Journal of Intellectual Collective India

• Misra Udayon, 2012 Bodoland: The Burden Of History: EPW