Chapter 7
Population explosion in Assam and the issue of foreign nationals
Exercise:
Answer the following questions.
1. (a) What is the difference between internal migration and international migration?
Answer: Migration is the movement of people from one place to another in search of food, clothing, shelter and security or to escape natural disasters like floods, famines, killings, earthquakes etc. or to seek security from wars, communal and religious conflicts Exhaust. Migration is inextricably linked to the development of human civilization. In other words, the development of human civilization and population migration seem to be side by side of the same coin. There are two types of migration: inter-state migration and international migration.
Interstate or internal migration is people who move from one part of the same country to another. International migration is migration from one country to another. International migration can take two forms – legal and illegal. Migrants who come from one country with the necessary documents and settle in another are called legal migrants. On the other hand, many people migrate to neighboring countries or other countries without the necessary documents to escape the severe economic crisis, wars, social, religious and communal conflicts in their own countries. They are called illegal immigrants.
(b) What are refugees and immigrants?
Answer: Refugees are people who move from their country to another country voluntarily or as victims of religious intolerance.
On the other hand, many people migrate smuggled to neighboring countries or other countries to escape severe economic crisis, wars, socio-religious and communal conflicts in their own countries. Such people are called immigrants.
(c) Under which Act can a foreigner acquire Indian citizenship?
Answer: The Citizenship of India Act, 1955 allows a foreigner to acquire Indian citizenship.
(d) Which king of Assam dug a pond for the use of which temple in Orissa?
Answer: Swargadeo Chuhungmung (AD 1497-1593) dug a pond for the use of the Jagannath Temple in Orissa.
(e) In which year and by whom was the tea tree discovered in Assam?
Answer: Tea tree was discovered in Assam in 1937 by Robert Bruce.
2. Briefly discuss the discovery of tea trees and the migration to Assam with the establishment of tea plantations.
Answer: Robert Bruce discovered tea trees in Assam during the arrival of foreigners and CA Bruce started tea cultivation for the first time in a planned manner. The British government began to allocate thousands of bighas of land to the tea farmers in exchange for nominal treasury. Many tea plantations were established in a very short period of time. The indigenous population of Assam was not large enough to meet the labor needs of these tea plantations. In addition, the small population of Assam, which had been almost devastated by various diseases such as the earlier Moammar Rebellion, the Manch invasion, the war between the British and Burma, cholera and epidemics, was not willing to work in the tea plantations.
On the other hand, the British Government took many measures to deprive the tribes living in the forests of Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and other states of South India of their traditional rights in order to increase agricultural land and revenue. Therefore, the Chaotal, Kol, Munda, Kurmi, Bhumij and other ethnic groups inhabiting these areas rebelled against the British administration.
CA Bruce sent the first twelve boxes of tea produced in Assam to London in Tests conducted there showed that the tea of Assam is of the same quality as that of China. Seeing the bright future of tea cultivation in Assam, a group of Indian and European businessmen formed the Assam Tea Company with an initial capital of £500,0 The Government of India directed the local administrations under the Waste Land Grant Rule, 1838 to allocate the fallen lands of Assam to other companies formed like this company. One of the conditions of allocation was that the companies had to make the uncultivated land suitable for agriculture; So that the government can collect revenue from it later. In 1858-59, the amount of land thus allotted to the tea companies was 59,860 acres. In contrast, the area under tea cultivation was only 7,599 acres. This means that land revenue did not increase as expected by the government.
Some researchers also claim that the British tea cultivation interests were behind the deposing of Purandara Singh in 1838 for failing to pay the specified taxes despite being given the responsibility of ruling South Assam by a special treaty in The British also occupied southern Assam fearing that it would be difficult to allocate the land required for the growing tea plantations under Purandar. Arp adopted various schemes to allocate land to thousands of bigha residents as per the directives mentioned earlier to increase land revenue.
Arrival of Tea Workers in Assam: It has been mentioned earlier that the British Government took all measures to expand tea cultivation in Assam and strengthen the exchequer with taxes earned from it. The Waste Land Grant Rule, 1838 ; The Old Assam Rules 1838; The Waste Land Grant Rule 1854; and The Fee Simple Grant, 1861, which allocated fertile highlands to the tea companies.
At least four conditions must be met for an industry to develop; -
(1) land (2) capital (3) labor and (4) organization.
Indian and European tea farmers did not lack capital. The colonial government also enacted the above land laws to solve the land problem. European and Indian tea growers formed organizations like the Assam Tea Company and came forward for tea cultivation. The problem now is the lack of laborers who can work day and night in the adverse natural environment of the tea plantations. The tea farmers sought the help of the colonial government to fill this shortage. Poor people from various parts of East Bengal, Chittagong, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, mainly of Chaotal, Kol, Munda, Bhumij, Kurmi etc., were brought to Assam as tea laborers with the help of some brokers.
3. Discuss the historical background of migration of East Bengal farmers to Assam.
Answer: The British administration led by David Scott in 1827 tried to increase tax collection by allocating land to the indigenous people of Assam through several schemes. However, the government's scheme was unsuccessful. The British government was confused about how to collect taxes from the millions of bighas of land that lay uncultivated at the time. Therefore, the British Government encouraged the hardworking farmers of neighboring populous Bengal to come to Assam by providing various facilities.
Some of the Assamese who had just emerged as middle class at the beginning of British rule also supported the arrival of foreigners in Assam in the interest of the British Empire. In a memorandum to the British Government, Anandaram Dekial Fukan requested that measures be taken to bring farmers from Europe and North India with excellent knowledge of agriculture and establish them in Assam. He suggested that the government should also encourage farmers in Bengal for this. In 1874, a memorandum submitted by a group of educated people welcoming Governor General North Brook to Guwahati also requested him to bring strong and cultured people from Orissa and northern Bihar. Gunaviram Baruah was an enthusiastic supporter of bringing foreigners to Assam. He argued for the development of Assam by bringing in people from outside as there was a shortage of technically skilled laborers for the tea plantations and railway construction that were developing in Assam at that time. There are many sources of information about the country's economy, including the country's economy, the country's economy, and the country's economy.
On the other hand, the zamindars of Goalpara, Bilasipara, etc. in West Assam made every arrangement to bring in East Bengal Muslim farmers to increase the revenue of their zamindari. In addition, the report of the Assam Banking and Quary Committee published in 1929-30 indicates that the indigenous Mahajans of the Barpeta area and the Marwari merchants who had already settled there needed foreigners from East Bengal to cultivate the fallen lands and buy them if possible He ran a thriving business by lending money in exchange for interest. The deep and extensive fertile land of Assam is suitable for cultivation of various vegetables, pulses, paddy, etc., especially cotton. As East Bengal Muslim farmers settled in Assam, the number of cotton mills in West Bengal increased. The famous economist Dr. P.S. C.S. According to Goswami in his research work 'The Economic Development of Assam' (1963), a total of 5000 acres of cotton was cultivated in Assam in 1901-0
4. The Who and when and how first demanded against the migration of people to Assam?
Answer: In 1924, Ambikagiri Roy Chowdhury formed the Assam Sanrakshini Sabha. When he visited Assam before the Pandu Congress in 1926, Congress leader Dr. Rajendra Prasad saw the horrors of Muslim migration in Assam and proposed to bring Hindus from the densely populated Chapra district of Bihar and settle them in Assam. Mahadev Sharma introduced a resolution against immigration in the Assam Legislative Assembly in July Basanta Kumar Das and Nabin Chandra Bardoloi participated in the debate on the proposal and emphasized on finding ways to protect the interests of the indigenous people. In 1928, the government appointed A.S. W. W. McCarthy. Botham formed a five-member all-party committee. There were also members of Nabin Chandra Bardoli and Mohammad Sadullah.
Bardoli, as a member of the committee, was adamant that the Pamua settlements should not expand from the area designated according to the line system to any new place. During the six years from 1930 to 1936, the government opened 59 cattle grazing roads for the Pamuas in Nagaon district alone to rehabilitate them under the line system. The scheme was also implemented in Mangaldai sub-division of Darang district and Barpeta sub-division of Kamrup district. According to a survey, in 1920-21, 3,299,000 bighas of land was allocated to Hindu Pamuas while 30,106,000 bighas were allocated to Muslim Pamuas. This increased to 13,285,000 bighas for Hindu Pamuas and 89,078,000 bighas for Muslim Pamuas in 1929-3 The Bardoli Cabinet of Assam, formed under the Government of India Act, 1835, tried to prevent the influx of Pamuas, but Shadullah, who formed the government three times, provided all kinds of facilities and encouragement to the Bengali Muslim Pamuas.
Therefore, Shadullah forcibly evicted the indigenous farmers through the policy of Regularization Settlement to legalize the encroachment of land by the Bengali Muslim Pamuas. In 1939, World War II began. The British government took measures to collect food and essential supplies from the Allied troops engaged in the war, at least by force. The coalition cabinet led by Gopinath Bardoloi resigned. The Governor of Assam suspended the then Legislative Council and adopted the 'Grow more Food Policy' to produce more food to meet the needs of the army.
5. Write a brief:
(a) Higher crop production policy.
Answer: In 1928, the Government established the A.S. W. W. McCarthy. Botham formed a five-member all-party committee. There were also members of Nabin Chandra Bardoli and Mohammad Sadullah. Bardoli, as a member of the committee, was adamant that the Pamua settlements should not expand from the area designated according to the line system to any new place. During the six years from 1930 to 1936, the government opened 59 cattle grazing roads for the Pamuas in Nagaon district alone to rehabilitate them under the line system.
The scheme was also implemented in Mangaldai sub-division of Darang district and Barpeta sub-division of Kamrup district. According to a survey, in 1920-21, 3,299,000 bighas of land was allocated to Hindu Pamuas while 30,106,000 bighas were allocated to Muslim Pamuas. This increased to 13,285,000 bighas for Hindu Pamuas and 89,078,000 bighas for Muslim Pamuas in 1929-3 The Bardoli Cabinet of Assam, formed under the Government of India Act, 1835, tried to prevent the influx of Pamuas, but Shadullah, who formed the government three times, provided all kinds of facilities and encouragement to the Bengali Muslim Pamuas. Therefore, Shadullah forcibly evicted the indigenous farmers through the policy of Regularization Settlement to legalize the encroachment of land by the Bengali Muslim Pamuas. In 1939, World War II began. The British government took measures to collect food and essential supplies from the Allied troops engaged in the war, at least by force. The coalition cabinet led by Gopinath Bardoloi resigned. The Governor of Assam suspended the then Legislative Council and adopted the 'Grow more Food Policy' to produce more food to meet the needs of the army.
(b) Line Practice.
Answer: 85 per cent of these East Bengal migrants who came to Assam were Muslims. Their increasing numbers saw the indigenous tribes and Hindus seeing the danger to their language and culture. The Assam government wanted to increase migration for its own economic gain and at the same time took a middle ground to avoid dissatisfaction of the indigenous people. Thus, in 11920, he introduced the 'line system' and divided the habitable land into three categories;
(a) Separate residential land for the Pamuas
(b) Land uninhabitable by the Pamuas and
(c) Land inhabited by the Pamuas on one side of the same area and by the indigenous people on the other.
This two-pronged approach of allowing the East Bengal Muslim Pamuas to settle in a designated area and protecting the land rights of the indigenous people was unsuccessful. The natives got higher prices and started selling their land to the Pamuas. In addition, corrupt revenue officers took bribes for black money and took the lead in registering land to Pamua Muslims in violation of the line system.
(c) Tribal belts and blocks.
Answer: Most of the Congress leaders were imprisoned during the Bharaniya Mass Revolution in 1942, when India's demand for independence reached its peak. Most of them were released from jail in 1945 and in the 1946 general elections, the Congress won a single majority and formed a government led by Gopinath Bardoloi. This government amended the Assam Land Revenue Rules, 1886 to protect the interests of the indigenous tribes of Assam and created 38 tribal belts and blocks covering an area of 1500 sq km in 2795 villages.
The British government, on the other hand, was considering a proposal to divide India into two separate states, Hindustan and Pakistan, on the basis of two religions, Hindustan and Pakistan. This proposal provided for the division of the provinces of India into three units, A, B and C. Accordingly, it was proposed to include Assam in the same union or group with Bengal. The leaders of the indigenous tribes of Assam like Gopinath Bardoloi, Rupnath Brahma and Bhimbar Deuri unanimously opposed this proposal and saved Assam from the conspiracy to annex it to Pakistan.
(d) The impact of migration on the socio-cultural and economic life of Assam.
Answer: The terrible increase in the number of domestic and internal foreigners has been discussed above. This migration to Assam, initially sponsored by the government for economic development and secondly for various political and natural reasons, has had a multifaceted impact on the overall life, economy and culture of Assam.
They are briefly discussed as follows:
(1) Population growth of Assam : The population of Assam has increased to over 30 million due to free inter-state and internal migration to Assam and free international migration from East Pakistan and now Bangladesh, Nepal etc. This terrible population explosion has caused food, clothing and shelter problems. Assam lags behind other states of India in terms of education and employment.
(2) Destruction of natural balance: Habitable land is decreasing due to increased population. Therefore, people, especially foreign immigrants, have encroached on protected forests, sanctuaries, river beds etc. and reduced the extent of forest land and natural reservoirs. As a result, there is a crisis of food and shelter for wildlife. Many wildlife species are already extinct and many are becoming rare. There are many reports of human-tiger and human-elephant conflicts in populated areas in newspapers and television.
(3) Sectarian and communal conflict: Various measures were taken to ensure that the problems of migration and immigration since the days of the British Government did not adversely affect the social and cultural interests of the indigenous people of Assam. The introduction of the line system introduced in 1920, the formation of tribal belts and blocks in 1946, and the Prevention of Infiltration From Pakistan (PIP) introduced in 1962 are a few examples of such measures. However, these measures were largely ineffective due to administrative weaknesses, land seekers, aggressiveness of East Bengal farmers, the desire of some indigenous people to earn money without effort and the shortsightedness of the Assamese people.
(4) Mutual suspicion and fear: The process of formation of the Assamese nation, strengthened by the common elements of language, literature and culture of the old and new settlers, has been hampered by some of the legal and illegal migrants of Assam. In the 1951 census, migrants of East Bengal origin also registered their mother tongue as Assamese. As a result, the number of Assamese speakers exceeded 73 per cent. However, later, especially after 1979, the influence of some linguistic immigrants and the irrational asphalting of some radical nationalists led to many misconceptions about the identity of Bangladeshi migrants.
(e) Relationship of cotton mills with migration to Assam.
The deep and extensive fertile land of Assam is suitable for cultivation of various vegetables, pulses, paddy, etc., especially cotton . As East Bengal Muslim farmers settled in Assam, the number of cotton mills in West Bengal increased. The famous economist Dr. P.S. C.S. According to Goswami in his research work 'The Economic Development of Assam' (1963), a total of 5000 acres of cotton was cultivated in Assam in 1901-0 In 1941-42, the amount of such land increased to 277,000 acres.
Dr. Ramesh Chandra Kalita in his paper 'Migrant Problems and Assam' notes a close relationship between the increase in the number of cotton industries in Calcutta and the increase in the number of migrants of East Bengal farmers in Assam. A considerable part of the raw materials required for the cotton mills established around Calcutta were supplied from Assam. Dr. Kalita therefore comments, “In addition to meeting the demand of these factories, cotton was also exported from undivided Bengal abroad. As a result, the migration of Muslim farmers from East Bengal to Assam to produce cotton became essential for the prosperity of the cotton trade,” he said. In such an environment, some businessmen in the Barpeta area often started selling their acreage leasehold lands to the already settled and newly arrived East Bengal foreigners at higher prices in the hope of making more profits. In some cases, these opportunists even sold some government and reserved forest lands to these foreigners by pretending to own them. It has already been mentioned that the British Government in 1905 merged East Bengal and Assam to form a province called 'East Bengal and Assam' for political and economic reasons. As a result, there were no obstacles to the entry of East Bengal farmers to Assam. The railway system between Assam and Bengal was already established in 1891-9 Taking advantage of this transportation, the settlements of the East Bengals also increased around the railway stations in Assam.
Sample for project:
1. Consider the factors that have changed the demographics of your village on the basis of historical data.
2. Identify the causes of the current population explosion in Assam and prepare a field report on how this has deteriorated the natural balance.
3. To conduct a field study on the impact of uncontrolled migration to Assam on the lifestyle including diet of the indigenous communities.
4. The To examine the relationship between population explosion and the economic problems and prospects of Assam on the basis of selected case studies.
5. Identify some ways to control population explosion and make recommendations based on field studies on how to proceed to implement these.
