Kalidash Brahma Sunday, 25 December 2011 ‘Bodoland Movement and the Issues of Human Rights Violation’ ‘Our leaders say that we must have nuclear missiles to protect us from the threat of China and Pakistan. But who will protect us from ourselves?’ Arundhati Roy Introduction: Every individual, by virtue of being a human inherits some basic rights and privileges. These rights we called human rights. These are inalienable and inherent in our nature. It can be broadly categorized into socio-economic and cultural rights, civil and political rights and group rights. Several numbers of laws and conventions were made by the states as well as the international organizations for the preservation and protection of these rights, but have not achieved any desirable success. One of the reasons for such human rights violation is the emergence of several social movements throughout the world. There is no consensus of opinion among the social scientists regarding the term ‘social movement’. Even this paper will not try to explore the meaning of social movement in details. However, for the convenience of the present study, the term social movement will be looked upon as ‘a deliberate and collective endeavour to promote change in any direction and by any means, not excluding violence, illegality, revolution or …...’[1] Objectives, ideology, programmes, leadership and organization are the important components of social movements. They are interdependent and influence each other.[2] Bodoland movement which emerged in the 20th century is a social movement in the true sense of the term because it involves the socio-economic as well as political changes. Bodoland Movement: The Bodos are one of the earliest inhabitants of Assam. They migrated to the north-eastern part of India at about 5000[3] BC in search of greener pasture and better living from central Asia such as China, Mongolia, Tibet and Siberia. Writing about Bodos Endle remarked ‘in feature and general appearance they approximate very closely to Mongolian type; and this would seem to point to Tibet and China as the original home of the race’[4]. With the passage of time and situation, they scattered in different parts of the region and acquired different tribe names. In the Brahmaputra Valley they are known as Boros, in Tripura as Tripuris, in north Cachar as Dimasas and so on. They ruled Assam till 1854. In Tripura, they had their own Kingdom till 1949. But the situation has changed since then. Today, the Bodos of the Brahmaputra Valley apprehend that their socio-cultural and political identity is in threat under the dominance of the greater Assomiya nationalism. Here, it must be mentioned that a composite culture known as Assamese Culture was formed in the nineteenth century as well as in the early part of the twentieth century. But it could not last long. It collapsed as a result of the influence of the modern civilization and the chauvinist policies of the Assam government in the second half of the twentieth century[5]. Assam Official Language Act of 1960 and the movement for establishing Assamese as a Medium of instruction in all educational institution of Assam in 1972 can be mentioned in this regard. The process of the Bodoland movement started with the formation of Boro Chatra Sonmiloni in the year of 1919. The leaders of the organization felt that the identity of the Bodos is in threat in the midst of greater Assomiya nationalism. They created literatures in their own language and spread the message of their sufferings and deprivations. Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma, along with his friends submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1928-29 demanding a separate electorate for Bodos. He also launched a socio-religious movement known as ‘Brahma Movement’ for bringing changes in the socio religious life of the Bodos. A drastic change was found in the process of the Bodoland movement when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced on 13th January, 1967 that Assam would be reorganized on the basis of federal structure. As a response to this announcement, All Bodo Students Union was formed on 15th February of 1967 and it was followed by the formation of Plains Tribal Council of Assam on 27th February of the same year. Both ABSU and PTCA warmly welcomed the decision of the centre to reorganize Assam on federal structure. ‘The PTCA, for the first time submitted memorandum to the then President of India Dr. Jakir Hussain on the 20th May, 1967 at New Delhi for the creation of an ‘Autonomous Region’ for plains tribal people of Assam. The wave of demand of Autonomous Region gradually got momentum and thus Autonomous Region was upgraded to the demand of ‘Union Territory’ which was nomenclated as ‘UDAYACHAL’ on 7th January, 1973.’[6] But misunderstanding developed between ABSU and PTCA when PTCA leaders announced on 4th April 1977 that PTCA has given up the demand UDAYACHAL with the status of Union Territory and wanted to experiment with only an Autonomous Region within Assam.[7] Another milestone in the evolution of the Bodoland movement came under the leadership of Upendranath Brahma, the then president of ABSU. Under his leadership movement for separate Bodoland was launched on 2nd March, 1987. They created a political wing of ABSU named Bodo Peoples Action Committee (BPAC) which supported the separate Bodoland movement. After several years of movement an agreement was signed on 20th February, 1993 and Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) was created. But it failed to fulfill the aspirations of the Bodo people. BAC was created under the state Act and thus it existed at the mercy of State government. It was also mentioned in the agreement that the large forest areas of Indo-Bhutan International border on which the Bodo people are dependant for their daily livelihood would not be included within BAC. Thus, another phase of the movement was launched in 1996 and another agreement was signed on10th February, 2003 and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) was formed. But it also left the Bodo people unsatisfied as Bodo leaders felt that the identity, freedom and all round prosperity of the Bodos, for which the movement was launched, was not realized under BTC also. Thus the Bodoland movement still continues. However, this paper will discuss only the Issues of Human Rights Violation during Bodoland Movement from 1987-1993. Before and after the above mentioned period will not include in the present study. Issues of Human Rights Violation during Bodoland Movement: Social movements are launched basically to promote and protect basic human rights of the people. But history has witnessed that it also brings several numbers of violation of rights of the people. Bodoland movement was launched to protect the land, culture, customs and traditions and ethnic identity of the Bodo people. With reference to the right to self determination of the Universal Declaration of Human rights (UDHR) they started movement for the internal self determination of the Bodos. But unfortunately, movement has brought untold sufferings to the people. Excessive police atrocities, mass raid, mass arrest and inhuman tortures were being triggered by the state government upon the ABSU activist and the supporters of the separate Bodoland movement belonging to both Bodo and non-Bodo community. Large number of Bodo women (ranging from minor girl to old women) became the victims of gangrape and molestation. Initially, the movement for separate Bodoland was a peaceful movement. But it became of violent nature because of the cruel treatment of the state government. In this regard, a quotation from the statement of the Pramila Rani Brahma, the then President of the All Tribal Women Welfare Federation is worth mentioning. She said, ‘Our movement is absolutely peaceful. Most of the violence is being perpetrated by the Assam police and by agents of Assam government. We are peace loving people and have stuck to non-violence despite grave provocations. How can you expect people to stay non-violent when their daughters are being raped and their near and dear ones are being tortured and shot death? I think you should comment the leadership of movement for continuing the agitation peacefully…..’[8] A Bodo student named Sujit Narzary was killed when some Assamese miscreants threw a stone on him at Tihu Chock on the 12th June, 1987 while they were coming from a mass rally in Gauhaty. Another ABSU volunteer shri Subhas Basumatary had to lose one of his eyes due to that attack. Police forces shot death two ABSU volunteers viz. Kabiram Basumatary and Alendra Basumatary at Lailanpara in Darang district on the 9th September, 1987. Again, Police shot death one ABSU volunteer Obiram Mushahary and seriously injured Shadev Brahma near Serfanguri in Kokrajhar district on the 25th September, 1987.[9] Such attacked on the innocent Bodo people became very common during the Bodoland movement. One of the darkest pages in the history of Bodoland movement is the incident at No. 12 Bhumka in Kokrajhar district of Assam. In their report to Amnesty International, Presidents of All Bodo Students Union and All Cachar-Karimganj Students Association stated that 9 (nine) Bodo Girls and one old woman at No. 12 Bhumka village in Kokrajhar district of Assam were gangraped by the Assam Police (AP) and Assam Police Task Force (APTF) on the nights of 25th and 27th January of 1988. In fact, rape by the police forces had become so much common during the Bodoland movement that Pramila Rani Brahma, the then President of ATWWF doubt if any Bodo dominated village has escaped the ravages.[10] Another bloody incident occurred in the late 1989. At the patronage of the Assam government, some Assamese miscreants in connivance with the Assam police forces committed massacres at Gohpur in August and at Rangapara in May, 1989 under Sonitpur district, Simlaguri under Lakhimpur district in August, 1989, Kairabari, Bhakhatpara and Phaorupeta under Dorong district in August, 1989. In those incidents more than 300 innocent Bodo women and children were butchered and over 10,000 Bodo houses were burn down to ashes.[11] More than 15, 0000 Bodo people were settled in relief camps without government relief, rehabilitation and medical care. According to the report of ABSU to the then Prime Minister of India (V.P. Singh), over 200 Bodo inmates died out of starvation and another 93 Bodo inmates died due to lack of medical care in Gohpur itself. However, there are differences of opinion regarding the number of victims in every incident. But there is no doubt that a huge number of people lost their life during the Bodoland movement. According to the record of All Bodo Students Union, at least 1135 Bodo people had lost their life during the Bodoland movement from 1987-93. Controversial Acts like Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, Assam Disturbed Areas Act, 1955 and Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 were imposed in the Kokrajhar district of Assam where Bodoland movement was gaining its momentum[12]. Large number of the innocent people became the victim of fake encounter while many other were beaten brutally leading to the lost of their eyes, legs, hands and so on. Thousands of the innocent Bodo people were sent in jail and tortured there. But no compensation was made to the victims and their families. Atrocities in the name of enforcing law and order in the state still exist in Bodoland Territorial Council region of Assam. For a lasting peace in the region the root causes of the Bodoland movement must be explored and economic backwardness of the region should be addressed at the earliest.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 18:07:50 +0000
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