Assam: Muslims

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Ethnic tribe designation

2020

Prabin Kalita, Kangkan Kalita, 40 lakh Assamese-speaking Muslims may get ‘ethnic tribe’ tag, February 12, 2020: The Times of India

GUWAHATI: The Assam government is likely to give "ethnic tribe" nomenclature to four groups of Assamese-speaking Muslims living in the Brahmaputra Valley who were earlier called indigenous Muslims. These people do not have any history of migration from erstwhile East Pakistan.

"We have proposed to replace 'indigenous' with 'ethnic tribe' because Assam so far has no official definition of who is an indigenous Assamese," said Assam minorities development board chairman Muminul Aowal. He added that the four cummunities - Goria, Moria, Desi and tea tribe Jolha - are already recognized as more other backward classes (MOBC).

"They are about 40 lakh in number," said Aowal.

But the proposal has not included the Maimal group of Muslims, which are Bengali-speaking, in the "ethnic tribe" Muslim community. "The Maimals are in the Barak Valley and the government will consider their case later. At this moment, we are talking of only those in Brahmaputra Valley," Aowal added.

New nomenclature awaits CM's nod

He added 'Desi' and 'Ujani' groups will be clubbed as Desi while the Sayed group will included in the Goria group.

These group of Muslims trace their lineage to the 15th century and majority of them took to Islam by conversion between 13 and 17th century, Aowal said, adding, "None of these groups can be called migrant Muslims. The Gorias and Morias worked for the Ahom kings and the Desis were originaly Koch-Rajbongshis who converted to Islam. Those following Islam among the people brought by the British from the Chota Nagpur plateau to work in tea gardens comprise the tea tribe Jolha."

The new nomenclature now awaits the approval of the chief minister and will be done before the start of the socio-economic census. Aowal said the Census operation to be carried out by state home and minority welfare department will be completed before the next assembly election due early next year.

The migrant Bengali-speaking Muslims, which comprise more than 63% of the state's total Muslim population, have always been the block around which electoral battles have been fought in the state.