Politics of Illegal Migration and Its Impact on Socio-Economic and Politics of Assam

Abstract

Migration and illegal migration, a global phenomenon often associated with economic opportunity or forced displacement. Assam bounded by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Nagaland and Manipur to the east, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, and Bangladesh to the south, and West Bengal to the west, its geographical contiguity with a long 262 km almost open border with Bangladesh has historically made it a gateway for cross-border movements. Assam, a strategically vital state in India's northeastern part, has been historically shaped by waves of migration and illegal migration, mainly illegal migration changed the demographic, socio-economic, and political fabric, igniting decades of unrest and a persistent struggle for indigenous people’s identity of Assam. During British colonial rule, the British administration encouraged the migration of Bengali Muslim peasants into Assam’s fertile river valleys, especially the Brahmaputra Valley, to develop agriculture, this moves aided economic development and it also laid the foundation for demographic changes that would later fuel ethnic anxieties.  The 1947 Partition of India changed Assam’s demography as Hindu refugees from East Pakistan crossed into the state. In 1971, the major influx happened at the time of Bangladesh Liberation War, when millions of Bengali Muslims and Hindus sought refuge in India specially in Assam but many of these refugees remained in Assam. Each wave reshaped population patterns, triggering political upheavals and ongoing friction over citizenship and rights but most importantly illegal immigration from East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh, has profoundly reshaped the state. Due to the undocumented huge influx from Bangladesh create concerns the indigenous communities of Assam have about been numerically, economically, and culturally marginalized in their own homeland and raised voices and protest against that influx. The issue was not just merely one of numbers but of identity, resource allocation, and political power.