Guwahati: From the past several decades, the lives of the Assamese people have been surrounded with uncertainties like Assamese people becoming minorities in their own country, the aggression of Hindu Bangladeshis, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), etc.
In this regard, against the aloofness of the ruling party, several organizations and political parties had staged a protest against the uncertainties faced by the indigenous people in their own country.
People’s protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill and later Citizenship Amendment Act proves the fear and doubt among the people of Assam.
Also Read: Crushing the sentiments of the Assamese people, will CAA be implemented?
However, the BJP led state government controlling the protest through various tactics keeps claiming that people should not fear its identity issues as it has no reality.
But is the concern of the Bangladeshis’ migration to Assam as the ruling party claimed is baseless? The answer to this is ‘no’ as the information about the migration of Bangladeshis had been reported in a daily newspaper of Bangladesh.
The reports of Zakir Hussain from ‘Syandan Patrika’ speak many alarming facts about it. The report revealed that seventy-five lakhs Hindu population had been decreased in Bangladesh in the last 50 years. However, the population of Buddhists, Christians and other religions remains the same.
Notably, in 1974 during the first census made in Bangladesh, the Hindu population rate was 13.5 percent, following four more censuses. The latest census done in the country was in 2011, showing that only 8.5 percent of the Hindu population resides in Bangladesh.
The census report suggests two reasons for the decline of the Hindu population in the country. The first reason is the migration of the Hindus Bangladeshi to other countries. The other is the decrease in the birth rate among the Hindus residing in Bangladesh. If we exclude the second reason, then it is a serious threat to the indigenous people of Assam.
Meanwhile, various political leader’s sociologists, Hindu community leaders and researchers of Bangladesh agree that the reason behind the decline of the Hindu population is migration to another country.
In this context, Professor Abul Barkat of the Department of Economics, Dhaka University, studied the issue of minorities leaving the country for economic, social and political reasons.
His research claimed that the Hindu Bangladeshi population had left the country due to torture upon them, while many have been forced to leave because of the Property Act, which happened among the Hindus of the rural areas.
Now the question that arises is that where are these missing people? Which is their safest destination to take shelter? What does this situation interject in response to Assam and it’s neighbouring Northeastern states? Details about this will be revealed in our following report…
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