<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On August 14, 1947 as the partition proposal dividing the Indian subcontinent came into full effect, it paved the way for the victory of a narrow identity politics based on religion played out by some religious leaders, whose vision for India forever remain within the confinement of their radical and extremist religious views, prompted by the fears, hatred and suspicion that swept across the subcontinent among different religious groups. What the proponents of the partition’s plans failed to comprehend was the tragic outcome which is nothing less than a human tragedy that had a consequential bearing on the social and political life of the newly created nations to this day. The partition of India will eventually change, if not spoil, the whole socio-political landscape of the subcontinent and led to the creation of the two independent nations: the “theocratic Islamic state of Pakistan” and “the secular and democratic India”. Another, third, nation, Bangladesh, will be born two decades later under the same political atmosphere and influence that divide India in 1947.<\/p>\n
The worst case scenario that influences the political leadership of the day as the option of partitioning the subcontinent figure up was the invoking of the name of ‘religion’, rather than taking administrative consideration as the reason, which had already become a sensitive issue that was dividing the communities and was already claiming so many lives by that time, that mess up everything and created all sorts of misunderstanding among the adherents of different religions. And the worst outcome of this historical tragedy was that the innocent commoners belonging to all religious communities, who had nothing to do with all those dirty partition politics, were made to pay with their lives. People of different religion inhabiting the nation together peacefully for centuries were all of a sudden exposed to communal politics of hatred and made themselves enemy aginst each other as the demand for a separate state based on religion instill suspicion in the minds of the masses and flare up into one of the worst communal violence in the history of mankind with the eventual successful implementation of the partition plan that claim millions of innocent lives. <\/p>\n
The Assam-Bengal frontier at the eastern sector of the subcontinent was the main theatre of politics during the tragic era of partition. The partition of Bengal successfully divided the region and places its people, determined by their religious affiliations, in different artificially created political boundaries. What the partition fails to prevent was that it could not divide the heart and soul of the people belonging to the same region. People of the region, irrespective of the borders where they were placed, remain the same people, share same history and remain emotionally attached to each other. Could the conscience of humanity permit anyone to give a name tag as “illegal immigrants” to those traversing the region of their own? Be it present day West Bengal, Bangladesh or Barak Valley of Assam, no one can deny that this is a part of the same one Bengal in history inhabited by the same race of people only to be spoiled by the partition politics. <\/p>\n
The latest Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and NRC which aimed at granting Indian citizenship to those persecuted religious minorities from the neighboring countries and detecting illegal immigrants for deporting to their respective place of origin once again open up the unfinished agenda of partition which becomes a deadly wound infecting the region and which would not be heal forever. Life in India would turn full circle again as the name ‘religion’ is once again invoke by the authorities in their attempt to portrayed as a refuge for the helpless and in the name of helping indigenous groups of Northeasterner in asserting their identity by expelling the alien disturbers. <\/p>\n
Even before addressing the question\/problem of “foreigner” in the region, the bigger problem confronting Northeast India is the ethnic animosities that are already badly affected the social fabric of the region. The creation of the state of Assam, whose ethnic compositions reflects a diverse and complex structure of state, in post colonial India where a portion from the undivided Bengal was made part of the state. Converting this diverse region into a single state was, however, not in conformity with the question of Assam’s identity. The Assam Accord of 1985 promised to protect Assamese identity from the influx of illegal immigrants. But the inherent flaws within this accord was the absence of specificity in defining who the “Assamese” are, which led to the contest for identity assertion and dominance among the different ethnic communities in the state. The unfortunate outcome of this strange equation in ethnics’ relations vis-à-vis identity assertion\/conflict is the creation of the perception of outsiders\/others from within the state.<\/p>\n
In the event of the enforcement of CAB and NRC, then the country would be witnessing a partition era-like situation where there will be another exchange of population at the borders which is bound to be at a human cost. An estimated 40 lakh people is said to have been identified as “illegal immigrants living in Assam” in a Supreme Court monitored NRC exercise in July 2018. If this figure is to be taken as the basis for the formal implementation of the deportation process, then only the Muslim population, to be precise, out of that 40 lakh would be listed for deportation because Hindu population would be eligible to retain their residency in Assam under the provision of CAB on the ground that they were the persecuted minorities in their previous country. On the other hand, under CAB a potentially millions of persecuted religious minorities would be migrating to Assam and elsewhere in India as India assures rewarding citizenship for those migrants. It’s hard to comprehend the emerging socio-political situations in the country under the current politics.<\/p>\n
Remember, India had already gone through a tragic situation where the land becomes a killing field where million of innocent masses got killed, their only crime being they happen to be a member of a particular religious community. This horrific scene at the time of partition during the exchange of population exact a permanent scars in the minds and hearts of the nations. Seventy years on, India is heading towards the same situation with the possibility of another exchange of population on the card.<\/p>\n
With the nation going for a general election in few months time, and the question of outsiders\/foreigners surely going to be among the top of the poll agenda, it means the partition ghost, that had tormented the nation all these years, continue to haunt not only Indians but the entire subcontinent. And what is more unfortunate is that politicians continue to invoke the same “partition” issue and “religion” just for the sake of temporary electoral benefits rather than committing themselves on finding permanent solution to this mess.<\/p>\n
In any case, common people of this generation belonging to this region does not deserve to suffer from the mess that is born out of a historical mismanagement and a deep rooted ideological and religious hatred and misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
Dr. Nsungbemo Ezung, Wokha Town, <\/p>\n
(ezung_n@yahoo.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reenacting partition\u2019s tragedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}