A video recently emerged from the Bodoland University in Assam where in a skit, Muslims were represented as a social evil to the community.
It is being said that the performance took place during an inter-departmental cultural procession, and was done by the university’s department of geography. Two people, with the skull caps on, are seen with their hands tied. Another person, dressed as police, is seen to be beating them up, in their tied positions. The impression is as if the two are in custody. The two persons are seen shouting, ‘Allah, Allah’. Another group who follows in the procession is heard shouting, ‘Jai Bodo Harini’ – ‘all hail the Bodo race.’
These are naturally two very different ways to treat two communities living contiguously.
At first glance, the video is shocking.
A space such as a university is supposed to be equal for everyone irrespective of caste, race, colour, religion or gender. Increasing anti-minority sensibilities in vernacular spaces are serious causes of concern. But this is not news in Assam.
A cultural procession organized by the #BodolandUniversity (BU) in #Kokrajhar, #Assam mocked #Muslim people portraying them as criminals.
A viral video shows two persons dressed in Muslim attire and wearing beards and skull caps with hands tied behind were beaten up by police… pic.twitter.com/BRLTkltiS7
— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) March 18, 2024
Muslims in Assam
As sociologists, we understand that social action is produced in society. It is an extension of society. If we turn to Assam, there has been no dearth of dehumanisation and criminalisation of Muslims.
Shaukat Ali was force fed pork in Tezpur.
Moinul Hoque was shot dead in an eviction site and as his soul left his body, Bijoy Bonia stomped on his chest.
In 2012 alone, scores of Muslims were killed in Bodoland. The char-chaporis (those living in the sandbar regions) of Assam are witness to the slaughter of thousands of Muslims and minorities propelled by xenophobic Assamese nationalism.
Lafiqul Islam Ahmed, a Muslim student leader of Bodoland was shot dead in broad daylight in Kokrajhar, and no justice is delivered till date.
Fourteen-year-old Noor Nehar Khatoon died by suicide after not finding her name in the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list.
The list of physical violence is long.
Muslims are vilified and dehumanised regularly in society. Assam’s population is about 34% Muslims. They are seen as socially unwanted and dangerous to the “indigenous” cultures of Assam. They have never been integrated into Assamese society and the state. Their recent exclusion from state-run Mission Basundhara, which was admitted by the Assam CM on the floor of the assembly to give land to the landless further proves this point. Or take the example of the Miya museum. The very thought of putting Miya cultural artefacts in the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra appeared to be grossly insulting for the caste Assamese society and its politicians.
This shows how much Muslims are accepted in Assamese society. This distance has created a permanent rapture in society where they are seen as “illegal” beings. The NRC legitimises this social desire of people to see them as illegal and punishes them collectively. The state and society both abandoned them long ago, and nothing has stopped them from wounding them regularly.
The skit which shows a policeman punishing the two Muslims speaks volumes. On one hand, one can read it as the police state in Assam being given some attention, but at the same time the singling out of the victim gives room to manufacture the ideal criminal –the Muslim.
It is a sociological fact that crime is present in all societies and all cultures. To single out one community shows the nature of social outlook towards Muslims in Assam today. Census officer C.S. Mullan wrote the 1931 Census report on Assam where he warned that migrant Muslim peasants were going to colonise Assam by occupying or bringing large swathes of land under cultivation. The trail of this document has found its way to the NRC and many such bureaucratic documents and citizenship-related deliberations in post-colonial Assam and is one of the primary sources that began creating anxiety among the Assamese.
But such dehumanisation at the Bodoland University deserves further scrutiny.
The university
Things have been far from what is ideal, secular or liberal ethos that should be part of the idea of university. Gopal Guru argues that universities have normative functions where they “instutitutionalise value laden ideas” and also, houses and hosts those ideas. Guru further notes that an university shares both social and intellectual commitment, along with a culture of dialogue, dissent and discussion. Apoorvanand has rightly argued that Indian universities are like a stagnant pond with an ever-expanding desert. With the mushrooming of private universities, public universities have dried up, and their funding has been further reduced and curtailed. As Swatahsiddha Sarkar points out in an EPW article, higher education in India has been experiencing massification. These shifts raise questions of justice, accessibility, equity and quality.
A university is an institution that plays a critical role in teaching egalitarian values. In India, universities were established to serve the interest of the colonial rulers. Universities exist to produce knowledge but also to teach. A university should draw faculty members from diverse backgrounds, students and people from all communities should be valued, and the idea of co-existence must be promoted.
Bodoland University presents a different picture. Among its 93+ faculty members from various departments, not even a single university teacher is Muslim. Bodoland University runs two hostels, one for boys and another for girls. As per our sources, not even a single Muslim student stays in the boy’s hostel, and only one Muslim student stays in the girl’s hostel. This is a story of a public institution where about 150+ Muslim students study. The lack of representation of Muslims in the form of teachers has made it easy to stereotype the community.
It is imperative to mention that the autonomous council of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) has 40 members, of which 30 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe communities. The governor of Assam nominates an additional six members. Interestingly, there is not even a single Muslim in the council. BTR has about a 20% Muslim population. The politics of exclusion cannot be clearer than this.
From the video, we can see the participation of hundreds of students in the procession. Though everyone was not party to this incident, it happened in front of them. No one was seen stopping them in the video. The presentation also became possible because of the many rehearsals that took place backstage.
Obviously, many witnessed the preparation of the students in question. Maybe some among them were teachers too. The spectacle of the hatred unfolded in broad daylight. Why did no one stop them at any stage? Did everyone think it was normal? Have we entered into that phase of society where the dehumanising of Muslims has become normal not only in societies but in universities of Assam? Is this a case of failure of education? If yes, whose failure is it? Failure of the teachers? The students? The administration? Who takes responsibility for such digressions? If no one apologises for such excess, what does it tell us about our society?
In fact, this is a source of shame for the university. The idea of the university is defeated when it becomes a platform to perform hate and dehumanisation.
A press release dated March 17, 2024, issued by the Bodoland University Student Union (BUSU) spoke about the procession. The letter claims that their intent was solely to “shed light on the prevailing social dynamics without [harming] any particular community.”
“We wish to emphasise that there was no intention to marginalise or disparage any community,” the press release also said.
It is clear that they are refusing to even acknowledge what they have done let alone express regret or apologise to the Muslim community in Bodoland and Assam. The press release is a hogwash and ironically, ends up justifying their procession and the manner of representation.
Bodoland has witnessed several incidents of anti-Muslim and anti-Adivasi violence since 1990s. Most of the victims are yet to receive compensation, resettlement or rehabilitation. Instead, they are termed illegal immigrants and foreigners from Bangladesh by the media and politicians. This is usual when it comes to Assam politics. In fact, many Muslim families could never go back to their homes after facing violence and live permanently in camps.
University spaces have been profoundly politicised in Assam, particularly since All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) entered into the political sphere. Students have often been brought up to hate the “foreigner” and taught to be political in specific ways that involve anti-foreigner sensibilities and aesthetics. Anti-minority sentiments are normalised in university spaces in Assam.
The university should play a significant role in teaching humanitarian, multicultural, democratic and egalitarian values to society. This is not possible unless the university recruits adequate faculty members from different communities, who are representatives of the social groups of Bodoland, especially the Muslims and other subaltern groups. Representation is absolutely central to social justice. Its lack shows the problem.
Nazimuddin Siddique teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. Suraj Gogoi teaches at RV University, Bengaluru.
