New Delhi: Assam chief minister Hemant Biswa Sarma on Saturday (March 23) said that Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants from Bangladesh “should stop having more than two children” and practice monogamy if they want to be recognised as indigenous to the state.
While questioning how the Bengali-speaking Muslims could claim to be indigenous if they encroached on ‘satras’ (Vaishnavite monasteries) land, Sarma said, “If they want to become indigenous, they cannot marry off their minor daughters.”
“Instead of sending your children to madrassas, educate them to become doctors and engineers if you want to be called indigenous,” Sarma said, adding, they should also start sending their daughters to schools and give them the right over their fathers’ properties, the Times of India reported.
“These are the differences between them and the indigenous people of the state. If they can give up these practices and imbibe the culture of Assamese people, at some point of time they too can become indigenous,” Sarma said.
Assam’s Muslim population, second largest in the country after Jammu and Kashmir, comes from two ethnicities – Bengali-speaking and Bangladesh-origin migrant Muslims and Assamese-speaking indigenous Muslims.
According to the 2011 census, Muslims account for over 34% of Assam’s total population, with the majority (63%) being Bengali-speaking.
In 2022, around 40 lakh Assamese-speaking Muslims were recognised as “indigenous Assamese Muslims” and a sub-group of the greater native Assamese community.
The cabinet-approved ‘indigenous’ Assamese Muslims, who do not have any history of migration from Bangladesh, comprise five groups – Goria, Moria, Jolah (only the ones living in tea gardens), Desi and Syed (only the Assamese-speaking).
