Pakistan Movement and Communalization of Peasants in Colonial Assam

Abstract

One of the most important areas of study on colonial Assam has been the coming and settlement of peasants from districts of eastern Bengal. This immigration of peasant population in Assam and their expansion into the districts of Brahmaputra valley has had its effects on political mobilization in colonial Assam. Though these peasants were initially welcomed into Assam by the Assamese elites, they were subsequently viewed with immense suspicion and hostility. Over time these immigrants began to play a crucial role in Assam with the onset of communal politics. While the initial years of the twentieth century led to a lot of debates on the nature and status of these Bengali immigrants in Assam, the decade of the 30s was a turning point in the history of immigrant peasant centric politics in Assam with the arrival of Muslim League in Assam who openly championed the cause of the peasants while the colonial state and the local Assamese elite were clearly hostile to them. The introduction of representative politics and the birth of the Pakistan movement were two political developments that made these peasants an invaluable resource for the Muslim League in the expansion of their political base in Assam. This was also a phase which witnessed the communalization of peasant consciousness in Assam with the active mobilization of the peasants by the ulama on behalf of the Muslim League. Despite an array of scholars producing their works on peasant movements and communal politics in this peripheral colonial province, few have integrated the two by relating peasant mobilization to the Pakistan movement. This paper seeks to interrogate the communalization of peasant movement in colonial Assam and locate it within the play of communal politics in Assam and Muslim mobilization of the Pakistan Movement.