The cabinet of the Indian state of Assam gave a go-ahead to the socio-economic survey of the indigenous Muslim population in the state.
The cabinet took the decision a year and a half after five communities were recognised by the government of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as “indigenous Assamese Muslims”.
The “indigenous” Muslims’ socio-economic assessment will be carried out by the Directorate of Char Areas Development, which has been renamed as Directorate of Minority Affairs and Char Areas, stated a cabinet note.
As per the 2011 Census, more than 34 per cent of the state’s population comprised of Muslims, which was the third highest among all Union Territories and states after J&K and Lakshadweep. Among the total population of the state of 31 million, more than 10 million are Muslims.
However, only around 4 million are Assamese-speaking native Muslims and the rest are Bengali-speaking immigrants, who have origin.
The government led by Himanta had announced plans for carrying out indigenous Muslim communities’ socio-economic assessment in the month of October.
“These findings will guide the government to take suitable measures aimed at the comprehensive socio-political and educational upliftment (sic) of the state’s indigenous minorities,” stated CM Himanta in a post on X.
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Classification – a long-standing demand of Muslim communities
The Goria, Moria, Jolah (which include those living in tea gardens), and Desi and Syed (which are only Assamese-speaking) communities have been categorised as native Assamese Muslims by the state government in July last year. The Assamese Muslims do not have any history of migrating from erstwhile East Pakistan which is now Bangladesh.
The government took the decision of identifying five sub-groups as indigenous on the basis of recommendations of seven sub-committees which were earlier formed by the state government.
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Such classification has remained a long-standing demand of these communities which have complained about being sidelined and marginalised by Bengali-speaking Muslims. They have said that they never got any benefits even though they are original inhabitants of Assam.
Between the 13th and the 17th centuries, the people of these communities. The mother tongue of people of these communities is Assamese, unlike the Bengali-speaking migrants and they have similar cultural practices and traditions to the native Hindus.
(With inputs from agencies)
Source: Thanks WIONews.com