Truths behind the migration of Miya Muslim in Assam

Bangladesh and Bangladeshi are words which became the hotbed for every politician in North East Indian State Assam in the Early 80’s. Bangladesh is a small country which officially known as ” People’s Republic of Bangladesh”. It gets independent on 26 March 1971. I have to travel on the time machine to see the geographical location of present Bangladesh as this location was an integral part of India till 1947 before the partition(India). Present days, West Bengal (Indian state), Whole Bangladesh (except Chittagong hill), part of Assam (undivided Sylhet, Goalpara) , a part of Nepal, and a part of Bhutan were called Bengal. According to The Decisive Battles of India by George Bruce Malleson(1883) says that 25000 supporters of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah had migrated for their lives risk to undivided Goalapara district(Pre partition boundary) in the Ahom-Kamata Kingdom in 1757. On request of the Ahom king Gourinath Singh, British officer Captain Thomas Wales brought 550 well trained Bengali soldiers to re-capture Ahom kingdom which was captured by Mowamarias in 1792. After re-capture the Ahom capital in the same year, a few had left to Kolkata along with Thomas Wales. According to the book ” Medieval and Early Colonial Assam” by Amalendu Guha, there was a truce (MOU) had been signed between Gourinath Singh and Captain Thomas Wales via which British subjects could settle Ahom kingdom in regained Kamata part (undivided Goalpara district). The time is going on and British had captured Whole Ahom kingdom by defeating Burmese soldiers and the truce was signed in Treaty of Yandabo (1826).
After Treaty of Yandabo, the Zamindars (landlord) of Goalpara (which was previously captured by British 1816) had started bringing people from undivided Bengal province of British India to work on their cultivating firms. An official Farman (decree) was published by Bengal province ruler by ordering poor people to migrate to another part of the same province(Assam) in 1853. According to the ” The New Regime” by AC Bannerjee, Zamindars of Goalpara region had brought approx 500000 people from Bengal province. It is mentioned that Kamata was an administrative unit for the first time in the 17th century when it was called Sarkar Dhekuri under the Bengal Subah of the Mughals. After the transfer of the Bengal Diwani to the East India Company, the Goalpara region, minus the Assam Dooars, then under Bhutan, came to be called Rangamatty, and after 1816, “Northeast Rangpur”. When the British constituted this as a district in 1833 it came to be known after its headquarters which was in Goalpara town. A portion of the Assam Dooars areas was added to Goalpara district after the Bhutan war of 1865. After the Sepoy revolt(1857), A large number of well-educated people had been brought to Assam to support British in official works. Due to the water transportation shortcut path, A group middle class people from Bengal province had come to Assam for business purpose and they had permanently settled in Assam.
The colonial British administrators suggested to the British government of the alluvial flat wasteland of Assam through the settlement of the cultivators of Bengal province in different times, so that these Bengali cultivators could raise the raw jute for export to England to feed Use jute mills set up there in 1829. In 1835 Francis Jenkins submitted a colonization scheme in the vast land of Assam to the government. The purpose of The scheme was to raise the agricultural produce for export and thus increase revenue for the government. Again in 1874 and 1881, the Commissioner of Assam suggested a settlement of Bengali people in the good flat alluvial soil of Assam. At first, the proposal was declined but Sir Henry J. Cotton, the Commissioner of Assam put forwards a scheme in 1896 for jute cultivation in the wasteland of Assam by settling the of Bengali cultivators.
The great earthquake in Bengal (1897) created a crisis among people and wealthless people accepted the government’s proposals and came to Assam. The total number is not recognized by officially but historians doubt, it may be 10000000 (1 million). The commissioner of Mymensingh A.J. Moffatt Mills had ordered the landless people to cultivate wasteland in Assam under the ‘Colonisation Scheme’in 1906 after the Bengal divided. The bringing people from Bengal province was continuing till 1942 under the leadership of Sir Sayed Sadullah via “grow more food scheme”. The report was not supported by data but C.S. Mullan, the Superintendent of Census(Assam) had mentioned in his report that approx 2 M people were brought to Assam from other provinces in 1931. However, the migration is not stopped till 1971 but the margin is not large. Gopinath Bordoloi had brought a bill Tribal Belt (1948) via which directed that the newly migrated people cannot buy land or any properties in TB selected areas.