How can Indian democracy allow the open oppression of Bengali-origin Muslims by Assam?

On September 12, Assam Police shot 19-year-old Haidar Ali dead in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district because they claimed he had been demonstrating against an eviction drive. His family contended that Ali had no reason to protest the operation to drive away residents whose homes had been demolished because the authorities alleged were unauthorised: their home was not among those affected by the action. On Wednesday, nonetheless, the Assam government’s bulldozers returned to destroy the family’s home.

The demolitions and shootings of Ali and another teenager in Kachutali village highlight the cruelty that characterises how the Assamese state treats its Bengali-origin Muslim residents.

As my colleague Rokibuzz Zaman has reported, when the authorities demolished Muslim homes on September 9, three days before the two men was killed, there was no resistance. However, the authorities soon went back to the village, angered that the evicted families had left their possessions with their neighbours or on vacated land. Not only did the government want to demolish their homes, it wanted to banish these working-class people from the area.

This second action resulted in resistance from residents. The police opened fire, to deadly effect.

Outsider status

By now, such viciousness has become a regular feature in Assam. Government authorities move frequently to evict Bengali-origin Muslims...

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