Writing Bengali as mother tongue in census will reveal number of ‘foreigners’ in Assam: CM Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that if people write Bengali instead of Assamese as their mother tongue in the census, the government will be able to identify the number of “foreigners” in the state, The Hindu reported.

“Nobody is affected by the threats ahead of every census about listing this or that language,” the chief minister told reporters. “They were made to believe that if more people do not speak Assamese, the language will become extinct. But the Assamese language will remain where it is.”

“Providing false information in the census is an offence,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader warned.

असमिया भाषा हमारी विरासत है, हमारी पहचान है!

भाषा के नाम पर हमें डराने की कोशिश न किया जाए, हम डरने वालों में नहीं हैं। pic.twitter.com/LqVvC9xag5— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 10, 2025

His remark came following a statement by student leader Mainuddin Ali who, during a protest against the state’s eviction drives, urged Bengali-origin Muslims not to list Assamese in census documents.

“We, the Bengali-origin Muslims, clearly state that we will not write Assamese as our mother tongue in this census,” the leader of the All Bodoland Territorial Council Minority Students’ Union had said on Wednesday. “We will remove the Assamese language. The Assamese language as well as the Assamese community will...

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