HVK Archives: Influx of Bangladeshis swells Naga population
Influx of Bangladeshis swells Naga population - Hindustan Times
M.K.Shukla
()
August 22, 1998
Title: Influx of Bangladeshis swells Naga population
Author: M.K.Shukla
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: August 22, 1998
Bangladeshis can be seen everywhere in Nagaland - here, in Mon on
India's border with Myanmar and in Kohima, according to political
and Army sources.
The State Government has apparently welcomed them. So have the
several NG0s, the Naga Hoho (the apex body of all tribes in
Nagaland), and of course the UGs (a popular abbreviated form for
underground insurgent groups).
This has led security forces to follow a hands-off policy. The
only thing they can do in this situation is to inform the Union
Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs. And that is regularly
done.
The demographic statistics reveals the story. Ale Naga population
has recorded a compounded growth rate of 31 per cent in the past
seven years, jumping from 12,09,546 in 1991 to 15,79,000 (as
projected on March 1, 1998). The Nagas may be a highly fecund
race, but this population growth rate is attributed chiefly to
the unimpeded influx of Bangladeshis.
However, the security forces are worried. For them this is
another potential flashpoint that may aggravate problems in the
violence-prone State of Nagaland.
But for the Nagas Bangladeshis are seen as cheap labour, who do
things that the average Naga abhors. It is the same old Assam
story, Bangladeshis or East Bengalis, mostly Muslims, began
arriving at the beginning of the century because the Assamese
landlords welcomed them. It was only later that they realised the
economic political consequences.
In Kohima as elsewhere, one sees '786' (the Muslim sacred number)
displayed on most of the pan shops and even grocery stores.
Considering that Nagaland is a declared land of Christ one
wonders whether the Nagas are converting to Islam. But one close
look at the lungi-clad shopkeeper convinces you that it is one of
the signs of the influx of Bangladeshis.
This has triggered its own dynamics. Sema or Sumi Naga
landlords, for their own convenience, have been adopting
Bangladeshis legally. This has resulted in oddities like
Bangladeshis with names like Fakaruddin Ali Sema son of Vekoto
Sema.
On a recent visit to the Newland subdivision located on
Nagaland's disputed border with Assam, State Governor, General 0.
P. Sharma, expressed surprise over the fact that people whose
features did not resemble Nagas had names like Sumi or Sema.
There is a new Naga tribe now, called Sumiyas, an acronym created
by mixing Sumi with Miya (the latter is a popular term for
Bangladeshi Muslims). 'They are born out of perfectly legitimate
marriages between Sema or Sumi women and Bangladeshis men.
"Nagas are Nagas by birth, and not by adoption," said an early
90s slogan of the influential Naga Students Federation (NSF). A
movement was launched for detecting and deporting foreigners.
But it collapsed as quickly as it was mounted. Guns of the UG,
smuggled through the Bangladesh route silenced this call for
racial purity.
Bangladeshis also constitute a reliable vote bank. A well-known
Sema politician who died some time ago had distributed thousands
of cyclostyled identity papers to Bangladeshis in Chumukedima
area, south of Dimapur.
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