On Assam... And Immigration

Assam lies bang in the middle of the 7 land-locked states of north-east India – and all is not well there. Many bombs went off some days ago, and this has been happening since the mid-70s, when the All Assam Students’ Union took up as their central objective that of deporting “illegal” Bangladeshis. This, of course, is to be accomplished by The State. It is not a liberating idea. It is State Coercion on peaceful people. It is a search for a political license to tyrannize some members of civil society in the belief that such action is for the “greater good.” Is it?

Actually, Bangladesh is the North-East’s closest access to the sea. A free trading and self-governing north-east should ideally be based on free trade and immigration with Bangladesh, its friendly neighbour – through treaties of the EU kind. The north-east will benefit hugely from easily accessible deep-sea ports. They are dependent on Calcutta today – a small, riverine port.

And as for the immigration, here is a report from Mint today, that talks of how this non-issue is still the central point in the upcoming elections to send a dozen bozos to land-locked Delhi!

And don’t forget Chacha Manmohan is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam.

In British India, Assam, Bangladesh and West Bengal were one.

The British took over Assam and the north-east very late in their reign. It was not until the 1850s that Assam got the benefits of British rule – railways, tea, towns and cities, Bengali and Bihari immigrants, and education in the English language. My great-grandfather, a doctor, migrated to Upper Assam (Dibrugarh) then, from Khulna in present-day Bangladesh.

The report in Mint reveals the true nature of this non-problem:

Assam, which has 14 Lok Sabha seats, shares a 270km border with Bangladesh. The terrain is such that it cannot be easily fenced or patrolled [being mainly riverine]. People from Bangladesh sneak in through Dhuburi district bordering West Bengal, or through Meghalaya or the Barak valley, and then work their way up the banks of the Brahmaputra to the upper Assam districts, locals say.

“They settle along the banks of the Brahmaputra, on remote riverine islands and other forsaken places,” says Moushumi Borgohain, a professor and the head of the department of economics at DCB College. “The men pull rickshaws or become labourers while the women work as maids.”

It is interesting that the BJP manifesto talks of “fencing” this border. And the report talks of a “silent invasion”: but these are peaceful, hard-working labourers, not soldiers who have “invaded” our territory.

A fenced border is precisely like that of the US with Mexico.

I advocate the obliteration of all artificial borders.

It is because of the deep imprint in their minds of the artificial geographical borders of the Indian nation-state that Assamese students fail to see that their economic future lies in the direction of Bangladesh and the sea, and not land-locked Delhi, 2500 miles away, with its Kamal Nutt international trade policies. That too, with just 14 MPs from diverse parties, many of them reported to be big crooks. And there is Chacha Manmohan, of course.

It is this statist politics that is the bane of Assam and the North-East. Evicting people is strong State action. This is now the central focus of Assam “politics.” But is this “civil politics”? Note that there is no “market politics” in Assam – that talks of the morality of peaceful trade and the huge gains to be made from free trade and free markets. Assam, like many of the other states in the region, is engulfed by a violent “politics.” Evicting human beings is more of this violence. It is unjust. And it is a politics of chauvinism, not cosmopolitanism. There is a “collective identity” that is being sought: an Assam of and for the Assamese alone. What a poverty-stricken vision!

In a market order, a bazaaroo hukumat, every Individual who earns his keep in The Market is deemed honest and legitimate, worthy of the protection of the local Civil Government. Bangladeshi rickshaw-wallahs, labourers and maids are therefore people who are possessed of valid claims to the protection of the local civilian authority.

As far as the “forsaken lands” they take over, these are technically “unowned” lands. They have “mixed their labour with the original soil” and so deserve marketable property titles to their legitimate Properties. This is the Principle of Homesteading, by which unowned lands are occupied by human settlers, under the protection of a local Civil Government, and thereby under The Law.

Immigration is a global issue – and I am firmly on the side of free international mobility for all, especially the poor.

India, with a growing diaspora worldwide, should champion free immigration and practice it too.

The Mughal Emperor called himself Jehanpanah, or “Refuge of the World.” This is logical to any sane government because the new settler is also a new taxpayer. Allowing Bangladeshis, Nepalis, Afghanis, Burmese and other foreigners into India will only benefit India. An open attitude is essential for a region’s success in the globalized market economy of today.

Frankly, I think it is horrifying that educated people who call themselves “students” should desire to use physical force and violence on rickshaw-wallahs, labourers and maids. This is linked to the Advani vision.

And there is the other way.

Peace. Liberty. Prosperity. Cosmopolitanism.

Great Cities that thrive on diversity.

Openness to the entire world.

The idea that nothing can be accomplished by violence, and peaceful trade is the Only Way for the whole of mankind.

This is the culture of Goa.

Question: Does the “hati” in Guwahati mean “market”?