Assam protests against citizenship bill intensify

Guwahati: The All Assam Students’ Union along with 28 other organisations here on Friday organised a massive protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) bill 2016, demanding the scrapping of the proposed legislation and seeking protection for the indigenous people of the state.

Though the call for the protest, which the participants called a “mass satyagraha”, had been given long back it ended up coinciding with the release of the census data of 2011 that indicated a sharp decline in the population of people speaking Assamese.

The findings of the census survey of languages added fuel to the ongoing protest march that was taken out from Latasil Field here and culminated at Assam Engineering Institute playground. The mass satyagraha movement, which was joined by over 10,000 people, was called to press for the demand to scrap the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border and protection of the indigenous people of Assam under the provisions of the Assam Accord.

The bill is “unconstitutional and unacceptable”, it will put the identity of local people at stake, said AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya.

“The only solution acceptable to us is the revocation of the bill. We urge the Opposition parties to push the government in that direction,” the AASU leader said.

The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, proposes to make illegal migrants of six communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — eligible for Indian citizenship after six years of residence in the country.

A joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on the bill had visited Guwahati and Silchar in May to gather public views. Opinion on the bill, however, appeared divided in Assam, with people in the Barak valley voicing support for it, while those in the Brahmaputra valley opposing the amendment.

Mr Bhattacharjee and AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi, while referring the census report indicating a dip in the number of people speaking Assamese, said that migration has been one of the main reasons for this.

The census report claimed that population of people speaking Assamese has reached an all-time low of 1.26 per cent of the country’s population.

A total of 1,53,11,351 people declared Assamese language as their mother tongue in the 2011 census and the language is ranked 12 among the 22 scheduled languages spoken in India.

According to the 1971 census, Assamese was spoken by 1.63 per cent of the total population of India, in 1981 there was no census in Assam, as per 1991 census, Assamese was spoken by 1.56 per cent, in 2001 it was 1.28 per cent and the latest 2011 census recorded that the language is spoken by only 1.26 per cent of the population, thus, confirming a declining trend since 1971.

A small consolation though is that Assamese language has steadfastly maintained its 12th rank among the scheduled languages spoken in India, since 1971. The Assamese language also marked a marginal decadal growth of 0.68 per cent in 1991-2001.

These were the findings of a census survey of languages released by the Census of India in New Delhi. There are a total of 121 languages and 270 mother tongues in India, while 22 languages are specified in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

A total of 1,48,16,414 people identified Assamese as their mother tongue, apart from  4,94,937 others who claimed that they could converse in it. The total Assamese-speaking population at present is 1,53,11,351.

The Bodo language is spoken by 0.12 per cent of the population and is ranked at 21.

Hindi was the fastest growing language in India at 25.19 per cent, adding close to a 100 million speakers between 2001-2011.

The Bengali-speaking population was calculated at 9,61,77,835, besides 2.28 lakh Chakmas, 71,798 Hajongs, 4.75 lakh Rajbongshis and 2.83 lakh others, who returned Bengali as their mother tongue, taking the total Bengali-speaking population to 9,72,37,669.

Bengali is the second largest language spoken in India and is number two in the overall ranking.

The Bodo language is spoken by 14,54,547 people, followed by Kachari (15,984), Mech (11,546) and 852 others, taking the total of those who identify Bodo as their mother tongue to 14,82,929.

Meanwhile, Bengali (8.03 per cent), Gujarati (4.58 per cent), Manipuri (0.15 per cent) are among growing languages, according to new census data. India’s slowest growing languages over 2001-2011 are Nepali (1.98 per cent), Malayalam (5.36 per cent), Sindhi (9.34 per cent) and Telugu (9.63 per cent).