Bordumsa( Tinsukia): In the pre-dawn haze of Tuesday, a Night Super bus, license plate AS 01 FC 6427, rolled into Bordumsa, Tinsukia district, carrying roughly 50 Bengali-speaking Muslims, branded as Miya in Assam’s fraught socio-political discourse.
Local organizations, ever watchful, intercepted the vehicle at the Arunachal Pradesh border, suspecting the passengers were among those recently uprooted from Morigaon and Nagaon districts during Assam’s aggressive eviction drives.
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Stopped cold near the Burhidihing Reserve Forest at Brahmajan, the group, reportedly led by Babar from Morigaon and Nagar from Arunachal Pradesh, ignited a firestorm of suspicion and unrest.
The term Miya, long a slur for Bengali-speaking Muslims, now carries a fresh, biting metaphor in Upper Assam: “Lungi-Dadhi-Topi.”
This caricature, evoking traditional attire, beards( without moustache), and caps( wooven ; white , round in shape), has become a rallying cry for some and a dehumanizing trope for others, amplifying tensions in indigenous strongholds like Bordumsa and Pengeri.
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Locals, wary of demographic shifts, fear these passengers were headed to a brick kiln in Arunachal Pradesh, yet the group’s vague accounts of their employer or destination stoked suspicions of illegal settlement. The All Tai Ahom Students’ Union (ATASU) and other groups demanded immediate document checks, reflecting a broader anxiety over land and identity.
Assam’s eviction campaigns, championed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, have reclaimed over 11,500 bighas of land, displacing thousands, predominantly Bengali-speaking Muslims accused of encroaching on forest reserves.
The Bordumsa standoff mirrors this crackdown, with locals invoking the “Miya Kheda Andolan” to justify their vigilance. Critics like MLA Akhil Gogoi decry the government’s approach, warning of communal polarization reminiscent of Gujarat’s 2002 riots.
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The stranded passengers, caught in a bureaucratic quagmire, embody a deeper crisis Assam’s wrestle with belonging, where land disputes and cultural fears collide.
As the administration scrambles to verify documents, the Lungi-Dadhi-Topi metaphor fuels a dangerous narrative, reducing a community to stereotypes while inflaming indigenous anxieties.
In the shadow of Burhidihing’s trees, these 50 souls, uncertain of their next step, highlight a state at a crossroads where rhetoric risks lives, and resolution remains elusive.