24th november, 2007 will go down in the history of Assam as the black saturday.. Because something happened in the heart of Guwahati city which was unprecedented in its scale and nature.
A rally of Adivasi people from different parts of the state, was passing through the busy Beltola Road and coming towards the state Secretariat. In the recent past Guwahati has seen lots of such rallys and lots of protests. But never in the past protesters clashed with the local populace. Some of the protesters ran amock and started pelting stones to the nearby shops, vandalising them and destroying the vehicles they could find on the road. As if this was not enough... some of them entered nearby residences and started damaging the properties, roughing up passer bys, misbehaved with women and even beat up a few childs..
The protesters numbered 3000 roughly.. Among them were women, children and old. Many of the youths present there were armed with bows and arrows and other weapons. Many of the protesters were unaware that a part of their fellow protesterss are resorting to hooliganism.. and the destruction of property was of such a scale.. When the rally reached the capital complex, they were chased away by the police using tear gas shells.. and the protesters started fleeing in the opposite direction.. The police might have been already pissed off by the rally, since there was no official permission for organizing such a rally.. secondly, few protesters roughed up a few police persons and two magistrates who prevented them to form a rally.
Already, the people of the effected area.. mostly many shop keepers, residents of some locality and even passer-bys thought thay had enough of it and started attacking the protesters.. Soon the area turned into a battle field.. Since the rally got scattered and some of the protesters got lost in many by lanes.. they were bitten up mercilessly.. As far as official report goes.. nearly 250 persons were injured and one died. Most horrifying incident of the day was, few of the angry attackers outraged the modesty of an Adivasi woman.. She was stripped naked and bitten up brutally.. Another report says one woman was raped..
Now.. whatever had happenned that day were unlike us - the Assamese. I have already mentioned that Guwahati has seen so much of rally and protests .. and of much bigger scale. But never in the past.. (ohh yes.. one incident I remember.. that too involved the Adivasis) the protesters fought with the locals and never in the past, there was any reason for the usually mild guwahatians to react so strongly.. And misbehaving with women protesters.. I know.. millions of Assamese people are still in the denial state.. just because they cannot imagine that some of us can go to such a low position.. We always take pride in giving respect to women.. Now what a disgrace.. shame..
Coming to the issues regarding Adivasis.. They want the status of scheduled tribe. The truth is.. they are not a single tribe and in many places they still observe their differences. Originally they were brought (from Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh etc..) by the British to work in the tea plantations and right now they as a whole form a sizeable population of the state. Among the Adivasis of lower Assam, there are even recent migrants from other parts of India, mostly from north-Bengal. As far as assimilation with the local polulation goes, all those who came to Assam some 150 yrs ago.. are mostly considered to be Assamese by other Assamese.. (That makes me wonder .. what these Jharkhand politicians are doing here.. !!) In many of the states from where they came.. some of the tribes comprising the Adivasis are considered to be ST and some tribes as OBC's.. So on technical ground, there may be some difficulty in giving them ST status as a whole.. and that is exactly what I can see from RGI comment on the issue.
But most of their grievances are genuine and they have a right to demand better amenities. But in a disciplined way, just in case they decide to form a rally again. Because I feel, these simple folks have a very weak leadership.. And they are (leaders) mostly responsible.. along with the Government of Assam (who could not grasp the gravity of the situation in time and did not provide enough security personal to prevent any untoward incident) for whatever had happened there. And to the local people who attacked the protesters, I say that to show somebody is wrong, one need not stoop lower than him/her.. Learn from your "human" neighbours.. and next time you sip a cup of tea.. think about the "innocents" you had beaten up..
Now national level media is projecting the issue as an attack on the Adivasis.. and mostly ignoring the part of financial damage caused to the local people. Some are selling the news of the Adivasi woman in a manner to invite more trouble.. And in fact I consider publishing her photograph on the font page, running naked on the street is another attack on her modesty.. Shame on the pack of wolves who attacked her, shame on the media who took advantage of this incident for publicity, shame on the people-reporters who thought it more important to capture her running image or video in their mobiles and cameras instead of offering her a piece of cloth.. (Finally an elderly gentleman offered her his shirt and she was rescued by other locals. Strangely, the news that so many locals gave shelter to the injured protesters in their homes, nursing them and sometimes hiding them from groups looking for them was not considered worth reporting by any national news papers.. at least I have not seen one.)
A rally of Adivasi people from different parts of the state, was passing through the busy Beltola Road and coming towards the state Secretariat. In the recent past Guwahati has seen lots of such rallys and lots of protests. But never in the past protesters clashed with the local populace. Some of the protesters ran amock and started pelting stones to the nearby shops, vandalising them and destroying the vehicles they could find on the road. As if this was not enough... some of them entered nearby residences and started damaging the properties, roughing up passer bys, misbehaved with women and even beat up a few childs..
The protesters numbered 3000 roughly.. Among them were women, children and old. Many of the youths present there were armed with bows and arrows and other weapons. Many of the protesters were unaware that a part of their fellow protesterss are resorting to hooliganism.. and the destruction of property was of such a scale.. When the rally reached the capital complex, they were chased away by the police using tear gas shells.. and the protesters started fleeing in the opposite direction.. The police might have been already pissed off by the rally, since there was no official permission for organizing such a rally.. secondly, few protesters roughed up a few police persons and two magistrates who prevented them to form a rally.
Already, the people of the effected area.. mostly many shop keepers, residents of some locality and even passer-bys thought thay had enough of it and started attacking the protesters.. Soon the area turned into a battle field.. Since the rally got scattered and some of the protesters got lost in many by lanes.. they were bitten up mercilessly.. As far as official report goes.. nearly 250 persons were injured and one died. Most horrifying incident of the day was, few of the angry attackers outraged the modesty of an Adivasi woman.. She was stripped naked and bitten up brutally.. Another report says one woman was raped..
Now.. whatever had happenned that day were unlike us - the Assamese. I have already mentioned that Guwahati has seen so much of rally and protests .. and of much bigger scale. But never in the past.. (ohh yes.. one incident I remember.. that too involved the Adivasis) the protesters fought with the locals and never in the past, there was any reason for the usually mild guwahatians to react so strongly.. And misbehaving with women protesters.. I know.. millions of Assamese people are still in the denial state.. just because they cannot imagine that some of us can go to such a low position.. We always take pride in giving respect to women.. Now what a disgrace.. shame..
Coming to the issues regarding Adivasis.. They want the status of scheduled tribe. The truth is.. they are not a single tribe and in many places they still observe their differences. Originally they were brought (from Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh etc..) by the British to work in the tea plantations and right now they as a whole form a sizeable population of the state. Among the Adivasis of lower Assam, there are even recent migrants from other parts of India, mostly from north-Bengal. As far as assimilation with the local polulation goes, all those who came to Assam some 150 yrs ago.. are mostly considered to be Assamese by other Assamese.. (That makes me wonder .. what these Jharkhand politicians are doing here.. !!) In many of the states from where they came.. some of the tribes comprising the Adivasis are considered to be ST and some tribes as OBC's.. So on technical ground, there may be some difficulty in giving them ST status as a whole.. and that is exactly what I can see from RGI comment on the issue.
But most of their grievances are genuine and they have a right to demand better amenities. But in a disciplined way, just in case they decide to form a rally again. Because I feel, these simple folks have a very weak leadership.. And they are (leaders) mostly responsible.. along with the Government of Assam (who could not grasp the gravity of the situation in time and did not provide enough security personal to prevent any untoward incident) for whatever had happened there. And to the local people who attacked the protesters, I say that to show somebody is wrong, one need not stoop lower than him/her.. Learn from your "human" neighbours.. and next time you sip a cup of tea.. think about the "innocents" you had beaten up..
Now national level media is projecting the issue as an attack on the Adivasis.. and mostly ignoring the part of financial damage caused to the local people. Some are selling the news of the Adivasi woman in a manner to invite more trouble.. And in fact I consider publishing her photograph on the font page, running naked on the street is another attack on her modesty.. Shame on the pack of wolves who attacked her, shame on the media who took advantage of this incident for publicity, shame on the people-reporters who thought it more important to capture her running image or video in their mobiles and cameras instead of offering her a piece of cloth.. (Finally an elderly gentleman offered her his shirt and she was rescued by other locals. Strangely, the news that so many locals gave shelter to the injured protesters in their homes, nursing them and sometimes hiding them from groups looking for them was not considered worth reporting by any national news papers.. at least I have not seen one.)
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