Bengali Language Movement of Barak Valley: History of Assam
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The Bengali Language Movement in Barak Valley of Assam was a protest against Assam Govt.’s decision to make Assamese as the only official language of the whole state, even though almost 27% of the state’s populations are Bengali-speaking. Particularly in Barak Valley, Bengali is largely spoken by the natives and use of Assamese is negligible. The main incident of the protest movement took place on 19 May 1961 at Silchar railway station, in which 11 people were killed in police firing.
The Root Cause
In April, 1960, a proposal to declare Assamese as the one and only official language of the state led to high tension in the Brahmaputra Valley. The violent situation resulted an estimated 50,000 Bengalis leaving the Brahmaputra Valley for settling in West Bengal and around 90,000 fled to Barak Valley and other regions. Accorning to the Justice Gopal Mehrotra enquiry commission report, 4,019 huts and 58 houses belonging to Bengalis were vandalized and destroyed in 25 villages of Goreswar in Kamrup district only. Nine Bengalis were also killed.
On 10 October 1960, Bimala Prasad Chaliha, the then Chief Minister of Assam presented the bill to make Assamese as the sole official language of the state. Ranendra Mohan Das, a legislator belonging to an ethnic Bengali community, protested against the bill on the ground that it sought to impose the language of a third of the population over the rest two thirds. On 24 October, 1960, the bill was passed in the Assam legislative assembly thereby making Assamese as the one and only official language of the state.
Building of the Protest
The Cachar Gana Sangram Parishad was formed to agitate against the imposition of Assamese in the Bengali speaking population. On 14 April, 1961, the people of Silchar, Karimganj and Hailakandi observed a Sankalpa Divas in protest against the injustice of the Assamese government. On 24 April, 1961, the Parishad flagged off a fortnight long padayatra in the Barak Valley to raise awareness among the masses.
The Cachar Gana Sangram Parishad declared that if Bengali was not accorded the status of official language by 13 April 1961, a complete hartal would be observed on 19 May from dawn to dusk. The Parishad also called for due recognition of the languages of other linguistic minorities.
On 12 May 1961, the soldiers of various paramilitary forces staged flag march in Silchar. On 18 May, the Assam police arrested three prominent leaders of the movement, namely Nalinikanta Das, Rathindranath Sen and Bidhubhushan Chowdhury, the editor of weekly Yugashakti.
The Main Protest Incident on 19 May 1961
On 19 May, the dawn to dusk hartal started and the agitators picketed in front of government offices, courts. In Silchar, the agitators picketed in the railway station. The last train from Silchar was around 4 PM, after which the hartal would be effectively dissolved. The morning passed off peacefully without any untoward incident. However, in the afternoon, the Assam Rifles arrived at the railway station.
At around 2-30 PM, a truck carrying nine arrested Satyagrahis from Katigorah was passing by the Silchar railway station, seeing the fellow activists arrested, the Satyagrahis assembled at the railway tracks and broke out in loud protests. And afterward an unidentified person set fire to the truck. The paramilitary forces, guarding the railway station, started beating the protesters with rifle butts and batons without any provocation from them. Then they fired into the crowd and Nine people died of the firing. On 20 May, the people of Silchar took out a procession with the bodies of the martyrs in protest of the killings. Two more protester persons died later.
Aftereffect of the Incident
The Assam government had to withdraw the circular and Bengali was ultimately given official status in the three districts of Barak Valley. Section 5 of Assam Act XVIII, 1961, safeguards the use of Bengali in the Cachar district. It says, “Without prejudice to the provisions contained in Section 3, the Bengali language shall be used for administrative and other official purposes up to and including district level.
On November 30, 2013, Assam government had issued a circular asking the deputy commissioners of all districts of the state to ensure use of Assamese as official language, which generated a lot of protests in the three Barak Valley districts. Section 5 of the Assam Official Language Act 1960, amended in 1967, had specified Bengali as the official language. Afterward the state government issued a fresh circular on September 9, 2013 mentioning the official language (Bengali) of Barak Valley will continue to be used for all official works.
Eleven persons who were martyred in 1961.
- Kanailal Niyogi
- Chandicharan Sutradhar
- Hitesh Biswas
- Satyendra Deb
- Kumud Ranjan Das
- Sunil Sarkar
- Tarani Debnath
- Sachindra Chandra Pal
- Birendra Sutradhar
- Sukamal Purakayastha
- Kamala Bhattacharya
- This massacre incident of Police firing on unarmed satyagrahi is compared with the massacre in Jalianwalabag of 1919.
- Every year on 19 May is celebrated as Bhasha Shahid Divas to commemorate those 11 martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their native Bengali language.
