Assam, where 14 people were recently killed by terrorists belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, is in many ways different from other states as people from across the country, especially Bihar, Bengal and UP, had been coming to work in primary and service sectors and not secondary sector as is the general trend.
Be it Bengali-speaking population from neighborhood or Adivasis and other backward castes from the Chotanagpur plateau (then Bihar and now Jharkhand) or people from other parts of India, all went to Assam––and even Seven Sisters––to work in plantation and agricultural land. Later a large number of migrants from other parts of India went as transporters, businessmen and even teachers and government employees. Many others work in security forces and army. As the entire North-East is virtually devoid of any big industrial activity, except oil refinery, there is little scope to attract industrial workers in this pocket of the country.
It is only recently that people of north-eastern states have started migrating to work in far-off places, even in deep south. Earlier, the outflow was very negligible.
True, Punjab and Haryana also woo agricultural labourers, but most of them are seasonal migrants from Bihar and east UP.
Besides, Punjab and Haryana have medium and small industries too which allure workers from far off places. For example, Ludhiana has a huge presence of seasonal migrant labours from Bihar who work in woolen garments and hosiery units.
In spite of economic disadvantages Assam and other norht-eastern states had till lately been favourite destinations for people from East Bengal, even after it became East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh. People from Nepal also went to work, especially in Meghalaya.
It was the British, who firtst brought lakhs of Adivasis from restive Chotanagpur region in different phases in the second half of 19th centruy. `They wanted to hit several birds with one stone––crush the rebellious tribes, many of them Santhals and use them as indentured labourers in labour-intensive plantation work of Assam. At the same time they pitched Adivasis against original population.
Incidentally, these Adivasis do not enjoy the Scheduled Tribes status in Assam as they did in rest of east and central India from where they were taken and forcibly settled there.
So unlike in Punjab and Haryana where farm and industial labourers go to work on their own, in Assam force played an important role. The Adivasi-Bodo conflict turned quite bloodier in mid-1990s when a large number of tribals were massacred. What is strange is that they are being targeted even though they left their homes in Chotanagpur 150 years back.
But unlike Adivasis, a large number of people from the then East Bengal––later East Pakistan and now Bangldesh––settled in the plains of Assam to do farming. This was so even when Assam is a flood-prone state and did not witness any Punjab-Haryana-West UP type Green Revolution.
The creation of East Pakistan dealt a crippling blow to entire North East as the region became landlocked after the ports of Dhaka and Chittagong went over to become a part of the new country. Calcutta too became a far-away port city. The economic activities further shrank. Yet it did not check the inflow of migrants into North-East.
Though Assam is famous for tea gardens, most of the tea industries are located in Bengal. So with hardly any industrial activity and diminishing scope in primary sector––especially after the mechanization of farming and plantation––this far-flung region of North-East is bound to remain restive––unless something special is done for it.
As these states have been virtually encircled by China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar cross-border movement is also a problem as most of the borders are porous.
Though almost entire north-easten states got special category status they failed to attract investment in industrial sector as hilly states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which are much closer to the national capital, New Delhi. These two north Indian states have no history of political turmoil as North-East. Besides, they are not multi-ethnic and multi-religious as North-East.
