Ethnicity in South Asia: India and Pakistan: A Comparative Study with Special Reference to Sindh and Assam.

Brass Paul R. . Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison, Sage. New Delhi. 1991.

Alavi Hamza . “Nationhood and the Nationalities in Pakistan.” Economic and Political Weekly, July 8. 1989, p. 1530.

“The exists a very great feeling of, ‘national’ exploitation and ‘national’ suffering in Sindh. The resentment is directed against Punjab, the Punjabi ruling class, the Punjabi settlers in rural Sind, against the Punjabi small and large businessmen in the interior, against the Central Government, which the Sindhi consider to be Punjabis”. Ali Babar , “Sind and Struggle for Liberation”, EPW. March 7, 1987. p. 404.

Ali Farz . “Nationalities and Subnationalities in Sub Continent: A case study of Pakistan”. Inside Pakistan. Patriot. New Delhi. 1986. p. 155.

In 1954. the Sind Assembly overwhelmingly opposed the one-unit West Pakistan merger. Wright Theodore P. JR. “Center Periphery Relations and Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan.” Comparative Politics. April, 1991, p. 302.

The Muhajirs. or the Urdu and Gujrati speaking immigrants from India, are not a monolithic community: Gujratis, Biharis, Khojas. Bohras and UPites are devergent groups. See Ali Asghar Engineer . “Ethnic Conflicts in South Asia”, EPW. March 28. 1987. p. 541.

Wright Theodore P. JR. n. 5. p. 301.

Ibid.

This was the expectation of nationalist politicians like G.M. Syed. See Wright Theodore P. JR. n. 5. p. 303.

Ali Farz . n. 4. p. 156.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Wright Theodore P. JR. n (5). p. 303.

Ali Babar . n (3). p. 402.

The ruling elite of Pakistan from the very begining tried to impose Urdu as the national language though it had no social base of its own except among the Muhajirs. At one point of time (Ayub’s era). Sindhi language was dropped as the medium of instruction. See Kazi Aftab A . Ethnicity and Education in Nation Building: The Case of Pakistan, Lanham: University Press of America. 1987. p. 89. Cited in Wright Theodore P. JR , n (5). p. 302.

In Sindh, the mother tongue of only 52 per cent of the entire population is Sindhi. Urdu is spoken by 22 percent and Punjabi by nearly 8 percent. Among the rural inhabitants of Sindh. 78 percent speaks Sindhi. while in the urban settlements of the province only 18 percent speaks Sindhi. In the urban areas of Sindh, as earlier mentioned. Urdu is spoken by 50 per cent of the population.

This has been admitted by Benazir Bhutto. According to Benazir, “under Bhutto’s government. Sindhis had made great strides, winning government jobs in customs, the police and in the PIA. Quotas were set aside for them in Universities, they were given plots of land earned high wages in newly constructed hospitals, sugar mills and cement factories.” Bhutto Benazir . Daughter of the East. Mandarin. 1989. p. 236.

For MQM’s Charter of Demands. See Wright Theodore P. JR. n (5). p. 305.

Alavi Hamza . n (2), p. 1532.

Ibid .

Far Eastern Economic Review. January. 1994.

Amrita Bazar Patrika. February, 27. 1994.

Ibid .

The Statesman. December 7. 1990.

While the immigration of Muslim community is due to certain facts like oppressive land tenure system in East Pakistan, alleged encouragement by Muslim League Government in the 1930’s and. the Assamese ruling gentry’s requirement for cheap labour the Bengali Hindu immigration started with the invitation of the Ahom Kings to the Ahom Kings to the priestly classes of Bengal, continued with the British policy of inviting Bengali administrative officials and reached an alarming proportion with the partition of the country.

While the presence of Muslim migrants have threatended Assam’s political destiny, the coming of the Bengali Hindus have menaced the Assamese culture and job prospects. Besides there is a wide spread fear that the presence of a large number of Bengalis with an ‘advanced’ language, strong literary traditions and cultural institutions would ultimately overwhelm the Assamese both numerically and culturally.

Pravakar M.S. . “The Mailed Fist”. Frontline. May 12–25. 1990. p. 31.

The Perception and definition of ‘foreigners’ in the context of Assam agitation has been quite flexible and the term has occassionally included ‘outsiders’ (Bahiragata). See. Pravakar M.S. . n (1). p. 31. and The Statesman. Feb. 21. 1989.

Gohain Hiren . “Terrorism and Youth Unrest”, Frontier. 30 March. 1991.

Significantly since thirties, starting from the All Assam Plains Tribes League, down to the PTC A. the ABSU and the BP AC, the leadership of the plains tribals was always provided by the middle class tribal elite. True to their petty bourgeois outlook, they craved for political and adminstrative control, complete monopoly over white collar jobs and competetion free market in trades ajid professions.

The Telegraph. 31 July, 1990.

‘Why separate state’. Memorandum submitted to the President of India. Prime Minister of India, The Home Minister of India. New Delhi, All Bodo Students Union, Kokrajhar. 10.11.87.

In one respect the ABSU-BPAC agitation was similar to the AASU movement in that while a section among the AASU activists formed the ULFA to secure a ‘sovereign Assam’, the extremist among the ABSU formed the Bodo security force and addopted methods of extortion, abduction of tea garden officials and businessmen and carried out killings of innocent citizens, including government servants. There is thus no difference in the technique and operation of the two militant outfits, the ULFA and the BSF. to attain their secessionist objectives.

The Statesman, October 28, 1994.