How A 42-Year-Old Massacre Is Returning To Roil The Politics Of Assam

More than 42 years after the infamous Nellie massacre that happened in Assam in 1983, the state government on November 25 finally made copies of the Tiwari commission report on the incident available to legislators and the media. An unofficial report on the same incident, the Justice Mehta Commission report, was also simultaneously made public.

A statement made by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and subsequent media coverage of these reports in the local press indicate that the focus of the discussion will be on demographic changes in Assam rather than on the massacre itself.

The Nellie massacre remains one of the most tragic in the history of post-Independence India. Japanese scholar Makiko Kimura, in her book Nellie Massacre 1983: Agency of Rioters cites a Times of India report that describes the Nellie massacre as the most gruesome since Partition. The incident occurred in Nellie, a rural area beside the river Kopili, in the current day Morigaon district of Assam, on 18 February 1983. On that day, officially 1819 individuals, mostly from the Miya (euphemism for Bengali-origin) Muslim community, were killed. Till today, no perpetrator has been arrested or brought to justice for the killings of all those men, women and children. This report being tabled in the Vidhan Sabha is unlikely to lead to any pursuit of justice for the victims.

Despite the legal insignificance of this report, it represents an important moment in Assam’s history. This massacre has always been associated with the Assam movement (1979-85), albeit indirectly. Kimura mentions that ‘The incident was not directly controlled by the top student leaders (of the movement), but it was an important outcome of the movement’. Therefore, it can be speculated that the Tiwari commission report will not only define the narrative on this massacre, but also, lead to a revaluation of the movement, the circumstances that led to the movement, and its aftermath.

Interestingly, perceptions on Assam’s history, politics and social issues have often been shaped by various government reports. The perception of Assam as a region facing demographic change due to immigration, both legal and illegal, has been ‘constructed’ by citing various government reports. The 1931 census report authored by C.S. Mullan, which first raised the issue, is one such document. Not only is it unabatedly used to indicate demographic change in Assam in multiple academic enquiries, it also directly influenced the 1998 report on infiltration and demographic change in the state by S.K. Sinha, the then governor of Assam.

Subsequently, this report would then go on to significantly influence the judgment in the Sarbananda Sonowal vs. Union of India (2005) case, which would declare the Immigrant Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act to be ultra-vires to the constitution, while simultaneously legitimizing the Foreigners Act (1946) and Foreigners Tribunals (FT) in Assam. The judgment in this case would become a landmark, and has till date been cited 123 times in cases pertaining to citizenship and Assam.

All these reports buttressed the narrative of Assam as a region whose ‘indigenous’ residents have been the victims of land-hungry Muslim peasants from East Bengal (current day Bangladesh). The paranoia incited by the ‘master-narrative’ created by the aforementioned government reports has ‘normalised’ the recent pseudo-legal practices such as the pushing out of individuals declared to be foreigners by the FTs into Bangladesh.

Even beyond the question of formal citizenship, Miya Muslims in Assam face constant political and social alienation. This fundamentally affects their substantive rights pertaining to land ownership, mobility, the right to preserve or articulate their culture etc. Therefore, it becomes significant to understand how the Tiwari commission report will contribute to the dominant political narrative in Assam.

Bare citizens: Bengal-origin Muslims in Assam

The tone for this discussion was set by the Chief Minister himself, who before the publication of the report stated:

“However, the highlight of the report is not about the incident. The highlight is about the demographic changes that have happened in Assam since 1951, how farmlands for the local citizens of Assam were reducing in those days, and how Assamese at large were losing their economic, political and cultural identity.”

Two leading news publications of Assam have subsequently highlighted the discussion on ‘demographic change’ mentioned in these two reports following their release.

Such claims, quite unambiguously, set the tone for the manner in which this report and the Nellie Massacre will be interpreted now, i.e. as an inevitable fallout of demographic change. This interpretation of the report furthers the image of Assam as a land afflicted with too many immigrants.

Not only do these claims entirely ignore the historical processes that led to population movements in the colonial period within what was then the same country, they also disregard the atrocities faced by innocent people of the Miya Muslim community and mark them as ‘bare’ citizens.

With elections looming in the state, it is likely that the Tiwari commission report will be used by political interests to dehumanise an already marginalized community, while virtue signaling to the ‘genuine’ residents of Assam. In essence, a report on the massacre of Miya Muslims may be used to highlight the demographic threat posed by this community, almost seamlessly providing the justification for the massacre.

The constitutional rights owed to the minority Miya Muslims may again prove to be secondary to the ‘anxious entitlements’ of the dominant community. Hence, the massacre of men, women and children in Nellie will always be secondary to their image/perception as land-grabbers.

A Faustian bargain

‘The dangerous consequences of large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh, both for the people of Assam and more for the Nation as a whole, need to be emphatically stressed. No misconceived and mistaken notions of secularism should be allowed to come in the way of doing so.”

(S.K. Sinha report, 1998)

This statement by the former Assam governor in his report embodies the omnipresent paranoia in Assam which, at its extreme, allows even fundamental rights including the right to life to be discarded. By denouncing secular principles, the institutions in question create a ‘Faustian Bargain’ for the Miya Muslim community in Assam. The individuals from this community will always be viewed as suspects, creating a situation where they will have to ‘prove’ their citizenship at different junctures of their everyday life.

These performances of citizenship are not only restricted to them being summoned to FTs. It extends to mundane everyday tasks like traveling, availing rations, applying for documents like Aadhar and voter cards etc. Under this dystopian system, a Miya Muslim is an ubiquitous suspect, especially once they venture into areas outside their district of domicile. The dehumanization of this community is not only embodied in them being forced to perform citizenship at mundane locations, but in the very rejection of this performance, either in the Tribunals or in the Vidhan Sabha.

An example of such rejection occurred on 9th June 2025, on the floor of the Assam Vidhan Sabha, where the current Chief Minister of Assam demanded a reverification of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), which had been updated in Assam during 2016-2019, at great cost and with massive effort. He justified his doubts related to the NRC by claiming that many non-citizens had been included.

The Faustian nature of ‘proving’ citizenship is reflected in the fact that the NRC was depicted as the only solution to the citizenship tangle in Assam by many, including Mr. H.R.A Choudhury, one of the foremost legal experts in Assam. Understandably, such endorsements, plus the fact that the process would be monitored by the Supreme Court itself, melted away any reservations the Miya Muslims may have had. Resultantly, there was no opposition to the exercise within Assam. The Chief Minister’s reservations related to the NRC’s final draft betray any hope that this marginalized community may have had. It proved once and for all, no matter how many Kagoz (documents) they may possess, their status in Assam will always be questionable.