Explained: The Miyas of Assam, and their char-chapori culture

8th November, 2020 Art & Culture

Context: A proposal for a museum reflecting char-chapori culture has triggered a controversy.

Char-chapori

Char-chaporis are shifting riverine islands of the Brahmaputra and are primarily inhabited by the Muslims of Bengali-origin (pejoratively referred to as ‘Miyas’).
Most of them had migrated from Bangladesh.

Who are the Miyas?

The ‘Miya’ community comprises descendants of Muslim migrants from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Assam.
They came to be referred to as ‘Miyas’, often in a derogatory manner.
The community migrated in several waves — starting with the British annexation of Assam in 1826, and continuing into Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War — and have resulted in changes in demographic composition of the region.
Years of discontent among the indigenous people led to the six-year-long (1979-85) anti-foreigner Assam Agitation to weed out the “illegal immigrant”, who was perceived as trying to take over jobs, language and culture of the indigenous population.

What are char-chaporis?

A char is a floating island while chaporis are low-lying flood-prone riverbanks.
They are used interchangeably.
They keep changing shapes — a char can become a chapori, or vice versa, depending on the push and pull of the Brahmaputra.
Prone to floods and erosion, these areas are marked by low development indices. “80% of the Char population lives below poverty line,”.
A UNDP Assam Human Development report from 2014 describes the char areas as suffering from “communication deficits, lack of adequate schooling facilities beyond primary, girl child marriage, poverty and illiteracy”.
While Bengali-origin Muslims primarily occupy these islands, other communities such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, Nepalis also live here.

How do the Miyas identify themselves?

Over the years, the Miyas have often been stereotyped and derided as “Bangladeshi”.
It is an odd term to use since the community’s roots in Assam are much older than 1971 when Bangladesh was born.
It is a very complex community — many are generations removed from immigrant ancestors.
Over the years, the community has tried to integrate into the larger Assamese society, by speaking Assamese, sending their children to Assamese schools and declaring Assamese as their language since the 1951 census.
They had a significant presence in Assamese literary and cultural life.

Why a claim of a distinct culture?

While identifying as Assamese, the ‘Miya’ community feels that like other ethnic groups, they too should celebrate their own culture and heritage within the larger Assamese fold.
The community’s cultural motifs and heritage are related to agriculture and the river.
The community has a variety of songs (bhatiali related to the river, magan geet or harvest songs, noi khelor geet or boat songs etc), instruments and equipment to catch fish, as well as different kinds of boats.
While this heritage may or may not have similarities with residents of present-day Bangladesh, it is unique to Assam’s char dwellers because it is a product of a hundred years of assimilation with the Assamese society, “For example, They have an ancient performative martial art called the Lathibari.

Why are some Assamese uncomfortable with that?

The museum has been proposed in the Kalakshetra, which is a cultural complex in Guwahati named after neo-Vaishnavite reformer Srimanta Sankardev.
It was set up as part of Clause 6 (“… to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”) of the Assam Accord, signed at the culmination of the Assam Agitation.
The Assamese feel that these claims of a distinct cultural sphere/ identity by the community may eventually lead to political or ethnic assertions in the future.

What is the Miya view of this?

The community feels the issue is being politicised for vested interests. How can a community comprising lakhs not have a culture of their own?
Migration and assimilation of the Bengali-origin communities reflect “an amazing success story of Axomiya culture’s capacity to integrate new people”.
The Kalakshetra should find ways to incorporate newer elements of our culture into its collection to show that this integrative capacity has not diminished.

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