A day after the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government declared the results of its caste survey, the BJP-ruled Assam government on Tuesday announced that it has issued directions for conducting a socio-economic survey of the state’s “indigenous” Muslim sub-groups.
The Assam Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) stated that these communities include Goria, Moria, Deshi, Syed and Julha – the five Assamese Muslim sub-groups whose identification as “indigenous” Muslim communities were approved by the state Cabinet headed by CM Himanta Biswa Sarma last year.
“The latest decision to go ahead with a ‘Socio-Economic Assessment’ of the members of the State’s five indigenous Muslim communities is expected to provide a push for their inclusive development in the fields of healthcare, cultural identity, education, financial inclusion, skill development and women empowerment, among others,” the CMO’s statement said.
The Sarma government’s decision is a part of its exercise undertaken over the last three years to consolidate an identity for these Muslim sub-groups different from Bengali-speaking Muslims, seizing on the demand made by some of the “Assamese Muslim” bodies. These moves are being perceived in some quarters as seeking to distinguish these Assamese-speaking Muslims from the much larger population of Bengali-speaking Muslims in the state in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
While welcoming the move, Nurul Haque, working president of the Sadou Asom Goria-Moria-Deshi Jatiya Parishad, said that it is in line with a meeting that the organisation’s representatives had with Sarma last month. He said they hope that a socio-economic survey will open up the ways for these Muslim sub-groups to be granted the OBC status. At the root of these demands, he said, is that these communities’ “separate culture and identity be safeguarded” and not merged with the state’s Bengali-speaking Muslims.
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