Manoranjan Pegu

Bengali Muslims’ labour value, recognised by large sections of the Assamese elite as the key to Assam’s economic development, has not automatically aided their social inclusion. The “Miya” labourer remains stuck in an intensifying framework of racialised exploitation, social marginalisation and political disenfranchisement. They continue to be otherised as “illegal foreigners” and demographic threats to Assamese society.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam’s chief minister, addresses a public rally of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Ahead of Assam’s state assembly election, Sarma is ratcheting up anti-Muslim hate as part of a tested BJP strategy to play up communal strife for votes.

On 29 November 2025, thousands of protestors, mostly students from Bodoland University and Kokrajhar University, marched to the Bodoland Territorial Council Secretariat, protesting the state government’s decision to grant Scheduled Tribe status to six communities. The demonstrators walked for around six kilometres, carrying banners calling for tribal unity, and shouted slogans calling the Assam government anti-tribal.