Nellie massacre: Assam's forgotten chapter completes 42 years

The ‘Nellie massacre’ took place in the year 1983 on February 18. ‘Nellie’ is a village located in Central Assam. The massacre in this village took place during a six hour period on the morning of February 18, 1983. It is one of the most horrific events in the history of Independent India where the official death toll was estimated between 1800 to 2000 while less conservative figures hover around 10000. 

This incident had taken place in the Assam Movement (1979-85) period when the Central government was conducting elections. The indigenous Assamese were against it and for the Bengali origin Muslims and Hindus it was a fight to protect their citizenship. 

This year the horrendous massacre completes 42 years.

The victims of this violence are mostly Bengali- origin Muslims, majority were women and children, who are often termed as “Bangladeshi”. One of the main reasons behind the horrific Nellie Massacre is the fear of the Identity crisis. 

It was often coined by leaders of the Assam movement that the Bengali origin muslims, often known as “Miya” may become majority in the near future and take away the lands and jobs of the indigenous Assamese people. This induced a sense of fear in the indigenous people which made them think that the Bengali origin muslims as well as Bengali hindus are enemy to them.

The massacre started in a systematic manner in Borbori village on the morning of 18 February, 1983. Nellie along with 13 other villages were surrounded by a mob armed with guns and machetes. 

Hemendra Narayan, a journalist from The Indian Express reported, In a systematic manner the houses of the Muslim settlements at Demalgaon….were burnt. Earlier the hindu tribals……….shouting war cries like Jai Aaee Assom……..”We will kill all these bideshi mian. They have made us bedeshis in our own country”.

It is often alleged that the police administration knew that there’s a chance of a riot in Nellie but they ignored it. On 15th February, three days before the massacre, a police official had sent a telegram warning about the possibility of violence in Nellie to the 5th Battalion of Assam Police based at Morigaon. The telegram stated, 
“Minority people are in a panic and apprehending attack any moment. Submission for immediate action to maintain peace.”

This clearly states that there was some sort of bias in the police administration and there are chances that during those times there existed officials who wanted the incident to happen. 

Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty in her book “Assam The Accord, The Discord” describing the aftermath of the Nellie Massacre stated, “There was woman whose breast was half chopped; the doctor was stitching it while she was wailing in pain and I holding her sliced off breast.”

The majority of the victims were women and children because the men were able to run fast and escape the mob. 

Many people often suspect an RSS hand in the Nellie massacre as somehow in some areas the fight against illegal immigrants became a fight against Bengali origin Muslims. Regarding this Barooah in her book ‘Assam The Accord, The Discord’  states that “Shekhar Gupta, who covered the massacre and the agitation extensively and met some……… RSS leaders ……., rejected the idea of RSS plotting the 1983 violence, though he didn’t categorically state that it was not responsible for what happened in Nellie.”

Growing up in Assam I have noticed the abandonment of the Nellie Massacre by the Assamese intellectuals. There is an absence of guilt and silence on the Nellie issue by the intellectuals as well as the regional media. It has always felt like people want to forget the massacre because the victims belonged to the “Miya” community, a name used for the Bengali origin Muslims. 

Even today the politics in Assam and the idea of Assamese nationalism often revolves around the “Bangladeshi” issue. From then till today the degree of hate against these people has increased. 

The outcome of the massacre that took thousands of innocent lives was a blame game. When the Prime Minister of India then, Indira Gandhi visited the violence hit Nellie after a few days of the incident , she stated, “The students and agitators were to blame; they had created a climate of violence by spurning talks with the government.” While the AASU claimed that violence had broken out due to forced elections.

After more than forty years of the massacre there are still protests that take place with a demand to give martyr status to the minority victims. There are questions why the report of the Tiwari Commission, which probed the massacre was not made public yet and justice not delivered to the victim families.