Slaughter in Assam

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ON February 19-20, over 600 people were killed in communal violence in the north-cast Indian state of Assam. This brings the total number of deaths to over 1,000 since state elections were called five weeks ago.

In nine constituencies, voting had to be suspended, and polling extended for an extra day. In Gauhati, the largest town in the troubled area, the election was disrupted by bomb attacks.

The seeds for the communal conflict were sown by British colonialism, which brought masses of Bengalis into Assam and placed them socially above the Assamese.

The latest upsurge of violence dates from the Pakistan/ Bangladesh war of 1971. That war sent Muslim Tergees into.. poor. and backward areas of Assam. Extreme right wing Hindu fundamentalists and other reactionaries agitated among the 12 million Assamese Hindus against the 8 million Bengali Muslims and other minorities.

Reactionary students in the all-Assam students' union have campaigned for the repatriation of i million Muslims to Bangladesh, and for all immigrants to. be denied the vote.

The students, led by Prasulla Maharta, have received the backing of large sections of the Assamese bourgeoisie and professional groups. In four years they have brought down four state governments and managed to halt al! production in Assam, where cne third of India's oil is normally produced. Only the intervention of military the restored order.

Similarly, the recent communal disorders have seen the central government in Delhi sending over 100,000 soldiers and paramilitary police to Assam. Assam has been under direct presidential rule since March 1982.

The failure of negotiations between Indira Gandhi's central government and the Assamese to restore political stability encouraged Gandhi's Congress (I) to gamble on a state election.

Gandhi's desperation was increased by serious defeats for Congress (I) in state elections in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh last month. Gandhi was quite preparec to risk inter-communal atrocities in a bid to regain some credibility and strength bourgeois Congress rule.

But it is now clear that Gandhi - has miscalculated. All the opposition parties, except the Stalinist Communist Party of India (Marxist), have boycotted the election, and national attention on the crisis in Assam has only served to exacerbate communal violence.

The events in Assam should be seen in the context of nation-wide Hindu/ Muslim communal violence, and the success of reactionary chauvinist forces in capitalising on popular grievances. It is the parties of the exteme right, not those of che lett. that the poor and disillusioned are turning to.

Aly Mir

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Socialist Organiser no.121