View source for Bongal

{{about|an appellation for outsiders in [[Assam]]|the people from eastern [[Bengal]]|Bangal|the urban ethnic quip used to denote middle-class [[Bengalis]] in [[India]]|Bong (term)}}
{{POV|date=October 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
'''Bongal''' is a term used in Assam to refer to ''outsiders''.<ref>"The word ''Bongal'' is used in a wide sense in Assam. It does not refer to Bengalis alone. It embraces all outsiders." {{harvcol|Chakravarti|1960|p=1193}}</ref> Assam has been settled by colonial officials (''amlahs'') from Bengal pre-Independence and [[Hindu Bengali]] refugees in the post-Independence periods.  The Muslims peasants from East Bengal settled in Assam are now referred to as [[Miya people|Miya]]. The term lent the name to the [[Bongal Kheda]] movement of the 1950s and 1960s which sought to drive out non-Assamese competitors and to secure jobs for the natives.<ref>"The movement known as Bongal Kheda sponsored by Assamese job-seekers to drive out non-Assamese competitors, assumed the air of a dignified and respectable agitation{{harvcol|Chakravarti|1960|p=1193}}</ref>
== History ==
The term ''Bongal'' came into prominence in the [[Buranji]]s, where they were used to describe ''foreigners'' from the west of the [[Ahom kingdom]].<ref>"[P]eople or society to the west of the [Brahmaputra] valley, i.e., the Indo-Gangetic plain of Bengal, was referred to as the land of the 'Bongal' or foreigner." {{harvcol|Baruah|2012|p=45}} "Though Bengal was the immediate western neighbour, [Bongal] was used as a generic term for all foreigners." {{harvcol|Baruah|2012|p=43}}</ref> The term may have been derived from 'Bangala', the name of the [[Mughal Bengal|Mughal province of Bengal]]. Initially the term might have stood for the people of Bengal, but later it is said to have stood for any foreigner.<ref name="fishmanetal244">{{cite book|editor-last1=Fishman|editor-first1=Joshua|editor-last2=Garcia|editor-first2=Ofelia|title=Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUydX_3rG0AC|volume=2|date=6 March 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199837991|page=244}}</ref> Because of its geographic location, the approach to the [[Ahom kingdom]] from mainland India was through Bengal.<ref name="fishmanetal244"/> The British came to be known as ''Boga Bongal'' (''white Bongal'').<ref name=das2014>{{cite thesis|last=Das|first=Bitasta|date=4 January 2014|title=Unravelling Ethnic Tensions: Colonialism, Post colonialism and the Question of Identity in Assam|type=PhD|chapter=Chapter 4: Assam Movement, ULFA and Bodo Movement Locating the “Ethnic” in the Assertions|publisher=Manipal University|page=185|url=http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/33043/14/14_chapter%204.pdf|access-date=19 October 2018}}</ref> Ahom general [[Lachit Borphukan]] is said to have referred to the Mughals as Bongals.<ref name="assam.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.assam.org/node/2366|title=Lachit Borphukon|last=Barua|first=Ajit|work=Assam Portal|publisher=assam.org|access-date=5 September 2014}}</ref> Over years of political seclusion, 'Bongal' became a term of suspicion, reproach and contempt.<ref name="fishmanetal244" /> When the [[United Kingdom|British]] annexed Assam to its Indian territories, many [[Bengali Hindus]] arrived in Assam by taking up administrative jobs in the government. The Britishers and the Bengali Hindus alike were referred to as Bongals. After the independence of India, the amount of increasing refugees arriving from the region of East Bengal and newly formed East Pakistan escalated tension among the [[Assamese people]] and the tribes in the state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/assam/documents/papers/illegal_migration_in_assam.htm|title=Illegal Migration into Assam|website=www.satp.org|access-date=17 August 2019}}</ref> By May 1949 the number of total refugees reached two-and-half lakhs increasing up to 2,740,455.
{| class="wikitable"
|+'''Annual Arrival of Refugees in Assam in 1946–1951'''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=India|first=India|date=1951|title=Annual Arrival of Refugees in Assam in 1946–1951|journal=Census of India|volume=XII, Part I (I-A)|pages=353|via=web.archive.org}}</ref>
|'''Place of Origin'''
|'''Year'''
|'''Number'''
|-
|'''East Bengal'''
|'''1946'''
|'''8,593'''
|-
|'''East Bengal'''
|'''1947'''
|'''42,346'''
|-
|'''East Bengal'''
|'''1948'''
|'''41,740'''
|-
|'''East Bengal'''
|'''1949'''
|'''33,138'''
|-
|'''East Bengal'''
|'''1950'''
|'''1,44,512'''
|-
|'''East Bengal'''
|'''1950 (Jan.&Feb.)'''
|'''3,479'''
|-
|'''West Pakistan'''
| -
|'''647'''
|-
|
|'''Total'''
|'''2,74,455'''
|}
The Assamese people viewed Bongal was someone who didn't belong Assam, an intruder whose presence threatened to marginalize them socially and politically.<ref name="das2014" /> The Britishers were called Boga Bongal, literally meaning 'the white foreigner'<ref name="das2014" /> and the Bengali Hindus were called 'Kola Bongal' literally meaning 'the black foreigner'.<ref name="bareh92">{{cite book|last=Bareh|first=Hamlet|title=Encyclopaedia of North-East India: Assam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=odY_PWn7pesC|edition=Reprint|year=2001|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=9788170997894|page=92}}</ref>  In the 19th century Assamese intellectual discourse, anyone other than the people of Assam or the Hill tribes were called Bongals. They were described to be foreigners, uncivilized and filthy. An 1872 [[Assamese language|Assamese]] play by Rudra Ram Bordoloi titled 'Bongal Bongalini' lampooned the social problems created by the outsiders i.e. the Bongals, especially who came during the British rule.<ref name="pathak2015">{{cite book|last=Pathak|first=Namrata|title=Trends in Contemporary Assamese Theatre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VLwYCAAAQBAJ|access-date=19 October 2018|date=27 March 2015|publisher=Partridge Publishing|isbn=9781482846546}}</ref> The Assamese women who preferred to marry the Bongals, referred to as 'Bongalini's (feminine of Bongal), were described as promiscuous women and concubines of the Bongals.<ref name="pathak2015" />
After the [[Indian independence movement|Independence]], the term continued to be used for the Bengali Hindus. However, it was not used for the Bengalis only. In a broader sense, it was used to refer to any group that was perceived to be an outsider.{{sfn|Chakravarti|1960}} [[West Bengal]] was described as ''Bongal Desh'', literally meaning 'the land of the Bongals' in [[Assamese language|Assamese]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Dutta|first=Nandana|title=Questions of Identity in Assam: Location, Migration, Hybridity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOmICwAAQBAJ|access-date=1 August 2017|date=11 September 2012|publisher=SAGE Publications India|isbn=9788132117001}}</ref>
== Bongal Kheda ==
{{Main|Bongal Kheda}}{{POV section|date=August 2019}}
In the colonial period, the British proclaimed Bengali as the [[Dark Age of the Assamese language|official language]] of [[assam]] even though both [[Assamese language|Assamese]] and [[Bengali language|Bengali]] were very different in nature and most of the populus were not familiar or knew the language. This was resented by the Assamese population as they saw it as a threat to their language and culture, this also led to Bengali people working in assam as most of the teacher's who came to assam were unfamiliar with the native Assamese language leading to illiteracy in the Assamese community and resentment for the Bengali Hindu's residing in assam. The resentment grew even further as After the [[Indian independence movement|Independence of India]], the Assamese political leadership promoted the concept of Assam for Assamese which soon led to the demand of Assamese to be the sole official language of the state. Soon as the growing middle class populus of assam were still not getting jobs having a suitable educational background in their own state a resentment for [[Bengalis|Bengali]] population of assam grew as they made up a huge chunk of Assamese job market as they were seen as more educated and had a better image in India than the Assamese people even though the Assamese populus was at par or even more capable than the Bengali population in their state.  This grew resentment in the Assamese community and after many Instances of Bengali-assamese feuds this resentment soon led to the movement called '[[Bongal Kheda]]', literally meaning 'drive away the outsiders(here referring to the Bengali populus)', which resulted in many protest, vandalisation of property and attack on the Bengali Hindus state-wide.<ref name="horowitz209-210">{{cite book|last=Horowitz|first=Donald L.|title=The Deadly Ethnic Riot|url=https://archive.org/details/deadlyethnicriot00horo|url-access=registration|access-date=5 September 2009|year=2001|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520224476}}</ref> The movement that started in the early 1960s started again in different years throughout the sixties into the seventies and eighties leading to the even wider [[Assam Movement|Assam movement]]. In the seventies it spread to other tribal northeastern parts of assam with significant Bengali population with similar condition likes [[Meghalaya]] and [[Tripura]] mostly under Assamese influence.
== See also ==
* [[Malaun]]
* [[Dkhar]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}
==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Baruah |first=Manjeet |title=Frontier Cultures: A Social History of Assamese Literature |publisher=Routledge |location=New Delhi and London |year=2012 |ISBN=9780415500807}}
* {{cite journal|last=Chakravarti|first=K.C.|date=30 July 1960|title=Bongal Kheda Again|journal=The Economic Weekly|publisher=Sameeksha Trust|location=Mumbai|pages=1193–95|issn=0012-9976|url=http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1960_12/31/assam_disturbances_ibongal_kheda_again.pdf|access-date=5 September 2014}}
{{refend}}
[[Category:Racism in India]]
[[Category:Anti-immigration politics in Asia]]
[[Category:Assamese nationalism]]
[[Category:Persecution of Bengali Hindus]]