Against Illegal Immigration

The real, crucial and legitimate issue of illegal immigration into North-East from Bangladesh is being turned into the same-old and unending debate of Hindus vs Muslims or tribals vs Muslims by the politicians. A genuine problem for the North-East people is being given a communal twist and that results in the real problem being brushed aside.

The city-dwelling people will be shocked at the level of violence and take their sides based on their liberal leanings (“this level of violence is wrong, what’s the harm in them being settled?”) or their own religious belief.
So when Narendra Modi shouts at a public rally about the deportation of all the illegal immigrants, one can’t help being a bit uneasy. One knows that he is feeding on the angst of the people but the way he says it, it will turn many readers or listeners who might not know of the problem in detail to automatically be turned against what he says. They then generally form a reverse opinion. On the other hand, the people of the religious group who he is supposed to be against, deciding through their religious world-view, will oppose him anyway, feeling for the people from their religion.

Blaming Modi, when Omar Abdullah shouts that the violence happened because of what Modi said, the religious group which is against Modi agree even more, and against their questions, the religious organisations vigorously supporting Modi will give some stupid answer further intensifying the communal fire. Questions like right to human life, right to living will be asked, and these being things which no one can deny or say no against (ah, the perils of liberalism!!), either a status quo is maintained or some reconciliatory solution is come up with, neither of which solves the problem.

I feel they are both wrong, that the issue is not to be looked at through religious-tinted lens. It’s not about one religious group or the other. Do look at North-East’s complex history, its phases of becoming a part of India, the various nationalist movements that took place and one will realise (I hope) that the threat of the outsider has always been present in the North-East psyche (I might be wrong), that its many many small tribal communities have not only opposed being ruled by the democratic India after India’s independence, but also have always been at logger-heads with each other over land and water resources. So when illegal immigration happens and in such vast numbers, the feeling of uneasiness rises again. There is the fear of being swamped away, of becoming a minority in one’s own land, of having to readjust, again, one’s ways of life. And this after, I believe, the NE people have accepted being a part of India, inspite of the many violences and cases of racism (on both sides).

I hope this is a “secular” enough explanation as to why I, as a North-East person, am against illegal immigration. I believe after going through such tumultuous times, so much violence, we (the NE people) have the right to make our own decision about this issue. On this issue, we wouldn’t like the imposition of the same debate of one religion against the other. We are yet to solve our nearly 70-year old problems (nationalist movements, readjustment of land, water, resource rights, coming to terms with democracy in case of newer states), and I think illegal immigration is a very very ill-timed burden at this point. I hope that the problem is dealt in a humane, reasonable way. I had to say this because as an NE person, I am also afraid our voices will be lost within the louder and more virulent arguments of this religion against that. I am not against any religion, I do not condone violence.

P.S - This is my personal view. I have dared to speak, as if, for the various ethnic communities of NE. If someone from there doesn’t agree with me, he/she has all the right to.

Gankhu Sumnyan is a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad.