OTHER MINORITIES
Sabita Goswami On Santhal Massacre in Bodoland
The serenity of the lush green villages of Kokrajhar district of west Assam were suddenly shattered by war cries and drum beats. The ethnic cauldron that is Assam had erupted once again. The spark had been provided by the elections; the blood-letting by the Bodos began within 24 hours of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) taking over the reins of the state.
The entire Kokrajhar district is reeling under an emotional frenzy that has left many dead and more than two lakhs homeless. Even as hundreds of thousands of Santhal adivasis flee their homes the authorities are trying to recover charred bodies from the smoldering houses.
The simmering tension in the Bodo Autonomous Council (BAC) areas came into the open with the recovery of decomposed bodies of three Bodo women on May 10. Although no one knows how they died, the Bodo had picked their target for revenge: the Santhals. On the night of May 14, Bodo tribals torched the forest villages of the Santhals.
Within 24 hours, the violence had engulfed the entire Kokrajhar district and entire villages were razed to the ground. From National Highway 31, one could hear screams and the sound of the madal (drum) that the panic-stricken Santhals were beating to signal danger. Thousands of adivasis fled to Alipurduar in West Bengal. The Santhals, too, targeted the Bodos residing near the Santhal villages, leading to a Bodo exodus as well.
In the run-up to the elections, the Bodoland Statehood Movement Council (BSMC) and the People's Democratic Front of Bodoland (PDFB) had forced the other political parties to withdraw their candidates in the Bodo areas. In the Santhal-dominated Gosaigaon, however, the adivasi Congress candidate Mithius Tudo and the AGP candidate, Rajendra Mushahary, a Bodo, remained in the fray. The Bodos then warned the Santhals not to support the Congress candidate. But the adivasis are believed to have voted Congress, leading to a split in the votes which gave Mushahary victory. This only further angered the two Bodo parties whose main poll plank was continuing the agitation for Bodoland. The AGP was against granting even autonomy to the Bodos, not to speak of a separate homeland.
Even as a strange inertia weighed down the administration the arsonists struck. Mushahary's house was a prime target; it was burnt down. The Director- General of Police, who apparently had intelligence
information on post-poll violence even on May 10, was nowhere to be found. He had allegedly left the state without informing even the Home Commissioner!
The new government, too, was caught on the wrong foot. In its election manifesto the AGP had declared that it would not deploy the army in the state. Obviously, Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was hesitant to call the army in hours after he had assumed office. But Kokrajhar was burning and the violence was spreading to Bongaigaon district. The army was ultimately ordered out of the barracks to contain the violence. And with a new Director General of Police taking charge, the police administration too was back on the rails.
The ethnic violence has once again brought to the fore the issue of boundary demarcation int he BAC areas These areas have witnessed several ethnic clashes since the demand for a separate Bodoland surfaced. There have been clashes between immigrant Muslims and Bodos and Bodos and non-Bodos. The Santhals have participated in the agitations but this is the first time that clashes have taken place between the Santhals and the Bodos.
(Source: The Week, 2 June, 1996)
UK: SOAS Chair of Islamic Studies
The Governing Body of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the University of London's Vice-Chancellor have approved the establishment of a new chair entitled "The Kind Fahd Chair of Islamic Studies made possible by a 1,000,000 pound (one million pounds Sterling) endowment provided by King Fahd.
The new Chair will promote scholarship and research in the study of the Qur'an and Hadith from Arabic sources. In addition, it is hoped that the Chair will lead to a graduate master’s programme in the study of the Qur'an and Hadith from Arabic sources and establish a research centre in Islamic Studies.
Russian Muslim Bodies Unite
Two Russia's biggest Muslim organizations the Russian Muslim Union and the Nur Movement - signed an agreement in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, to come up with a single position on the upcoming presidential elections on June 16.
Russia has an estimated 12 to 20 million Muslims, and the number of Muslim organizations in the country come to 2,294.
