Language ‘test’ for Assam’s Bengal-origin Muslims

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said people who seek to replace Assamese with Bengali in the electoral rolls would help the government get an idea about the number of “foreigners” in the State.

He warned a section not to “blackmail” the government with language after a minority student leader said Bengal-origin Muslims would list Bengali, and not Assamese, as their mother tongue in public documents.

“Nobody is affected by the threats ahead of every Census about listing this or that language. They (some elements) were made to believe that if more people do not speak Assamese, the language will become extinct. But the Assamese language will remain where it is,” the Chief Minister said on Thursday (July 10, 2025).

Mainuddin Ali, a leader of the All BTC Minority Students’ Union, had made the controversial remarks during a protest on July 9 against the ongoing eviction drives in parts of western Assam. BTC expands to the Bodoland Territorial Council.

Mr Ali said that Assamese will no longer be the “language of the majority in Assam” if the Bengal-origin Muslims do not list Assamese as their mother tongue during the Census exercise.

“We, the Bengal-origin Muslims, clearly state that we will not write Assamese as our mother tongue in this Census. We will remove the Assamese language. The Assamese language as well as the Assamese community will become a minority,” he said.

The Assam Sahitya Sabha, the State’s largest literary body, and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) slammed him for the remarks.

“As long as the Assam Sahitya Sabha exists, the Assamese people will not become a minority in Assam. They know how they can protect themselves. We reject the threat,” the Sabha’s president, Basanta Kumar Goswami, said.

AASU president Utpal Sarma said that the Assamese people had for long faced linguistic blackmail.

“Some people view it as a favour that they write Assamese as their mother tongue. They want the Assamese people to stoop to them. We have to put an end to this,” he said.

“Whether somebody writes Assamese as their mother tongue or not, the indigenous people of Assam are going to become a minority in Assam, maybe in the next one, two, or three decades,” Mr. Sarma warned.

The strong reactions made the All BTC Minority Students’ Union suspend Mr. Ali from the organisation with immediate effect.