What do you think?
Rate this book
Assam: The Accord, The Discord
The Assam Accord, which sought to end a six-year-long agitation against illegal immigrants in Assam, was signed between members of the All Assam Students Union (AASU), and state and central governments just a few hours before Rajiv Gandhi was to deliver the Independence Day address in 1985. Immediately afterwards, the student leaders were catapulted from their hostel rooms into the corridors of power. Their party, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), was voted to power the same year, with Prafulla Kumar Mahanta becoming the youngest ever chief minister of an Indian state.
Key clauses of the Assam Accord remained unimplemented during Mahanta's often controversial tenures (1985-1990, 1996-2001), and through three terms of Congress rule, which ended with the BJP's victory in the state in 2016. Central to the Accord was deportation of those who could not prove their roots in India prior to 24 March 1971. In 2015, the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) based on the 1971 cut-off of the Accord began. The first list was released in December 2017 and did not include 14 million names.
Assam: The Accord, The Discord looks at the making of the Assam Accord and its long shadow on the state, through political gamesmanship between principle players, periods of ULFA and Bodo militancies, and right-wing propaganda that has split the state along communal lines.
Key clauses of the Assam Accord remained unimplemented during Mahanta's often controversial tenures (1985-1990, 1996-2001), and through three terms of Congress rule, which ended with the BJP's victory in the state in 2016. Central to the Accord was deportation of those who could not prove their roots in India prior to 24 March 1971. In 2015, the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) based on the 1971 cut-off of the Accord began. The first list was released in December 2017 and did not include 14 million names.
Assam: The Accord, The Discord looks at the making of the Assam Accord and its long shadow on the state, through political gamesmanship between principle players, periods of ULFA and Bodo militancies, and right-wing propaganda that has split the state along communal lines.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published August 27, 2019
28 people are currently reading
204 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 29, 2020
This is an important book, especially for people of my generation and later ones because it talks about a very crucial period of Assam history whose aftermath we still see and feel today but have no clue as to what led to these events (especially because of what we saw since December last year in the context of the anti-CAA protests). Interestingly, this book came out in early 2019, so it did act like a prophecy of some sort of the times to come! The Assam Accord is a historic document that was signed between the government of India and the leaders of the Assam agitation in 1985 after the end of a tumultuous six-year struggle to protect the interests of the state against what the agitation leaders believed to be foreign infiltraters who have been quietly changing the demographics of the state. This is the most simple way I can put it. But has anything in history ever been a simple transaction between two parties? The author goes deep into the background of every stakeholder involved, every community, political party, politician, alliance, conflict, movement. There are so many layers to each event, it's easy to get lost. The author by taking interviews of politicians, activists, and even those who were directly affected by the events, has gone beyond secondary sources to collate this work (her background in journalism helped). You will also get to know a little bit about the time when insurgency had gripped the state, the rise of ULFA, the forced elections that triggered the agitation, the faultlines that exist between different communities, and how these communities have felt wronged and in turn have wronged others. Sometimes, the details are so overwhelming, the flow gets lost. But otherwise, a very important book. It reaffirms my belief in the importance of doing history and also the urgent need to develop a politics of compassion (will that be ever possible?) lest we get trapped in a cycle of violence and resentment. Urge all my Assamese friends (others are welcome too!) to read it lest you fall prey to false propaganda and the vicious politics of the times.
July 5, 2020
While rest of the nation opposes communal bias in CAA, Assam's resistance is against the very essence of the Act - providing citizenship to foreigners. Why does the region have a different perspective vis a vis immigration?
The book "Assam: The Accord, The Discord" explains this question through the events of 1985 Assam Accord, which was a Memorandum of Settlement signed between the Indian government and the leaders of the Assam movement. The accord defined March 25 1971 as the date post which any 'foreigner' entering Assam would be identified and deported and the national border will be supported with a wall and security forces against any further infiltration.
For Assam the seed of scepticism towards outsiders was sown during the British rule. They made North East India part of the Bengal province and encouraged immigration to the region for labour and control over its rich resources. The Bengali 'Babus' were preferred for tax collection and record keeping over the local population who were mostly illiterate and untrained. Even after the country's independence perception remained that New Delhi is largely nonchalant towards the cause of Assam. It helped RSS to gradually grow its base and eventually the Janata Party came to power in 1979, till that time the state was governed by the Indian National Congress. The Janata Party was determined to keep the Congress at bay after the Emergency, so when the Election Commission remarked about 'large-scale inclusion of foreign nationals' before the 1979 Mangaldoi byelection, they saw an opportunity and started provoking AASU who accused Congress of using unauthorized immigrants as its vote-bank in Assam.
The agitation started with the decision to go ahead with the election. The protesters barred candidates from contesting, curfew and 'Bandhs' were declared, there were several cases of violent clash between anti and pro election campaigns as well (mostly Assamese and Bengali speakers). Negotiations started with AASU, further complicated by the emergence of AAMSU and meddling by the RSS. But it kept getting dragged on because of disagreements over the cut off year. At the same time violence was escalating and several bomb blasts took place in prominent places, as a result President's rule was declared in multiple times. In Feb 1983, the violence took a much gruesome turn when the Nellie Massacre happened, killing at least 1800 people (mostly women, children and the weak) leaving the darkest chapter in Assamese history. The full report of the massacre by Tiwari commission was never to be made public.
Finally the agreement was reached and the leading personalities of the movement joined politics through AGP, winning the next assembly elections as well. However the new government was mired with corruption and internal conflicts rendering it toothless for the most part. On the other hand ULFA, an armed militia born out of the secessionist ideas, was becoming emboldened. They organized kidnappings, arson, bombings etc. Presidents rule would again be declared and the army intervened with the operations of 'Bajrang' and 'Rhino' to clamp down on their activity and destroy training camps. But the dire security and infrastructure issues meant Assam, despite its vast resources, could never achieve the glory that it promised.
The implementation of the Accord was poor to say the least. The identification of foreigners was slow, deportation only informal and boundaries and border security weak. Detention centers were created, where the living condition was inhuman. Before 2016 only ~80K foreigners were identified, of which ~30K were deported and few thousands remain in detention centers. Things changed after the NRC process, 2016-18, under the direction of the Supreme Court and implemented with much enthusiasm by the new BJP government. But the final list, which included ~1.9 million foreigners, shocked the government because it included Bengali and Nepali Hindus in large numbers who were loyal voters of the party. While BJP never admitted, but it is widely assumed that it was one of the main factors that they came up with CAA, promising citizenship for the outsiders facing religious persecution. There would be mass protest against CAA, not only in Assam but also in the other parts of the country, but book was published before the even as a result it does not cover the same.
The author, Sangeeta Barooah, explains all the aspects of the Accord, its past and its implementation as well as the connection with NRC in great detail. The topic has been part of public discourse in Assam for decades but most of the conversation remain focused on simplistic principals and many practical factors and humanitarian issues stay ignored. The media follows the popular rhetoric and they turn a blind eye to the plight of the so called 'foreigners'. While the topic itself is quite divisive the author remains true to journalistic principle of staying neutral and raises some unpopular questions from the point of view the 'foreigners' as well. At time the details do get overwhelming, the readers may lose track of the direction of the bigger story unfolding.
Overall the book is highly informative and an important read, especially after the recent events of CAA and the lack of literature explaining the point of view of the North East. There is definitely a need for the people from Assam to broaden their perspective when it comes to the issue of immigration and for other Indians as well to learn more about the society and politics of the North East better.
The book "Assam: The Accord, The Discord" explains this question through the events of 1985 Assam Accord, which was a Memorandum of Settlement signed between the Indian government and the leaders of the Assam movement. The accord defined March 25 1971 as the date post which any 'foreigner' entering Assam would be identified and deported and the national border will be supported with a wall and security forces against any further infiltration.
For Assam the seed of scepticism towards outsiders was sown during the British rule. They made North East India part of the Bengal province and encouraged immigration to the region for labour and control over its rich resources. The Bengali 'Babus' were preferred for tax collection and record keeping over the local population who were mostly illiterate and untrained. Even after the country's independence perception remained that New Delhi is largely nonchalant towards the cause of Assam. It helped RSS to gradually grow its base and eventually the Janata Party came to power in 1979, till that time the state was governed by the Indian National Congress. The Janata Party was determined to keep the Congress at bay after the Emergency, so when the Election Commission remarked about 'large-scale inclusion of foreign nationals' before the 1979 Mangaldoi byelection, they saw an opportunity and started provoking AASU who accused Congress of using unauthorized immigrants as its vote-bank in Assam.
The agitation started with the decision to go ahead with the election. The protesters barred candidates from contesting, curfew and 'Bandhs' were declared, there were several cases of violent clash between anti and pro election campaigns as well (mostly Assamese and Bengali speakers). Negotiations started with AASU, further complicated by the emergence of AAMSU and meddling by the RSS. But it kept getting dragged on because of disagreements over the cut off year. At the same time violence was escalating and several bomb blasts took place in prominent places, as a result President's rule was declared in multiple times. In Feb 1983, the violence took a much gruesome turn when the Nellie Massacre happened, killing at least 1800 people (mostly women, children and the weak) leaving the darkest chapter in Assamese history. The full report of the massacre by Tiwari commission was never to be made public.
Finally the agreement was reached and the leading personalities of the movement joined politics through AGP, winning the next assembly elections as well. However the new government was mired with corruption and internal conflicts rendering it toothless for the most part. On the other hand ULFA, an armed militia born out of the secessionist ideas, was becoming emboldened. They organized kidnappings, arson, bombings etc. Presidents rule would again be declared and the army intervened with the operations of 'Bajrang' and 'Rhino' to clamp down on their activity and destroy training camps. But the dire security and infrastructure issues meant Assam, despite its vast resources, could never achieve the glory that it promised.
The implementation of the Accord was poor to say the least. The identification of foreigners was slow, deportation only informal and boundaries and border security weak. Detention centers were created, where the living condition was inhuman. Before 2016 only ~80K foreigners were identified, of which ~30K were deported and few thousands remain in detention centers. Things changed after the NRC process, 2016-18, under the direction of the Supreme Court and implemented with much enthusiasm by the new BJP government. But the final list, which included ~1.9 million foreigners, shocked the government because it included Bengali and Nepali Hindus in large numbers who were loyal voters of the party. While BJP never admitted, but it is widely assumed that it was one of the main factors that they came up with CAA, promising citizenship for the outsiders facing religious persecution. There would be mass protest against CAA, not only in Assam but also in the other parts of the country, but book was published before the even as a result it does not cover the same.
The author, Sangeeta Barooah, explains all the aspects of the Accord, its past and its implementation as well as the connection with NRC in great detail. The topic has been part of public discourse in Assam for decades but most of the conversation remain focused on simplistic principals and many practical factors and humanitarian issues stay ignored. The media follows the popular rhetoric and they turn a blind eye to the plight of the so called 'foreigners'. While the topic itself is quite divisive the author remains true to journalistic principle of staying neutral and raises some unpopular questions from the point of view the 'foreigners' as well. At time the details do get overwhelming, the readers may lose track of the direction of the bigger story unfolding.
Overall the book is highly informative and an important read, especially after the recent events of CAA and the lack of literature explaining the point of view of the North East. There is definitely a need for the people from Assam to broaden their perspective when it comes to the issue of immigration and for other Indians as well to learn more about the society and politics of the North East better.
June 23, 2025
A comprehensive and detailed history of the events of the state, leading upto the Assam Accord, its need, and the aftermath. It details about the infiltration, the Agitation, inception of regional bodies, extremist forces, the relation between state and centre, influence of national parties in the state politics, linguistic and religious divide, the NRC, the Assamese identity, and the plight of the common people in midst of this mayhem.
A good read for anyone interested in knowing Assam's history regarding the foreign infiltration problem of Assam, the Agitation and the Accords.
A good read for anyone interested in knowing Assam's history regarding the foreign infiltration problem of Assam, the Agitation and the Accords.
April 3, 2020
An outstanding book, it lays out the political and social events as they unfolded in the state of Assam around the issue of illegal immigrants which still remains unresolved. It explores the issue which started in pre-partition era, developed over time leading to the sign of "Assam Accord" and the politics afterwards. The book clearly explains the how the issue has developed as rather peculiar and unique in Assam which mainland Indians often fail to understand. Undoubtedly, a must read for anyone who wants to understand the core of of the issue which has been at the centrestage of public narrative for nearly half a decade in Assam.
January 7, 2020
This is by far the most well researched account of modern Indian history with concentration on Assam and the fine contours of politics and economics of immigration that has plagued this part of India.
For the people of Assam, it's a must read.
For the people of Assam, it's a must read.
August 2, 2022
An engaging account of the history of North East India from the 1850s to the current with respect to the problem of illegal immigrants. The bitterness between Assamese/ Khilonja (plains tribes) and the Hindu/ Muslim Bengalis, the politics over official language adoption in Assam, the uncertainities plauging immediately after independence of India, and then again during 1971 Bangladesh liberation, and how successive Goverments have failed to close this vexing issue has been dealt with in detail. Also described is how this problem gave rise to frustration among locals which led to insurgency and attacks by migrants and locals on each other. The violence and Assam Agitation of the 80s which culminated in signing of the Assam Accord and ushering in India's youngest Chief Minister, has also been narrated. The author has also gone to nuggets of medieval history of the North East to show how muslims in Assam have been residing side by side with other communities.
This book is of importance considering the NRC/ CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) which was announced by the current Government in 2019. Widespread protests and riots had broken out over the implementation of this act. The fear is that the Assamese/khilonja community could become a minority in their own state.
Overall, a great indepth read into current affairs and problems of Assam.
This book is of importance considering the NRC/ CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) which was announced by the current Government in 2019. Widespread protests and riots had broken out over the implementation of this act. The fear is that the Assamese/khilonja community could become a minority in their own state.
Overall, a great indepth read into current affairs and problems of Assam.
June 28, 2023
Sangeeta has well depicted the "khilonjia" sentiment and captured through a neutral human lens the plights of all who suffered in the conundrum. The book would well cater to the contemporary Assamese (and related) audience who seek to understand the relevance of NRC, CAA (CAB) protest and the long history of Assam Agitation associated with it.
The book is well fragmented through history, causality and effect, and takes the reader through a journey since the early 1800's till current time. One piece which could have been brought out more was the point of view of the Assamese community who were involved in the agitation but were not, politically or any other way, affiliated to any institution.
Considering I have read the first edition, there are some mistakes which hopefully would be rectified in the upcoming editions. Also, verbiage in some part of the book disturbs the story flow and this made me re-read the entire section again.
Would I recommend it? Yes, but only to those who are interested in understanding the history behind Assam Agitation or/and need for NRC
The book is well fragmented through history, causality and effect, and takes the reader through a journey since the early 1800's till current time. One piece which could have been brought out more was the point of view of the Assamese community who were involved in the agitation but were not, politically or any other way, affiliated to any institution.
Considering I have read the first edition, there are some mistakes which hopefully would be rectified in the upcoming editions. Also, verbiage in some part of the book disturbs the story flow and this made me re-read the entire section again.
Would I recommend it? Yes, but only to those who are interested in understanding the history behind Assam Agitation or/and need for NRC
June 15, 2020
The book looks at the making of the Assam Accord and its long shadow on the state, through political gamesmanship between principal players, periods of ULFA and Bodo militancies, and right wing propaganda that has split the state along communal lines. The author is a journalist for the news website The Wire and appears to have undertaken meticulous research to write this book. My first in-depth foray into the Assam issue. The current Govt’s gameplay on CAA and prospective NRC also becomes evident to the reader.
June 1, 2024
A much-needed book for the new generation of Assamese to understand and also people from other states to know what's so different for the CAA protests in Assam and its genesis. Also, a revelation that we have seen throughout our lifetime, where 40 years have gone past since the singing of the Accord and what the people of the state have got for their sacrifice is just a merry-go-round government of different political parties using the agenda to further their political mileage.
February 3, 2022
The book contains an elaborate and comprehensive narration of history and how contemporary society and politics is shaped by it. Seems a bit lengthy at some points but it is necessary to completely draw of picture. Overall it is a very good read and a must if you want to know about Assam in detail.
August 9, 2020
Pitch perfect... Informative... And the most important... It brings a wave of emotion full of nationalism....❤️❤️❤️ It.
Looking forward to read more works from the elegant author.
Looking forward to read more works from the elegant author.
May 22, 2021
Lucid and crisp details from the agitation days till 2019 lok sabha elections. What has changed, what we achieved and what we have lost!
August 24, 2021
Important as a assamese
June 22, 2024
An elaborate account on everything around the Assam Accord. You get to know each and every factor affecting the Assam Accord. A must-read for every Assamese.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews