Char Chapori Culture

Context: A controversy has sparked in Guwahati, Assam, over the proposed museum reflecting the culture of 'Char-Chapori' people in the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra.

Background: The Health Minister in Assam assembly rejected a Congress MLA’s idea of setting up a “Miya Museum” at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, a centre in Guwahati showcasing the State’s cultural heritage.

The Char-Chapori museum was recommended by the Standing Committee on Art and Culture presented to the 126-member Assembly on March 24. As the people living in char areas are mostly referred to as Miya, the committee proposed to the government to establish a museum that would highlight and reflect the culture and heritage of the Miya people of char chapori island.

Char Chapori People

The Char-Chapori area denotes the riverine area of lower and central Assam which mainly comprises of Bengali Muslims. Some people claim that the residents in that area are from erstwhile East Bengal, which was an integral part of undivided India, Some claims that residents have migrated from Bangladesh, reflecting the anti-foreigner sentiment prevalent in Assam.

The community migrated in several pockets, believe to be starting from the British annexation of Assam in 1826, and continuing into Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, and have resulted in changes in demographic composition of the region. Years of discontent among the indigenous people led to the six-year-long (1979-85) anti-foreigner Assam Agitation to weed out the “illegal immigrant”, who was perceived as trying to take over jobs, language and culture of the indigenous population.

Socio-economic survey in 2002-03, data shows that estimated population in the area was nearly 24.90 lakh, that bound to have increased since.

The Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, where the 'Char-Charpori' museum is proposed, is a cultural institution named after the saint scholar, social-religious reformer Srimanta Sankardeva, who was a Vaishanavite, adding a religious clash to the controversy.

Moreover, the complex was set up under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, signed in 1985, to 'preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the people of Assam', after the bloody anti-foreigners agitation in Assam.

Char Chaporis

The Char is a floating island and the chaporis are low-lying flood prone riverbanks. They are used interchangeably in each other's form. They keep changing shapes, a char can become a chapori, or vice versa, depending on the push and pull of the flow of river Brahmaputra.

Prone to floods and erosion, these areas are marked by low development indices. Nearly 80% of the Char population lives below poverty line, states the government website. UNDP Assam Human Development report from 2014 describes the char areas as suffering from communication deficits, lack of adequate schooling facilities beyond primary, girl child marriage, poverty and illiteracy.

Bengali-origin Muslims primarily occupy these islands, and other communities such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, Nepalis also live here.

Present Status of Miya Community of Char Chapori Region

They have been referred to as Bangladeshi for many years. It is a very complex community. Over the years, the community has tried to integrate into the larger Assamese society, by speaking Assamese, sending their children to Assamese schools and declaring Assamese as their language since the 1951 census.

The community had a significant presence in Assamese literary and cultural life. Other community members often impressed by the high quality of the Assamese spoken and written by many people from this background.

Prominent Assamese personalities such as the late human rights activist-journalist Parag Kumar Das have made efforts for greater acceptance of char dwellers.

The first Assamese school in a char area was set up as far back in 1899. And today, the community is not just made up of farmers, drivers and labourers. There are doctors, writers, researchers, engineers.

Distinct Culture

The Miya community identifying as Assamese, feels that like other ethnic groups, they too should celebrate their own culture and heritage within the larger Assamese fold.

They showcase char culture related to agriculture and the river. The community has a variety of songs (bhatiali related to the river, magan geet or harvest songs, noi khelor geet or boat songs etc), instruments and equipment to catch fish, as well as different kinds of boats.

Controversy

The museum has been proposed in the Kalakshetra, which is a cultural complex in Guwahati named after neo-Vaishnavite reformer Srimanta Sankardev, and which was set up as part of Clause 6 (that states - to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people) of the Assam Accord, signed at the culmination of the Assam Agitation.

According to Tamuli Phukan, the fact that the museum is proposed to be part of Kalakshetra, a product of the Assam Accord, hurts Assamese sentiments. The Assamese feel that these claims of a distinct cultural sphere/ identity by the community may eventually lead to political or ethnic assertions in the future. This is not a fear that has been conjured up overnight but a fear of decades.

In 2019, a controversy had broken out regarding poetry written by the Miya community in their native dialects. Given Assam’s sensitive political history, where language is the biggest fault line, the poetry faced backlash from the Assamese-speaking community.

Conclusion

The Miya community wants to preserve their heritage, art & culture.

It will just add a layer to the culture of the Assamese society, and make it even richer. The migration and assimilation of the Bengali-origin communities reflect an amazing success story of Axomiya culture’s capacity to integrate new people. The Kalakshetra should find ways to incorporate newer elements of culture into its collection to show that this integrative capacity has not diminished.

Connecting the Article

Question for Prelims

Char Chapori was recently in news, related to

(a) Dance Form of Assam
(b) Martial Arts Form of Manipur
(c) Riverine area of Assam
(d) None of the Above

Answer (c)

Question for Mains

Discuss the various economic and socio-cultural forces that are driving identity conflicts in India.