North Eastern India has witnessed migration waves in span of centuries. One such path, starting in colonial era, was traced by people from districts of East Bengal to the neighboring province of Assam. With support from the government and local landowners, the early migrants settled in and around the Char-Chaporis (river islands and embankments) of the Brahmaputra. The lives of people living in Char-Chaporis have had their lives tied to the river, even after frequently losing their land and homes into the river. From such vulnerable landscapes, the Bengal-origin Muslim community largely contributed agriculture growth of the state.
Bengal-origin Muslims in the Char-Chapori areas are known by different names – Miya, Na-Asomiya (New Assamese), Charua, Pamua, and Mainmansinghiya. “Miya” is often used in Assam as a derogatory slur, which originally means “gentleman” in Urdu. The community has been seen as a threat to the indigenous land and identity by other communities in Assam. Over the years, Bengal-origin Muslim community has faced ecological challenges, poverty, systemic and historic discrimination, segregation, a compulsion to assimilate with mainstream Assamese culture, and repeated bouts of communal violence.
One of the forms of resistance to come up from within the community is through poetry, particularly since 2016, in response to the citizenship contestation. Now known as ‘Miya Poetry’, the poems are in dialect evolved within the Char-Chapori people as a blend of Bengali and Assamese. The movement took shape primarily through social media, and faced criticism from people in Assam for portraying the Assamese as xenophobic and for not being in standard Assamese. The poets write about their land and the river as driver of life and struggles, suppression of identity, denial of citizenship rights, poverty, discrimination, migration and reclamation of the Miya identity. Their poems aim to cultivate resilience, foster deeper understandings of difference, and reimagine equality, freedom, and cultural inclusion as essential to citizenship.
Kazi is a poet, journalist, and cultural activist, from Barpeta district of Assam (India). He is a vocal advocate for the marginalized Miya Muslim community of Assam, using his work to highlight citizenship struggle, identity, and representation of Miya culture.
Gitartha is a photographer living between Jorhat, Assam and Kolkata, West Bengal (India). Working in familiar spaces, his work explores uneven urbanities and their environmental and sociological impacts in post-colonial India.