GUWAHATI: In the backdrop of
Brahmaputra and Barak valleys of
Assam taking a divergent stand on Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, community leaders and intellectuals from both the regions have urged people to resist from communalising the discourse on citizenship.
Acclaimed Guwahati-based theatre actor Baharul Islam said the good relation that Brahmaputra and Barak valleys have been enjoying presently should not be hampered at any cost just because of the bill.
“A kind of communal politics is being played around the bill, which is a dangerous thing to the relation between Brahmaputra and Barak valleys, but also between Hindus and Muslims. We all have to desist these communal politics centred on the bill,” Islam, the winner of Habib Tanvir Ras Rang Samman 2016 and
Badal Sircar Rang Ratan Award 2015, said.
Many commentators said that the cultural divide which had kept the two valleys apart in the past is narrowing down with increasing cultural interactions between the two regions. Even inter-community marriages in the two valleys have increased, they said. In one of the instances of two valleys coming together was in 2005 when people from both sides came in overwhelming support for playback singer
Debojit Saha from Silchar in Bengali-majority Barak valley for his victory in a national signing competition.
All Assam Students Union rallied behind Saha’s victory.
“Whatever conflict the two valleys had let it remain things of the past. In no situation the bill should be used as a plank for fresh conflict,” Islam, an alumnus of
National School of Drama, said.
Associate professor of history at Lumding College in Hojai district of central Assam,
Indrajit Bezbarua said a difference of opinion over the bill should be treated as natural given the diverse cultural contexts of the two valleys.
“We are a pluralistic society, and differences of opinion (on the bill) should be taken in the spirit of democracy. In a diverse state like ours, we cherish the diversity of cultures too. Brahmaputra and Barak valleys may be of two different cultures, there is also the cultural relationship between the two valleys,” Bezbarua said.
Barak valley-based history researcher and writer Sanjib Deb Laskar said it is unfortunate that the bill is being used by vested groups to create rift not only between Hindus and Muslims but also between the two valleys.
“This is not good for us because Assamese and Bengalis irrespective of religious affiliations have to live together and nurture our respective cultures together,” Deb explained.
