Word: assam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After a tour of the state last week, Prime Minister Gandhi returned to speak before a hushed session of Parliament. "I've seen the agony of Assam," she said. "My heart is filled with sorrow for all those who died." She defended her decision to hold the elections and made a strong appeal for unity to those who had criticized it. "The importance of the country's integrity and independence is higher than any movement, or any of us," she said. "To permit a few their way is to see the country torn apart...
...Bengalis, who began coming to the state when the entire region was part of British India and who now make up about 8 million of the state's estimated 20 million population. For two years, the agitators succeeded in virtually paralyzing all official and economic activity in Assam. They forced closure of Assam's oilfields, which supply one-third of India's petroleum needs. The action cost the government nearly $1.5 billion in additional oil imports in 1979 and 1980, and eventually forced it to send in army troops to take over the oilfields. When national elections...
...effort to defuse the situation and find a resolution to the crisis, New Delhi engaged in negotiations with the student leaders for nearly three years. The government and the students agreed tentatively that anyone who settled in Assam before 1961 could stay. They also agreed to consider that anyone who came after 1971 would be repatriated to other parts of India, a decision that would affect almost 1 million people. But the students were adamant that those who had arrived between 1961 and 1971 be either denied the right to vote or forced to leave, an enormous exercise that could...
Although the leaders were released last week as a conciliatory gesture, it seems unlikely that their movement will soon simmer down. Thus far the dissidents have not called for independence for Assam, but separatism is never very far from the surface. One group even boasts its own flag, a green map of Assam with a mailed fist in the center. Except for a narrow passage, the state is separated from India by Bangladesh. Since ancient times, its ethnic and cultural ties have always been closer to Burma and Tibet than to the rest of India. In tribute to their proud...
...Muslims, who were first brought in by the British to run the tea plantations and the civil service of the British raj. Bengali immigration intensified during partition in 1947 and again after the creation of Bangladesh. Although its population is one of the fastest growing on the subcontinent, Assam has only 254 people per sq. km. West Bengal, by contrast, has 614, one of the highest population densities in the world...