SOWING SEEDS OF MISTRUST IN ASSAM

The Muslim-majority district of Dhubri, in Assam, close to the Bangladesh border, has remained largely calm after experiencing some fraught periods following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. This month, however, cattle body parts were allegedly found at a Hanuman temple on successive days, sparking communal tensions. Rahul Karmakar reports on a district on edge

- Rahul Karmakar

Sobjer Ali is a man of routine. Every day, for nearly 50 years, he has travelled by boat between Kuntirchar Part 2, the village where he lives in Dhubri district of Assam, and Patharghat, where he ran a shop selling cattle feed. The routine, disturbed in the past sometimes by festivals, floods, and communal conflicts, was disrupted on June 14 when his world turned upside down. The shop that sustained Ali’s family of six was one of the 110 deemed illegal and demolished by the local authorities. This happened a week after the body parts of cattle were allegedly found on successive days near a Hanuman temple about 2 kilometres away, triggering anger in the district.

Dhubri, the headquarters of the Muslim-majority Dhubri district, is 290 km west of Guwahati. It is bounded by the Brahmaputra river and its tributary, Gadadhar, on three sides. The town stands close to where the Brahmaputra becomes the Yamuna after flowing past the India-Bangladesh border. Dhubri is also used as a metaphor by some communities and political parties to underline the fear that drives politics in Assam — of how the influx of people from Bangladesh can one day overrun ‘indigenous’ Indians.

“We have endured worse situations, but aage keu pete laathi maarey nai (no one snatched away our sources of livelihood earlier),” said Ali. “We have been paying ₹50 per week to the municipality through a lessee who renews our lease every year. We barely had an hour to salvage our wares before the demolition started.” He said he cannot understand why he was punished for what miscreants did elsewhere in the town.