August 13, 2025
NEW DELHI – A decision by the Assam government to introduce a liberal arms policy for “indigenous” civilians to defend themselves against “unlawful threats” could worsen the north-eastern Indian state’s long and bloody record of ethnic and religious violence, critics say.
That could have a far-reaching impact, including for India’s “Act East” policy. Assam’s stability is important to bring in wider development for India’s north-east, a region central to the country’s vision of developing closer ties with South-east Asia.
The Chief Minister of Assam and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma, announced on Aug 6 on X that his government is creating a dedicated portal so that “original” inhabitants and “indigenous” people of the state “who perceive a threat to their lives and reside in sensitive areas” can apply for arms licences.
The move, which comes ahead of state elections scheduled from March to April 2026, is ostensibly aimed at helping locals deal with alleged threats that emanate from the illegal migration of Bengali Muslims from adjacent Bangladesh.
Mr Sarma has blamed Bengali Muslims for committing crimes, including sexual violence against women, to force “indigenous” people to move out of their land. There is no credible evidence to support this claim.
In Hindu-majority Assam, which is also dominated by Assamese speakers, Indian Bengali Muslims have repeatedly been vilified as “illegal immigrants” occupying the land of the “indigenous” peoples.
Assam shares a nearly 270km porous border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, large tracts of which are riverine. Since India’s independence in 1947, the state has witnessed large-scale migration from Bangladesh, with Hindus and Muslims moving to Assam either in search of livelihoods or fleeing religious persecution.
This migration has been blamed for changing the demography of certain parts of the state, and is cited by the government and indigenous groups as a threat to local livelihoods and cultures, prompting a violent anti-immigrant backlash over the years that has targeted Assam’s local Bengali Muslim population, which forms the vast majority of the state’s estimated 12 million Muslims, as well as Bengali Hindus.
Assam, a mosaic of various ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, has a population of around 35 million. Muslims account for more than a third of the state’s population – the highest percentage among Indian states.
In such a volatile setting, many fear issuing arms licences to “indigenous” civilians could further target Assam’s Bengali Muslims, putting them in the cross hairs of vigilantes.
When the decision to issue arms licences was cleared by the state Cabinet in May, Mr Sarma had named districts such as Dhubri, Barpeta, South Salmara-Mankachar, Morigaon and Nagaon as some of the “vulnerable” areas. All these districts have a Bengali Muslim majority.
The Chief Minister said that “indigenous people are in (the) minority” in these districts, some of which border Bangladesh, and often “have to confront the question of their security”. “Even interior and remote places, where government presence is minimal and where threats of infiltration persist, would qualify,” he said.
There have already been many instances of violence between Bengali Muslims and other groups in the state. Kokrajhar district, which is part of the Bodoland Territorial Region in Assam, has often seen large-scale violence erupt between Bengali Muslims and Bodos, including most recently in 2014, when more than 30 Bengali Muslims were killed by Bodo rebels.
Dr Suraj Gogoi, a sociologist whose research has focused on issues related to minorities and citizenship in Assam, told The Straits Times that allowing civilians to bear arms is a “preposterous and extremely dangerous idea”, especially in a state where there is “no lack of lawlessness”.
“This is yet another tactic to instil fear (in Bengali Muslims) and carry out a form of mass punishment, if you will, of these people,” he added.
Bengali Muslims in Assam have been subjected to vigilante attacks and disproportionately targeted in government crackdowns in the state, currently governed by the Hindu right-wing BJP.
This is despite them being Indian citizens with roots often going back to British-era India, which included present-day Bangladesh. Many of their ancestors were then brought in from there to Assam by the British to cultivate crops such as jute on the region’s many low-lying riverine islands.
According to a July 31 report by Washington-based research group India Hate Lab, Assam has witnessed a “sharp and deeply concerning escalation” in hate speech, targeted harassment, violence and state-led evictions against Bengali-origin Muslims since early June, under the campaign to remove “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants”.
These attacks come at a time when the BJP-led state government has also targeted Assam’s Bengali Muslim community to mobilise votes from Hindus and other groups in the state.
Mr Sarma, a leader known for his controversial remarks, has said that he will not let “Miya” Muslims “take over” Assam, adding that he is “not in the competition” for their votes. “Miya” is a pejorative term for Bengali Muslims in Assam.
His government has intensified a crackdown on people who have encroached on government land, targeting mostly Bengali Muslims, many of whom depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Since May 2021, when Mr Sarma became chief minister, 50,000 people – mostly Bengali Muslims – have been evicted from around 160 sq km of land, with more such evictions planned, according to Reuters.
The state has also forcibly deported Indian Bengali-Muslims to Bangladesh, labelling them “illegal immigrants” despite them having appeals pending in Indian courts. Such individuals have been sent back by the Bangladeshi authorities.
Assam began updating its National Register of Citizens (NRC) to identify “illegal” migrants in 2013 and bring some closure to the decades-long concerns of illegal migration from Bangladesh. This chaotic and flawed citizenship verification exercise excluded more than 1.9 million people in August 2019, including many who were born and have lived in India their entire lives.
Instead of bringing about any closure, the exercise has further intensified the illegal migration narrative with criticism from both the state government and Assamese ethnonationalist groups who say it failed to include many illegal migrants in the state.
After the exercise – whose outcome has yet to be declared formally – those excluded are expected to prove their citizenship through Foreigners Tribunals, quasi-judicial courts whose track record has been dubious.
“There is a frustration of not being able to punish (Bengali Muslims) enough through the NRC, which is why they are now trying these different tactics,” said Dr Gogoi.
The state government has said that individuals will be given the licence to bear arms after proper scrutiny and vetting. The licences will also be non-transferable and subject to periodic review. But this has done little to prevent criticism, including from opposition parties and civil society.
Mr Ashraful Hussain, a member of the state assembly, told ST the move was clearly aimed at targeting Bengali Muslims and Hindus as well as other “non-indigenous” ethnic groups.
“This will (also) lead to a rise in robbery, thefts and extortion… It is a failure of the state,” added the leader from the All India United Democratic Front, which has a strong following among Bengali Muslims.
Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said the decision to arm civilians “reflects not public concern, but electoral concerns”. “People of Assam deserve jobs, affordable healthcare, quality education, not guns,” he added in a post on X.
This is not the first time that a state has decided to allow civilians in India to carry arms on such a scale. A people’s vigilante movement known as Salwa Judum was created in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh in 2005, and its members were armed to fight Naxals, a far-left armed movement.
The force was criticised for its human rights violations, which include accusations of rape, murder and the burning of villages. It was eventually disbanded after the country’s top court in 2011 ruled the movement was unconstitutional.
In Assam, even certain indigenous tribal groups have opposed the government’s decision to issue these arms licences. Mr Manoranjan Basumatary, the president of the United Bodo People’s Organisation, told ST that the Bodo people had waged a long armed struggle for a separate homeland but paid a heavy price for it.
“It really set us back in terms of education and created hurdles for our development,” he said. He said it is the government’s responsibility to provide security to the people. “I don’t believe in arms, and I oppose it.”
The Nari Nagarik Manch, a women’s collective, on Aug 9 also urged the government to reconsider its decision, arguing that it could lead to a “civil war scenario, increase gender violence and cause arms proliferation”.
Arming people, Dr Gogoi fears, will lead to “a very toxic kind of social surveillance” that could enable local vigilante groups to further curtail the rights of Bengali Muslims in Assam, including by placing restrictions on where they can live and work.
“The gun is not just to shoot, but it’s also used to do a lot of other things,” he said. “I see a perennial kind of unfreedom unfolding (for Assam’s Bengali Muslims) in the long run.”