Miya Museum

Assam’s Health, Finance and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has stirred a controversy in the state by saying that his government would not allow a ‘Miya museum’ despite a legislative committee dominated by BJP and its allies recommending a museum to showcase exhibits from Muslim-majority riverine areas.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

The ‘Miya’ community comprises descendants of Muslim migrants from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Assam. They came to be referred to as ‘Miyas’, often in a derogatory manner.

The community migrated in several waves — starting with the British annexation of Assam in 1826, and continuing into Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War — and have resulted in changes in demographic composition of the region.

Years of discontent among the indigenous people led to the six-year-long (1979-85) anti-foreigner Assam Agitation to weed out the “illegal immigrant”, who was perceived as trying to take over jobs, language and culture of the indigenous population.

Char-chaporis are shifting riverine islands of the Brahmaputra and are primarily inhabited by the Muslims of Bengali-origin (pejoratively referred to as ‘Miyas’).

A char is a floating island while chaporis are low-lying flood-prone riverbanks.

The website of the Directorate of Char Areas Development puts the population of chars at 24.90 lakh as per a socio-economic survey in 2002-03.

While Bengali-origin Muslims primarily occupy these islands, other communities such as Misings, Deoris, Kocharis, Nepalis also live here.