Articles by Hiren Gohain

February 28, 1981 Little Nationalism Turned Chauvinist A Comment Hiren Gohain THERE can be little dispute about much of Amalendu Guha's sober and patient analysis of the Assam Movement But I have certain reservations and criticisms about the general direction of the argument. Such criticism does not follow from opportunism, but from a close observation in the field where time is ripe for a leftist initiative. Though Guha's article is an exception, one gets uneasy about the spate of statistics covering up a reluctance to face the issue squarely in many of the recent articles on Assam. Let me try therefore to give a plain account of the issues as they strike me.

Sanjib Barua argues in his reply (May 17) to my rejoinder (April 19) that the peaceful processions and satyagrabas are the defining elements in the current movement in Assam. Supposing that he comes down from his lofty perch and looks a little closely at the Nazi movement in pro-war Germany, The monster rallies and processions were singularly disciplined, quite 'peaceful' and even aesthetically spectacular. But it is common knowledge today that those were the facade behind which a murderous witch-hunt of Jews, liberals and Communists was going on. I am not saying that the Assam movement is a carboncopy of that terrible blight upon civilisation. But it should at least instil in us a little scepticism regarding the propaganda accompanying the movement. 

Sanjib K Barua in his rejoinder (EPW, March 15) to my article (EPW, February 23) not only deliberately twists and distorts my views to suit his peculiar argument but seems bent on rationalising the position of the Assamese elite, vanguard of the present chauvinist movement, with sleek sociological jargon.

It is the function of social science to penetrate the fog of ideology and discern the true shape and sequence of events. The recent disturbances in Assam have once again brought home this lesson to us. The agitation over the presence of so-called 'foreign nationals' has grown into a massive movement, bringing out into the streets hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women passionately committed to defending Assam from an alleged 'silent invasion' by foreigners, sowing seeds of deep suspicion and mistrust among different communities who have been living as peaceable neighbours for generations, and causing outbreaks of mob violence in which hundreds have lost their lives and thousands have been uprooted from their homes.