Abandoned in Assam: India creates its own Rohingya, and calls them ‘Bangladeshi’
- Mass statelessness looms for millions after harrowing, often fatal, citizenship test to find illegal immigrants
- Project to showcase Hindu primacy threatens to disenfranchise both Hindu and Muslim Bengali speakers
Feeding the panic, a state-owned bank was found burning its stock of cash to prevent it from falling into Chinese hands, and a district administrator reportedly freed the inmates of a mental asylum before fleeing the town himself. Locals recount the inmates raising pro-China slogans, thinking the Chinese army had freed them.
It did not help that then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in a November 20 radio address to inform the nation of Indian losses, said his “heart goes out to the people of Assam”. There couldn’t have been a surer sign of New Delhi preparing to concede Assam. But as Assam counted down the hours to certain doom, Beijing suddenly announced a unilateral ceasefire and began to pull back. The war ended just as unexpectedly as it started a month before, and Assam’s place in India was secure again.
But Suro Debi’s struggle to ensure hers was only beginning.