Inside Assam’s Bulldozer Politics Against Bengali-Speaking Muslims

September 20, 2025

By TEJ BAHADUR SINGH

Assam's Bengali-Speaking Muslims are facing demolitions because they are being accused of being Bangladeshis. But many of them have been living in Assam for decades. One such man is 50-year-old Suleman Ali. Born in Hasila Beel, a village in Assam’s Goalpara district, he grew up landless but dreamed of building a home. After years of hard work, he slowly saved for bricks, tin sheets, and labor. It took nearly a decade, but he finally built a house where he raised his children and married off his daughters. In June 2025, bulldozers reduced it all to rubble within hours. His story mirrors that of thousands across Assam. In recent years, eviction drives have intensified, displacing mostly Bengali-speaking Muslim families who have lived in these villages for generations.

In Goalpara alone, over three thousand families lost their homes within two months, according to a local journalist who reported from the eviction sites. Statewide, nearly 50,000 people have been displaced since 2021. The government defends the demolitions as land reclamation from “encroachers.” But on the ground, families with voter IDs, Aadhaar, land tax receipts, and even government housing have been branded as illegal. In many cases, evictions went ahead despite pending court orders, without notice, rehabilitation, or due process — in defiance of constitutional protections. The human cost is severe. Families now live in makeshift camps without food, water, or healthcare. Children’s education is disrupted, and illness spreads in unsafe conditions. For many, the loss is not only of shelter but of belonging — being treated as outsiders in the land they were born.

Behind the rhetoric of land reclamation lies a politics of identity. Officials frame these actions as technical, yet the Chief Minister himself has linked them to removing “Miya Muslims” and even suggested evicted families will be struck off the voter list. Meanwhile, land in other parts of Assam has quietly been handed to corporate projects. For Suleman and thousands like him, each demolished house represents more than broken walls. It is the erasure of dignity, belonging, and security. In Assam today, the struggle over land has become a struggle over identity itself.