Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma addressing the media in Guwahati on January 21, 2023 | Photo Credit: PTI
heyOn 8 January, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma backfired by suggesting that Bagh Hazarika, a 17th-century Muslim warrior capable of fighting the Mughals alongside legendary Ahom general Lachit Barphukan, is a fictional character. He said that a story was fabricated about Bagh Hazarika, whose real name was Ismail Siddiqui. He wondered why “our history teachers” never questioned this narrative. “If you read the complete history of the Battle of Saraighat, you will find that Bagh Hazarika is not mentioned anywhere,” he said again on 12 January.
The Battle of Saraighat, fought in March 1671, is often equated with the Battle of Trafalgar. Barphukan’s army, which consisted of various ethnic communities apart from prominent Ahoms, used hills, swamps, forests and water bodies to defeat the Mughal army led by Raja Ram Singh. Mr. Sarma’s observation angered some minority leaders, who saw it as a “right-wing ploy” to “instigate” Assamese Muslims and divide Assamese society. But he was not the first to stir controversy.
Bagh Hazarika’s existence began to be questioned during Barphukan’s 400th birth anniversary celebrations in New Delhi in 2022, when the Hindu Jagran Manch said the Muslim warrior is a fictional character without any “symbolic representation” in the history of Assam. The panel discussions then focused on how the Ahom generals prevented the Islamization of a large area of land by thwarting the Mughal invasion. The panellists said reliable accounts of Ahom history do not mention any associate of Barphukan by the name of Bagh Hazarika.
“Pained” by the “bid to erase Bagh Hazarika” from popular history, 10 Assamese Muslim intellectuals and scholars urged the Assam government to set up a history committee under a prestigious university to find out more about the warrior. While some community members said that there were not enough documents to prove Bagh Hazarika’s existence, they all agreed that his name is recorded in history and that Hindutva’s failure to recognize the contribution of Muslims to Indian history Controversy is being created keeping the agenda in mind. ,
Point to Assamese Muslim leaders Annals of the Delhi Badshahte, by historian Surya Kumar Bhuiyan, published by the Directorate of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Government of Assam in 1947. A footnote on ‘Assamese Muhammadan Commanders’ states that Bagh Hazarika’s “military genius was partly responsible for the success of Lachit Barphukan’s operations against Ram Singh”. It was “heard from Maulvi Mufizuddin Ahmed Hazarika,” a noted Assamese poet and “a descendant of the said Bagh Hazarika”. Assamese literary stalwarts such as former Director General of Police Harekrishna Deka said that Bagh Hazarika, like some other “historical” characters, has long been in folklore and cannot be dismissed as fiction as he is not mentioned in the history of Assam.
Bagh Hazarika has been seen as an “inappropriate” inclusion of Barphukan as a “Hindu” warrior after the BJP came to power in Assam. The Tai Ahom Youth Council has protested this “distortion of history” as the community practiced an indigenous faith during normal times. The BJP has been credited with making Barphukan a “national hero” despite the National Defense Academy awarding the Lachit Barphukan award to its best cadet since 1999, when the Asom Gana Parishad-led government was in power. ,
But what has raised eyebrows is the “message” the BJP may have sent to Assamese Muslims that they “are not” Khilonjia (Indigenous)”Enough. The Bagh Hazarika issue has been raised less than six months after identifying five sub-groups of indigenous Muslims to differentiate them from Bengali-speaking/Bengali-origin Muslims. The Sadou Asom Goriya Jati Parishad, one of several organizations representing Assamese Muslims, said dividing the community into subgroups would set a dangerous precedent. It smelled a ploy to steer clear of the community’s Muslim tag over its preferred Assamese identity, saying “there is no reference to the word Assamese Muslim in our history”.
That history is of no importance when the BJP, which has been filtering out “immigrant” Bengali Muslims from there Khilonjia Assamese Muslims are reportedly rewriting the past of Assam and some of its symbols.