After 41 years of secrecy, the Assam government has finally made public the explosive Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary Commission report that successive administrations deliberately suppressed. The landmark document reveals how decades of governments allowed the state's escalating land and identity crisis to fester, ultimately triggering the horrific 1983 Nellie massacre and other violent disturbances.
The Suppressed Truth Behind Assam's Violence
The Congress government originally established the Tewary Commission to investigate the cycle of violence that rocked Assam between January and April 1983. This period coincided with the intense anti-foreigner movement that gripped the state. Rather than treating the disturbances as purely communal conflicts, the commission's findings presented a radically different perspective that challenged official narratives for generations.
Justice Tewary explicitly stated that interpreting the violence as communal would represent "a very superficial view." The report meticulously documents that "all sections of society suffered as a result of the senseless violence" and emphasized that victims "were not confined to one religious, ethnic or linguistic group."
Land Disputes: The Core Irritant
The commission identified illegal occupation of land by immigrants as "one of the greatest irritants" for indigenous Assamese people. The report states unequivocally that "land has been the main attraction for illegal immigrants," validating indigenous populations' fears of being overrun as "not imaginary."
Drawing from census data and testimony from British administrators and census commissioners described as impartial observers, the report painted a troubling picture of escalating tensions. Justice Tewary noted that "ejectment of encroachment stopped in 1979," creating a vacuum that allowed land disputes to intensify.
The commission proposed concrete solutions, recommending that infiltrator detection and encroacher removal should be "inseparably linked." It suggested establishing a multi-disciplinary task force led by magistrates and supported by armed police, rather than leaving these critical tasks to junior officials.
Defining Assamese Identity and Regulating Land
The Tewary report offered groundbreaking recommendations for protecting Assamese identity and land rights. It proposed that immovable property should not be transferred to non-Assamese hands, advocating for "reasonable restrictions" even on Indian citizens from outside the state.
For defining Assamese identity, the commission suggested referencing the National Register of Citizens or establishing minimum domicile requirements in Assam. "While defining who is an Assamese for this purpose, a reference to the National Register of Citizens or a minimum period of domicile in Assam or/and such other conditions, as might be found reasonable, may be examined," the report stated.
The document also made crucial distinctions between different categories of immigrants from Bangladesh. It separated refugees fleeing persecution from those migrating primarily for land and economic opportunities. The report asserted that persecution victims "deserve all sympathy and support which has been the consistent national policy" and recommended granting citizenship to those who hadn't already received it.
This differentiation between migrant categories notably predates and aligns with principles later incorporated into the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The BJP-led government's decision to release the Tewary Commission report after four decades of suppression marks a significant moment in Assam's political history. It exposes how multiple administrations, including the first AGP ministry that tabled the report in the assembly in 1987 without discussing its contents, chose to ignore critical warnings about the state's most pressing issues.
