CM Himanta Biswa Sarma held a meeting with senior officials at the state secretariat regarding it.
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A day after Nitish Kumar released a caste census report in Bihar, the BJP-led government in Assam on Tuesday issued a direction for a "socio economic survey" of the state's 40 lakh indigenous Muslims, a demand which remained pending for long.
The four indigenous Muslim communities are Goria, Moria, Deshi, Syed and Jolha.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma chaired a meeting on Tuesday here in which he directed the officials to initiate steps for carrying out the survey. "The findings of the survey will guide the government to take suitable measures aimed at the comprehensive socio-political and educational upliftment of the state’s indigenous minorities," said an official statement from the Chief Minister's office.
In July last year, the BJP led government, which came to power for the second straight term in May 2021, decided to recognise nearly 40 lakh Assamese Muslims as khilonjia or indigenous.
Nearly 34 per cent of Assam's population (nearly 3.50 crores) are Muslims and a large chunk of them are Bengali speaking immigrant Muslims, whom BJP refuses to accept as part of Assamese society. In fact, before elections, BJP have tried to project them as ghuspetiyas or infiltrators from erstwhile East Pakistan or present Bangladesh and a threat to identity and culture of the greater Assamese society.
The four indigenous Muslim communities too have been demanding for a socio-economic survey to take up special welfare measures but the same remained pending for long. They claim that large population of Bengali speaking Muslims posed a threat to their ethnic identity and culture.
The groups have been classified according to the period in which they inhabited Assam or the communities they converted from. For instance, the deshis and jolhas converted from the Koch Rajbongshis and tea garden communities.