About the Book This book gives an account of how during early history, Assam came to be inhabited by a variety of ethnic communities and how in the later years the State got divided into five States, forming part of what is now called the 'Seven Sister States', the people of the newly-emerging States succeeding in asserting their respective identity or language. Assam's demographic map had further come to be blurred from the beginning of this century, first with the migration of people from the eastern part of Bengal and later after the Partition of India, by the illegal entry of people from Bangladesh.. The book depicts how a mass infiltration of foreigners led to the building up of a prolonged anti-foreigner movement to throw out the foreigners. The six-year long agitation by the All Assam Students' Union ended in the signing of an Assam Accord and the emergence into power of a youthful Asom Gana Parishad Government in Assam, indeed a students' government for the first time in India, and probably anywhere else in the world. But as time wore on, the AGP when in power was unable to get the foreigners expelled despite its striving hard for it and engaging into a running battle with the Central Government. The agitation seemed to have been in vain. Meanwhile, internal strife has developed to make the AGP government shaky, and on the top of it, demands have been intensified by the Plains and Hills tribals in Assam for the creation of separate States, threatening a balkanization of an already truncated Assam.
About the Author D. P. Kumar, Chief of News Bureau of The Statesman, New Delhi, has been reporting on political affairs in the country for his newspaper for a long time. Kumar was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, USA, for a sabbatical year, studying Soviet Government and Politics, and Modern Chinese History and Economics of China. He wrote a paper on 'Changing Indo-Soviet Relationship' under the guidance of the world renowned scholar of Soviet affairs, Merle Fainsod. He also worked briefly on the Press-Enterprises Group of newspapers in Riverside, California, USA. Kumar was posted in Nepal for three years for his newspaper and he brought out many stories about Nepal's agreement with China settling the Sino Nepalese border and other interesting happenings of the time. Later, he published 'Nepal-Year of Decision' (Vikas) in 1980 which received extensive reviews. He also wrote a monogram on Nepal in the quarterly Magazine of the Indian Council of World Affairs.
Preface I have been involved on behalf of The Statesman newspaper that I work for with covering the events in Assam over the entire period of the Assam agitation and thereafter. I have chronicled the events in this book, borrowing at times from the reportage and comments in other newspapers and journals. This is a note to acknowledge the references I have fallen back upon to complete the account. My apologies for any inaccuracies that may have crept in inadvertently.
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