Sitting within the rubble, the girl repeatedly appeared on the damaged bricks, as if she would possibly discover some remnant of her life amongst them. A couple of steps away, her daughter Yasmin (title modified) stood silently. Her dream was to turn out to be a physician. At the moment, she has neither a desk, nor a room, nor the home the place she used to dream about her future.
“My daughter needed to turn out to be a physician, however now she doesn’t also have a place to review.”
These are the phrases of a homeless mom from Bandar Matha in Assam’s Goalpara district, whose home was demolished in a current administrative motion. At the moment, this Muslim-majority settlement presents a scene of smash. Damaged partitions, scattered belongings, and households immersed in uncertainty testify to the truth that the administration’s motion, carried out within the title of an “anti-encroachment marketing campaign,” has left 1000’s homeless and a whole bunch of scholars disadvantaged of training.
The story of Goalpara is not only the story of 1 hamlet. It displays a bigger and extra advanced disaster in Assam over citizenship, land rights, and the train of state energy. At a time when the state is grappling with controversial points such because the Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC) and the “de-voter” (uncertain voter) class, these land clearance campaigns are usually not merely administrative actions within the eyes of human rights activists and observers. In response to them, these measures have particularly affected the academic, social, and spiritual buildings of a specific neighborhood, with far-reaching penalties for a whole era.
Questions of Double Requirements
Essentially the most putting factor about getting into Bandar Matha was the obvious disparity in legislation enforcement. In a single a part of the settlement, the homes of the bulk Hindu neighborhood stood intact, whereas the properties of a number of Muslim households close by had been fully razed to the bottom.
An aged girl stood holding tattered citizenship and land paperwork in her fingers. Native translator Maqbool Hussain Qasmi translated her phrases, saying that she was asking, “If this land is unlawful, how did my neighbor’s home turn out to be authorized and mine unlawful?”
Maqbool Hussain additionally pointed to an academic tragedy hidden behind the devastation. A daughter from the identical demolished family had been making ready for the Nationwide Eligibility-cum-Entrance Check (NEET), India’s medical entrance examination. The household’s solely supply of earnings was her father’s small store, which was bulldozed together with the home. Aside from dropping entry to teaching sources, the coed is now compelled to seek for her textbooks among the many rubble of collapsed partitions alongside her father.
Authorized Necessities and Floor Realities
The administration claims these operations are authorized underneath the Assam Land and Income Regulation, 1886, and the Indian Forest Act, 1927, however authorized specialists and human rights activists are elevating severe questions concerning the course of.
In response to a report by Land Battle Watch, on December 13, 2024, 44 households have been evicted from the Panchartan space of the Balijana Income Circle within the presence of heavy equipment and safety forces. Below Part 165(3) of the Assam Land and Income Regulation and Rule 18(3) of the Settlement Guidelines, a minimum of 15 to 30 days’ discover should be given earlier than an eviction in order that affected folks can pursue authorized cures or make various preparations.
However the information on the bottom recommend that notices are both not issued in any respect or are delivered simply 24 hours earlier than the motion. A 65-year-old native resident claims that he has lived there for 3 generations and has been paying land tax for the reason that Seventies. In response to the report of the UN Particular Rapporteur on Ample Housing (A/HRC/RES/43/14, dated 6 July 2020), governments are obliged to offer evicted folks with enough compensation, various housing, and fundamental requirements similar to meals. Nonetheless, Goalpara seems to be in blatant violation of those worldwide norms.
Academic and Spiritual Establishments Additionally Below Assault
Essentially the most worrying side of my subject reporting was the allegations relating to the demolition of instructional and spiritual establishments. Women from poor households used to review on the “Madrasat al-Banat Bidya Para Krishnai” adjoining to Bandar Matha. At the moment, solely piles of bricks stay. The pinnacle of the madrasa, Mufti Muqibur Rehman, mentioned that the demolition has affected the training of about 400 women, as there isn’t any different instructional establishment for ladies in your complete space.
The administration claims that the madrasa was constructed on land belonging to the Forest Division. Nonetheless, on the identical disputed land, there’s a massive temple unfold throughout a number of acres adjoining to the madrasa, in opposition to which no motion has been taken. The identical alleged double customary was additionally seen within the Panj Ratna space, the place half of an outdated mosque was demolished whereas the development of a brand new temple continues uninterrupted proper subsequent to it.
In response to paperwork offered by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Common Secretary Maulana Hakimuddin Qasmi and Assam-based cleric Maulana Abdul Qadir Qasmi, a complete of 11,183 households have been evicted in Assam between November 2023 and July 2025, straight affecting 77,379 folks. Throughout this era, 48 mosques, 86 instructional establishments (together with 75 colleges and 11 madrasas), and 37 different websites (together with 22 Eidgahs and 15 graveyards) have been demolished. The state’s Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, himself confirmed within the Meeting that 4,449 bighas of land occupied by mosques, colleges, and madrasas had been cleared thus far.
This alleged administrative arbitrariness additionally consists of what critics describe as a blatant violation of court docket orders. Native resident Chafa Begum had filed a petition within the Gauhati Excessive Courtroom earlier than the evictions. The court docket didn’t fully halt the eviction course of, however declared the discover issued by the Balijana Income Circle null and void as a result of it didn’t clearly establish the disputed land and since the officer involved lacked the authority to situation the discover. Regardless of these court docket observations, forest officers carried out the operation utilizing bulldozers.
In response to Animul Haque, president of the All Assam Minority College students’ Organisation (AAMSU), the Balijana Circle Officer had assured residents that there could be no motion within the income areas, however the Divisional Forest Officer proceeded with the operation.
The State’s Place and Contradictions on the Floor
The state authorities and the Forest Division defend all these actions within the title of environmental safety. In July 2025, Goalpara District Forest Officer (DFO) Tejas Mariswamy advised NDTV concerning the operation within the Paikan Reserve Forest: “Goalpara district has recorded the very best variety of incidents of human-elephant battle. That’s the reason the Excessive Courtroom has ordered the elimination of all encroachments from forest land.”
Nonetheless, the district administration has but to offer any official rationalization for the alleged double requirements within the demolition of spiritual buildings, the shortage of rehabilitation measures, and the disregard for court docket orders. Hafiz Rafiqul Islam, a legislator from the opposition All India United Democratic Entrance (AIUDF), rejects the declare that these areas represent “forest land,” saying: “These villages are listed within the 1951 Assam NRC. There are electrical energy connections, roads, water initiatives, and authorities colleges right here. If that is forest land, then how did the state authorities present all these services?”
In response to Wajid Ali, a lawyer with the Goalpara Legal professionals Affiliation, solely 25.67% of the district’s forest space is underneath encroachment, together with by tribal communities engaged in rubber and tea cultivation. Nonetheless, he argues that the current operations have focused solely settlements inhabited by Bengali Muslims.
Hasilapara: A Story Past the Rubble
Hasilapara, one of many affected areas in Goalpara, presents maybe essentially the most heartbreaking image of the disaster. Right here, households displaced from Panj Ratna live in makeshift shelters product of tarpaulin, bamboo, and plastic sheets. It was right here that I met Ayesha, a Class 10 pupil. One chilly night, she sat inside her momentary shelter. Worry and uncertainty have been evident in her eyes. Crying, she mentioned, “All my books bought soaked within the rain. How will I research now? How will I take my exams?”
This query isn’t Ayesha’s alone. It’s the query of a whole bunch of youngsters whose training has been straight affected by the evictions. And in these questions lies the total weight of the structural violence that Assam’s minority neighborhood says it’s experiencing in the present day.
This instructional disaster isn’t restricted to the lack of books. Following the eviction within the Jaleswar Betbari space, the present authorities faculty constructing was transformed into an workplace of the Forest Division. Changing colleges into administrative places of work is, critics argue, a transparent violation of the state’s constitutional obligations underneath the Proper to Training (RTE) Act. When various avenues of training are blocked for kids in affected areas, it successfully signifies that the state is chopping off a whole era from the trail of social progress.
The reporting for the story was supported by a grant from the Human Rights and Spiritual Freedom Journalism Grant Program.
