>Dimadick at 18:29, 26 June 2021

2021-06-26T18:29:40Z

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{{POV|date=August 2018}}
{{Lead too short|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Goreswar massacre
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| map = {{Location map|India Assam|lat=26.54|long=91.73|caption=}}
| map_caption =
| location = [[Goreswar]], [[Kamrup district]] (now [[Baksa district]]), [[Assam]], [[India]]
| target = [[Bengali Hindus]]
| coordinates =
| date = 3 July 1960
| time =
| timezone = UTC+5:30
| type = [[Massacre]], [[ethnic cleansing]], [[pogrom]]
| fatalities = At least 9 men and 1 woman
| injuries = More than 1,000<br />
50,000 people fled to [[West Bengal]]
| perps = [[Assamese people|randa Assamese]] mobs
| weapons = Guns, spears, swords, scythes, bows and arrows
| numparts =
}}
The '''Goreswar massacre''' was the [[massacre]] of [[Bengali Hindus]] in [[Goreswar]], in the [[Kamrup district]] (now [[Baksa district]]) of the Indian state of Assam.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARMqHVWHFeAC&q=bengalis+killed+goreswar&pg=PA110|title=Documents on North-East India: Assam (1958 to modern times)|last=Sharma|first=Suresh K.|date=2006|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=9788183240918|language=en}}</ref>The massacre was part of a pre-planned [[pogrom]], organized in a meeting of the local Teachers' Association.

== Background ==
During and after the [[Indian independence movement|independence of India]] movement, [[Bengali Hindus]] were [[Ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleansed]] in the Indian state of [[Assam]]. After the [[List of riots in India|partition riots]], the next major ethnic conflagration in Assam occurred during the [[Bengali Language Movement (Barak Valley)|Bengali language movement]] in 1960. The [[Government of Assam]] decided to make [[Assamese language|Assamese]] the only official language in the state. [[Bengali people]] protested against this decision as it would affect their employment prospects. The [[Barak Valley]] was a Bengali dominated area and became a centre of agitation. This in turn resulted in a spate of police shootings. In the [[Brahmaputra Valley]], an Assamese-dominated area, [[Assamese people|Assamese]] mobs started attacking Bengalis.

== Pogrom ==
=== Planning ===
A report claims that there was a secret meeting in early July 1960, at a school in [[Sivasagar|Sibsagar]]. This was said to have been organized by the Teachers' Association. During the meeting, the massacre was planned as an attack on the [[Bengalis]]. The next day a students' strike was organised at Sibsagar and groups of students and youths were sent to [[Jorhat]], [[Dibrugarh]] and other adjoining areas to communicate the decision of the meeting.<ref name="paula2005">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WfeHAwAAQBAJ&q=bengalis+killed+goreswar&pg=PA150|title=Internal Displacement in South Asia: The Relevance of the UN's Guiding Principles|last1=Banerjee|first1=Paula|last2=Chaudhury|first2=Sabyasachi Basu Ray|last3=Das|first3=Samir Kumar|date=2005-01-07|publisher=SAGE Publications India|isbn=9788132101987|language=en}}</ref>

=== Massacre ===
On July 14, 1960 riots began in Sibsagar with the looting of Bengali shops and assaults on several Bengalis. In lower Assam ([[Kamrup region|Kamrup]], [[Nagaon district|Nowgong]] and [[Goalpara]]) intense violence occurred in 25 villages in [[Goreswar]] (in [[Kamrup district]]). On July{{nbs}}3 an Assamese mob of 15,000, armed with guns and other weapons, raided Bengali shops and houses.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffe4dMu4p_gC&q=%22north+kamrup%22+%22riots%22&pg=PA214|title=Discovery of North-East India|last1=Sharma|first1=Suresh Kant|last2=Sharma|first2=Usha|date=2015|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=9788183240390|language=en}}</ref> The whole area was ransacked. According to an inquiry commissioned under Justice Gopalji Mahotra, 4,019 huts and 58 houses were vandalized or destroyed.<ref name="paula2005" /><ref name="bhaumik2009">{{cite book|last=Bhaumik|first=Subir|title=Troubled Periphery: The Crisis of India's North East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdRjDwAAQBAJ|accessdate=22 October 2018|date=10 December 2009|publisher=SAGE Publishing India|isbn=9789352801817}}</ref><ref name=dutta2012>{{cite thesis|last=Dutta|first=Uddipan|date=31 December 2012|title=The Role of Language Management and Language Conflict in the Transition of Post Colonial Assamese Identity|type=PhD|chapter=Chapter 4: Communal Riots on Language Issues|publisher=Gauhati University|page=98-99|chapter-url=http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/116506/9/09_chapter%204.pdf|access-date=22 October 2018}}</ref> The commission reported that at least nine [[Bengalis]] were killed and more were wounded or crippled. There is also a report that one woman was attacked and raped. Nearly 1,000 Bengali Hindus fled from the area during the riot.

== Aftermath ==
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;"
|- style="background:#ddd;"
| colspan="8" style="text-align:center;"| Cumulative refugee figures from [[Assam]]<br/>in [[Jalpaiguri district]], [[West Bengal]]{{cn|date=November 2019}}
|- style="background:#f0f0f0; text-align:left;"
! Date
! Cumulative figures
|-
| 16 July 1960
| 9,365
|-
| 1 August 1960
| 18,340
|-
| 21 August 1960
| 28,383
|-
| 25 August 1960
| {{circa|50,000}}
|}
The worst phase of violence occurred between July and September 1960. Nearly 50,000 [[Bengali Hindus]] had crossed over to [[West Bengal]] to seek shelter by late August 1960. Chief Minister of West Bengal, [[Bidhan Chandra Roy|Dr. B. C. Roy]] wrote a letter to the [[Prime Minister of India]] about the violence. According to his letter, at least 4,000 Bengali Hindus had been displaced to West Bengal between July 5 and 11 as a result of the riots, and 447 others who may not have been fleeing the riot. After July 31 the flow of refugees increased. In a subsequent letter, Roy wrote that 45,000 displaced Bengalis had taken shelter in West Bengal.<ref name="paula2005" />

== See also ==
* [[Bongal Kheda]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Violence against Bengali Hindus in Assam}}

{{coord missing|Assam}}
[[Category:1960 in India]]
[[Category:1960 riots]]
[[Category:1960 murders in Asia]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1960]]
[[Category:July 1960 events in Asia]]
[[Category:1960s in Assam]]
[[Category:1960s murders in India]]
[[Category:Massacres in the 1960s]]
[[Category:Massacres of Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Massacres in India]]
[[Category:Ethnic cleansing in Asia]]
[[Category:Violence against Hindus in India]]
[[Category:Pogroms]]

Goreswar massacre - Revision history

>Dimadick at 18:29, 26 June 2021