Tyrone73H144 at 00:58, 10 October 2025

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{{Short description|Mass killings in India in 1983}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Khoirabari massacre
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| map = {{Location map|India Assam|lat=26.43|long=92.03|caption=}}
| map_caption =
| location = [[Khoirabari]], [[Darrang district]], [[Assam]], [[India]]
| target = [[Bengali Hindus]]
| coordinates =
| date = 7 February 1983
| time = At night
| timezone = UTC+5:30
| type = [[Massacre]]
| fatalities = 100–500
| injuries = 100–200
| perps = [[Assamese people|Indigenous Assamese]] mobs
| weapons = Guns, spears, swords, scythes, bows and arrows{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}
| numparts =
}}
The '''Khoirabari massacre''' was an ethnic [[massacre]] of an estimated 100<ref name=rammohun2005 /> to 500<ref name="gupta1984">{{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Shekhar |title=Assam: A Valley Divided |date=1984 |publisher=Vikas Publishing House |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-0-7069-2537-1 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZbaAAAAMAAJ |access-date=4 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barpujari |first1=H. K. |title=North-East India: Problems, Policies, and Prospects: Since Independence |date=1998 |publisher=Spectrum Publication |isbn=978-81-85319-81-0 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FluAAAAMAAJ |access-date=4 November 2018}}</ref> immigrant [[Bengali Hindu|Bengali]]s in the [[Khoirabari]] area of [[Assam]], India, on 7  February 1983.<ref name=rammohun2005>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KclwPdsveMQC|title=Insurgent Frontiers: Essays from the Troubled Northeast|last=Rammohan|first=E. N.|date=2005|publisher=India Research Press|isbn=978-81-87943-80-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sarma |first1=Diganta |title=১৯৮৩-ৰ অসমত নিপীড়িত বাঙালি |publisher=Ekalabya Prakashan|language=Assamese|location=Jorhat}}</ref> Activists of the [[Assam Movement|Assam Agitation]] sought to block an assembly election that day and had cut communications to the Bengali enclaves, which were perceived to be pro-election. Indigenous [[Assamese people|Assamese]] groups, who held resentments towards the immigrant Bengalis, took advantage of the resulting isolation and surrounded and attacked the Bengali villages at night.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

News surrounding the massacre was not reported for two weeks.<ref name="gupta14-15">{{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Shekhar |title=Assam: A Valley Divided |date=1984 |publisher=Vikas Publishing House |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-0-7069-2537-1 |pages=14–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZbaAAAAMAAJ |access-date=4 November 2018}}</ref> Journalist [[Shekhar Gupta]] reported a top Assam police officer admitting that the Assam police were preoccupied with the exaggerated news of the massacre of the Assamese people in [[Gohpur]] and that they failed to take proper action in Khoirabari on time.<ref name="gupta14-15" />

== Background ==
[[Khoirabari]] was a [[Bengali Hindu]] settlement in the Mangaldoi sub-division of the [[Darrang district]],<ref name="rammohun2012">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fSpCQAAQBAJ|title=Countering Insurgencies in India: An Insider's View|last=Rammohun|first=E. M.|year=2012|publisher=Vij Books India|isbn=978-93-81411-66-7|page=36|access-date=7 November 2018|language=en}}</ref> situated about {{convert|25|km}} north of the town [[Mangaldoi]].<ref name=rammohun2012 /> In 1983, there was an enclave of hundreds of minority Bengali Hindus living in a cluster of villages in the Khoirabari area, surrounded by [[Assamese people|Indigenous Assamese]] villages. For years there had been a clash between them and the Assamese community.<ref name=rammohun2005 />

== Massacre ==
The first phase of polling of the assembly election was scheduled for 14  February 1983.<ref name="dilip">{{cite book | title=Koncha-Bindha Buranji (খোঁচাবিন্ধা বুৰঞ্জী) | publisher=Asomi Prakashan, Guwahati-1 | author=Dutta, Dilip | year=1991 | pages=19-26, 31-88}}</ref> The activists of the [[Assam Movement|Assam Agitation]] were opposed to the elections and viewed the non-Assamese community pockets as pro-election. The communication links to the non-Assamese villages were cut. As a result, the [[Central Reserve Police Force]] and the polling agents could not be sent to Khoirabari.<ref name="simply-khaki">{{cite book |last1=Rammohan |first1=E. N. |title=Simply Khaki |year=2005 |publisher=Indialog Publications |isbn=978-81-87981-78-7 |pages=98–99 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZbaAAAAMAAJ |access-date=7 November 2018}}</ref> Taking advantage of the situation, local Assamese mobs surrounded and attacked the isolated Bengali Hindu villages, who were in significant number, at night. According to veteran Assamese journalist Sabita Goswami, the innocent victim Bengali Hindus had taken shelter at the Khoirabari School,<ref name="goswami">{{cite book |last1=Goswami |first1=Sabita |title=Along the Red River: A Memoir |year= 2014 |publisher=Zubaan |isbn=978-93-83074-26-6 |page=154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7t5DAAAQBAJ |access-date=7 November 2018}}</ref> where the Assamese mob of adjacent villages attacked them.<ref name="goswami" /> According to [[Indian Police Service]] officer E.M. Rammohun, more than one hundred local Bengali Hindus were killed in the massacre.<ref name=rammohun2005 /> According to journalist [[Shekhar Gupta]], more than 500 Bengali Hindus were killed.<ref name="gupta1984" /> The survivors took shelter in the Khoirabari railway station<ref name=rammohun2005 /><ref name="simply-khaki" /> until the elections were over.<ref name="simply-khaki" /> After the elections, Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]] and Assam Chief Minister [[Hiteshwar Saikia]] visited the Khoirabari relief camp.<ref>{{cite book |title=Daily Report: South Asia |date=1983 |publisher=Foreign Broadcast Information Service |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRJW-1kWXJoC |volume=84|issue=64–84|access-date=7 November 2018}}</ref> [[Ramakrishna Mission]] did relief work among the survivors at the camp. They had passed days in fear.<ref>{{cite book |title=Awakened India |date=1985 |publisher=Swami Smaranananda |page=522 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLAoAAAAYAAJ |volume=90 |access-date=7 November 2018}}</ref>

== Aftermath ==
Following the massacre, [[K. S. Sudarshan]] and other leaders of the Hindu nationalist group [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS) approached Gupta to understand why so many Bengali Hindus were massacred by the Assamese communities.<ref name="gupta04082018">{{cite news |last1=Gupta |first1=Shekhar |title=Amit Shah & Modi are playing with a fire that doesn't distinguish between Muslim & Hindu |url=https://theprint.in/national-interest/amit-shah-modi-are-playing-with-a-fire-that-doesnt-distinguish-muslims-from-hindus/ |access-date=4 November 2018 |work=ThePrint.in |publisher=ThePrint |date=4 August 2018}}</ref> The RSS leadership considered the Bengali Hindus "unprotected" and did not expect the local Assamese to kill their co-religionists. Gupta explained the ethnic and linguistic fault lines that lay behind the massacre, which were so deep that the perpetrators did not distinguish between Hindus and Muslims. This was the cause of the native sentiment of the original inhabitants the Assamese for their survival under the threat of Bengali-speaking doubtful immigrants whether it be Hindu or Muslim.<ref name="gupta04082018"/>

In February 2018, the Compensation-demand Committee of Dead People in the [[Assam Movement]] took up the cause of the Bengali Hindu victims of the massacres in Khoirabari and [[Goreswar massacre|Goreswar]] in 1983. It demanded martyr status for the victims and compensation for the families.<ref name="sentinel19022018">{{cite news |title='Bengalis are also a part of greater Assamese society' |url=https://www.sentinelassam.com/news/bengalis-are-also-a-part-of-greater-assamese-society/ |access-date=4 November 2018 |work=The Sentinel |publisher=Omega Printers and Publishers |date=19 February 2017}}</ref><ref name="tat26022018">{{cite news |title=Compensation for Hindu Bengali martyrs of Assam Movement demanded |url=http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/mdetails.asp?id=feb2617/at054 |access-date=4 November 2018 |work=The Assam Tribune |date=26 February 2018 |archive-date=5 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105012225/http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/mdetails.asp?id=feb2617%2Fat054 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Rangiya legislator Bhabesh Kalita acknowledged the massacre and assured that the victims' families would get compensation.<ref name="sentinel19022018"/><ref name="tat26022018"/>

== See also ==
* [[Silapathar massacre]]
* [[North Kamrup massacre]]

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

{{Violence against Bengali Hindus in Assam}}

{{coord missing|Assam}}

[[Category:Massacres of Bengali Hindus in India]]
[[Category:1983 murders in India]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1983]]
[[Category:1980s in Assam]]
[[Category:February 1983 in India]]
[[Category:Massacres in India]]
[[Category:Ethnic cleansing in Asia]]
[[Category:Anti-Hindu violence in India]]
[[Category:Massacres of Bengali Hindus in Assam]]
[[Category:Massacres of Bengalis in Assam]]

Khoirabari massacre - Revision history

Tyrone73H144 at 00:58, 10 October 2025