Miyah poets Ashraful Hussain and Hussain Ahmed Madani and human rights activist Abdul Kalam Azad talk to Indian Cultural Forum and NewsClick about how their poems are a matter of self-respect and identity for Assam's down-trodden. Their words express the pain and suffering of the Bengal-origin Assamese people, who are seen as ‘outsiders’. Wider Assamese society and many outside Assam misunderstand or misrepresent their goals. "We are not anti-NRC or anti-Assamese identity. We just criticised the NRC process. And we are as Assamese as any other Assamese person, no matter what language or dialect we use," they say.
Read more:
Language Games of Assam: The Mainstream vs the Margins
Reclaiming Pride with Miya Poetry
