The Assam Movement, also known as the Anti-Foreigners Agitation, took place from 1979 to 1985 and was a significant uprising in Assam, India. It aimed to push the Government of India to identify, disenfranchise, and deport illegal immigrants. Spearheaded by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP), this movement marked six years filled with persistent civil disobedience, political turmoil, and widespread ethnic conflict. It ultimately concluded in 1985 with the signing of the Assam Accord.
Since 1963, it was clear that foreign nationals had been wrongly included on electoral rolls. When the draft enrollments in Mangaldoi revealed a significant number of non-citizens in 1979, the AASU decided to take a stand by campaigning for a complete overhaul of the electoral rolls across Assam, even going so far as to boycott the 1980 Lok Sabha election. The Indira Gandhi government that came into power couldn’t meet the demands of the movement leaders, as doing so would have come at a hefty political price. This led to a rise in economic blockades, oppression, violent clashes, and ongoing ethnic strife. Scholars have extensively debated the political nature of this movement in the journal Economic and Political Weekly. The accord was finally reached under the Rajiv Gandhi administration, which prioritized negotiation and compromise from both sides, especially since Rajiv Gandhi was less focused on the electoral success of Congress (I).
The Assam Accord did not resolve the problem of foreigners’ names in electoral rolls because the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 passed by Indira Gandhi’s government soon after the disastrous 1983 elections made it practically impossible to prove anyone in Assam was an illegal alien.