The rally organized by the All Assam Adivasi Students Union in Guwahati on 24 November 2007 to demand Scheduled Tribe status led to unprecedented violence that will be a blot on Assam's image for quite some time. The government claimed that it was taken by surprise; hence the police and city administration were unprepared to handle the situation and remained mute spectators to the violence in the streets near the state assembly for more than half the day.

The trouble began when a section of the Adivasi activists started attacking private and government vehicles, and looting shops, business establishments, and local residences along the route taken by the rally. Local residents were unable initially to protect their property, but when the police arrived they retaliated by attacking the Adivasis and the situation went out of control. There was widespread violence and continued arson in the by-lanes in the area where the Adivasis fled for protection until curfew was imposed. It was a late reaction and by then scores of people were injured and many critically. The most shocking incident was the attack on Adivasi women in which at least one Adivasi woman was stripped naked and badly beaten.

This brutality indicates that the violence was perpetrated by fringe elements in the society. The common Assamese citizens have remained quite disconnected from the problems and demands of the Adivasis, and could not have attacked the Adivasi protestors. The immediate accusation by the Adivasi Union was that the violence was planned by the state government to crush their movement for legitimate rights to Scheduled Tribe status in the state. The violence occurred due to heightened Adivasi sentiments, which received greater attention since it took place in Guwahati.

Some Adivasi students who were injured allege that their own leadership was also to blame, as they had started the violence to capture public attention for their cause; hence the whole community had to suffer. The initial rampaging was done by a section of the Adivasis who managed to escape, but the backlash was suffered by the people in another section of the rally that was caught unawares.

It is important to examine the background to this Adivasi activism which has acquired such great proportions. The Adivasis in Assam are mostly Santhals who were brought by the British almost 200 years ago to work as indentured labour in the tea gardens from the present-day Jharkhand region. These Adivasis settled in and around the tea gardens and most are engaged in small cultivation. There were instances of sporadic violence between the Adivasis and the local people in the tea gardens in Upper Assam, arising from their social oppression. Adivasis are also employed as household helps in many Assamese homes in urban areas. There is, however, a large degree of social segregation and mainstream Assamese generally remain aloof from them. Thus, in urban centres, this trend of violence was largely absent. The Adivasis in the present Bodoland Territorial Council also had to face large-scale violence in the 1990s when the Bodoland movement was at its peak. Many continue to live in relief camps in Kokrajhar district.

It was from these tea gardens of Upper Assam and the relief camps of Kokrajhar and elsewhere in Lower Assam that busloads of Adivasis were transported to Guwahati for rally on 24 November. What they faced was a possible betrayal by their leadership who may have orchestrated the violence for political purposes. Prominent Jharkhand leaders like Arjun Munda and Shibu Soren reached Assam to further politicize the matter. The 36-hour Assam bandh that followed saw sporadic violence across the state with the issue getting a communal and political colour. There was also a Jharkhand bandh which showed that this issue is being used by political opportunists to serve their interests. The welfare of the Adivasis in Assam is not on their agenda, for they had never, in all these years, come to Assam to see how the Adivasis were faring.

The Tarun Gogoi government needs to take adequate steps to maintain peace between the communities and bridge the divide in society. Outside political forces are trying to widen this divide, but must not be given any support. The need of the hour is to forge a common understanding to maintain harmony between the two communities, and this has every chance of succeeding if the politicking would stop.