On 9-10 November 2024, the Assam government carried out what it called an eviction drive in Goalpara district’s Dahikata Reserve Forest. In reality, it was a display of state power directed overwhelmingly at one community: Bengali-speaking Muslims. Over 1,143 bighas of land were “reclaimed” using bulldozers, excavators, and a force of more than 900 police, paramilitary personnel, forest guards, and commandos. Hundreds of families, many of whom had lived there for over a decade, were rendered homeless overnight.

This was not merely an administrative action to protect forest land. It was a political spectacle, carefully staged and ideologically charged, reflecting a broader pattern of governance where Muslims are treated not as citizens with rights, but as suspect populations to be disciplined, displaced, and dispossessed.

Militarising Governance

The scale and style of the operation were striking. A counter-insurgency style deployment was unleashed against some of the poorest residents of Assam, daily wage labourers, farmers, women, children, and the elderly. Bulldozers rolled in under heavy security, not to dismantle an armed threat, but to flatten tin-roof houses and mud dwellings.

Families, anticipating violence or arrest, dismantled their own homes before the state could do it for them. There were no credible reports of surveys, rehabilitation plans, or due process. No serious effort was made to distinguish long-term residents from recent settlers. The message was unambiguous: compliance or destruction.

When the state uses militarised force against civilians without meaningful legal safeguards, it signals a shift from governance to domination. In Assam, that shift has increasingly aligned with religious identity.

Collective Punishment, Not Conservation

Forest protection is a legitimate state responsibility. But conservation cannot be used as a selective instrument of punishment. In Goalpara, evictions overwhelmingly targeted Muslim habitations, while similarly placed non-Muslim settlements were reportedly left untouched. Such selectivity undermines the claim that this was a neutral environmental action.

International and constitutional norms are clear: evictions must follow due process, ensure consultation, and provide rehabilitation, especially when they affect vulnerable populations. None of these standards were met. Instead, entire communities were punished collectively, stripped of shelter, food security, and dignity.

This is not an aberration. Across BJP-ruled states, the bulldozer has become a symbol of governance, used disproportionately against Muslims under the guise of legality, order, or development. From Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh to Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, “bulldozer justice” has replaced the rule of law.

Dangerous Rhetoric from the Top

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s own words reveal the ideological underpinnings of the operation. In a Facebook Live address, he warned of “groups” allegedly plotting to “turn Assam into Nepal,” and vowed that evictions would continue. Such rhetoric is not incidental. It frames Muslims as demographic invaders and internal enemies, a familiar trope in Hindutva politics. By invoking conspiracy and demographic fear, the state legitimises extraordinary measures against a targeted community, normalising their exclusion from constitutional protections.

This language also echoes older, dangerous narratives in Assam’s history, where questions of identity, migration, and belonging have repeatedly been weaponised, often with violent consequences.

Continuum of Exclusion: NRC, CAA, and Beyond

Organisations like the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) have rightly connected the Goalpara evictions to a wider continuum of policies: the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), detention centres, and land laws that disproportionately affect Muslims.

Together, these measures form an architecture of exclusion, one that keeps Muslim citizenship perpetually provisional. Even those who have lived in Assam for generations are forced to repeatedly prove their belonging, while living under the constant threat of displacement or detention.

The eviction drive in Goalpara must be seen within this broader framework of demographic engineering, where land, citizenship, and legality are reconfigured to favour a majoritarian vision of the nation.

A Constitutional Failure

At its core, this is a constitutional crisis. The Indian Constitution guarantees equality before the law, protection from arbitrary state action, and the right to life with dignity. Forced evictions without due process violate all three.

When a state government selectively enforces laws against one religious group, deploys overwhelming force against the poor, and justifies it through communal rhetoric, it abandons constitutional morality in favour of ideological governance. Assam does not need fewer forests protected, but it desperately needs more rights protected.

What This Moment Demands

Silence in moments like these is complicity. Civil society, the judiciary, opposition parties, and the media must scrutinise such actions not as routine “anti-encroachment” drives, but as part of a dangerous normalisation of state-sponsored persecution. Environmental protection, migration policy, and land governance are complex challenges. They cannot be resolved by bulldozers, nor by demonising an entire community. Justice cannot be achieved by making the poorest pay the highest price. What happened in Goalpara is not just about land. It is about who belongs in India, and who the state believes can be erased.