Assam Government seals a ‘Miya museum’ Days after its inauguration

The Assam government sealed on Tuesday a “Miya museum” set up privately by an organisation of Bangladeshi immigrants to display farm tools and other items that it said were exclusive to the community, after CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said the exhibited articles belonged traditionally to natives of the state.

Miya is a pejorative reference to Bengali-speaking Muslims of East Pakistan/Bangladesh origin settled in Assam, which has seen a long anti-foreigner movement in the 1980s. Illegal immigration is still a festering issue in the state.

The museum opened on Sunday in Goalpara district’s Lakhipur, a four-hour drive from the India-Bangladesh border. But the district administration shut it down and confiscated the items after Sarma’s statement and also because authorities found that it was set up illegally in a house built with funding from the PM’s rural housing scheme.

Assam | Goalpara district admin today sealed Miya Museum inaugurated on Oct 23 in Dapkarbhita village.

As per Goalpara Dy Commissioner's direction, we've sealed the house built under PMAY-G (Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Gramin), inside which Miya Museum was opened: R Gogoi, CO pic.twitter.com/Hs64Qtd1ee

— ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2022