Why so slow on to attack ‘love jihad’, Assam?

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on 22 October, Wednesday, that the state government will introduce several bills on 'love jihad', polygamy, preservation of Satras and land rights for the tea tribes in the upcoming Assam assembly session scheduled for November.

Speaking to reporters, Sarma said, "In the coming session of Assam Assembly, we will introduce some important and historic bills on issues like 'love jihad', polygamy, preservation of satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) and land rights to tea tribes."​

He stated that detailed provisions would be disclosed after cabinet approval, emphasising, "We will be able to tell you the details when the cabinet approves the same."​

Curiously for a state that has had a BJP hand at the helm — Himanta’s own — for a good while, Assam has been slow to moot anti-conversion laws despite its usual pioneering status in anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions. In the case of ‘love jihad’, it was Uttarakhand that became the first crucible, the 'laboratory' to test it out, followed by further roll-outs in the North Indian states — the most recent being Rajasthan.

Assam’s tardiness is all the more surprising given the chief minister’s repeated rhetoric around a threatening rise in the ‘miya’ (Muslim) population has been so often carted to other states to vitiate the atmosphere there as well.

Was it merely waiting for a moment of maximum impact, then — such as the threshold of assembly elections in 2026, in this state and in neighbouring Bengal, a thorn in the BJP’s flesh for decades now?

Among the other ‘focus’ areas, the bill proposing to ‘empower’ tea garden workers with land rights will be tabled when the assembly first convenes on 25 November. The proposed legislation purportedly recognises the claims of tea tribe communities over land historically held by tea garden owners, representing what Sarma callS “a step no government has dared to take before”.

Yet, the current BJP government’s welfare and inclusion measures for the tea tribes continue to build upon earlier ones, adding quotas in state civil services, reserved medical college seats and new high schools in tea garden areas. Plus, these legislative moves follow protests and demands from tea tribe and Adivasi community members for land ownership, wage hikes and Scheduled Tribe status for years.

The government also recently passed the Assam Satra Preservation and Development Commission Bill, 2025, to safeguard Vaishnavite monastery lands from encroachment (and ‘promote heritage tourism’, apparently), with the support of a commission chaired by a retired High Court judge and a digital heritage repository for artefacts and manuscripts.

Curious that this was called for, given the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, as well as regular anti-encroachment laws all but guarantee such protection already.

Of course, no such Acts or Bills have been brought for tribal cultural spaces or Muslim, Christian or syncretic shrines. ​​They clearly are not required.

Meanwhile, the anti-polygamy Bill presents a curiously broad set of targets, as opposed to the mostly Muslim-targeting ‘love jihad’ (from evidence in other states under BJP rule, as well as the name of course).

For in Assam, based on NFHS-5 (National Family Health Survey-5), polygamy is not confined to one community — differing rates are observed across different groups. The survey found that the overall prevalence of polygamy in Assam is around 2.4 per cent — which happens to exactly match the rates for its Scheduled Tribes! On either side of that median are Hindu women (1.8 per cent), Muslim women (3.6 per cent), Scheduled Castes (1.9 per cent) and Other Backward Classes (1.3 per cent).​

For context, polygamy rates are much higher in North-East India in general (e.g., East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya shows nearly 20 per cent). Nationally, while the practice has declined steadily, it is by no means obsolete, nor restricted to Muslim citizens — rhetoric notwithstanding — with Goa reporting the lowest rate at 0.2 per cent.