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Miya poetry makes language, identity and citizenship impossible to keep in the background. Bengal-origin Muslim poets in Assam write in local dialects—often using Assamese script—and some reclaim the contested word “Miya” as a self-description. Around the 2019 National Register of Citizens (NRC), poems about fear of exclusion became the subject of public controversy and a reported police complaint.
What Miya poetry is—and what it addresses
Miya poetry is associated with Bengal-origin Muslim communities in Assam. Its poems and songs speak about discrimination, belonging, everyday life, language and the uncertainty of citizenship. The work became more visible in public discussion after poems circulated on social media in 2016, and again in 2019, when Assam was preparing to publish the final NRC.
There is no single uncontested account of which poem began the movement. Scroll.in’s 2019 feature discusses “I am a Miya” in connection with Kazi Sharowar Hussain and translator Shalim M. Hussain; Indian Express reporting gives prominence to Hafiz Ahmed’s “Write Down I am a Miya.” These accounts point to related early visibility, not a settled single origin.
Why write in local dialects rather than standard Assamese?
The language choice challenges an older expectation of accommodation. Scroll.in’s feature says many Bengal-origin Muslims declared Assamese as their mother tongue in census contexts as a way of seeking acceptance, and describes earlier generations’ use of Assamese in public and literary life. Miya poets instead bring local speech into poetry, often writing it in Assamese script. Script and language are not the same: using Assamese letters does not make a local dialect standard Assamese.
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This is more than a stylistic choice. It puts the community’s own speech in public view rather than making literary recognition depend on using a standard language. It also unsettles the idea that declaring Assamese is the only route to belonging. That does not mean all Bengal-origin Muslims share one language practice or one view of the poetry.
What “Miya” means—and why reclaim it?
The word is contested. Scroll.in describes “Miya” as having a broader South Asian sense of “gentleman,” while also reporting that in Assam it has been used as an ethnic slur for Muslims associated with Bengal-origin migration. Some poets deliberately reclaim the label, turning a term used to stigmatize into a name asserted on their own terms. That choice is political, but it is not a label every person in the community necessarily uses or accepts.
How the NRC shaped the poems’ urgency
The NRC is the immediate citizenship context for the poem commonly rendered in English as “Write Down I am a Miya.” Scroll.in prints the lines: “Write Down / I am a Miya / My serial number in the NRC is 200543”. The poem uses a serial number and a speaker’s family to evoke anxiety about being hated or excluded. It is literary testimony, not verification of an individual’s NRC record.
The poem’s force comes from making an abstract citizenship process intimate: a number, a family, and the fear that one’s identity will be treated as grounds for exclusion. The NRC setting also helps explain why the poems drew attention beyond literary circles in 2019.
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Why the poems drew criticism
In a Scroll.in report dated 14 July 2019, the controversy included a police complaint against ten people over poems. The report said an FIR had been filed under provisions concerning criminal conspiracy, promoting social enmity and insulting religion. It quoted complainant Pranabjit Doloi alleging that the accused intended to portray Assamese people as xenophobic. That is the complainant’s allegation as reported by Scroll.in, not a finding about the poets’ intent or the poems’ effect.
The criticism has also concerned whether using local dialects rejects Assamese, whether the poems unfairly cast Assamese society as hostile, and whether publicly reclaiming “Miya” sharpens divisions. Assamese literary figure Hiren Gohain, as quoted by Scroll.in, characterized the dialect as one prevalent in a region where immigrant Muslims had lived for seven to ten decades. Poets and supporters, by contrast, frame the work as testimony, self-respect and a response to discrimination and insecurity around citizenship. These are positions in a public dispute, not evidence that either Assamese people or Bengal-origin Muslims speak with one voice.
| Point of dispute | What is at stake |
|---|---|
| Language | Earlier accommodation through Assamese versus expression in local dialects, often written in Assamese script. |
| Identity | Rejecting a stigmatizing label versus some poets’ deliberate reclamation of “Miya.” |
| Political effect | Critics’ concern that the poems stigmatize Assamese society versus poets’ account of documenting discrimination and citizenship anxiety. |
| Evidence | A reported complaint and attributed opinions are not judicial findings; poems are literary testimony, not individual legal records. |
Historical context: chars and settlement
Scroll.in’s feature places some of the story within the history of settlement on chars—sandbars in the Brahmaputra—and reports that many residents’ ancestors came from parts of what was then Bengal, including Mymensingh. That account is context for some communities and places; it should not be generalized to every char resident or every Bengal-origin Muslim in Assam.
Where to read more
Again I Hear These Waters, translated and curated by Shalim M. Hussain, gathers poems and songs by more than twenty voices from the community. Tilted Axis Press lists a paperback edition published on 29 February 2024, at 113 pages, ISBN 978-1-911284-92-5. It is a translation anthology, not a definitive history of Miya poetry or a guide to NRC proceedings.
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