In Assam’s season of evictions, one with a twist – those getting ousted razed their homes themselves

The residents on 50-odd bighas of land in Nagaon’s Jengoni Tiniali received eviction notices in the final week of July. According to the district administration, the eviction affected around 1,000 Bengali-origin Muslims.

When they received the notices, a group of the evicted people formed a delegation to meet the Deputy Commissioner Devashish Sharma to seek a month’s time, which was granted. After the month was up, Sharma and a group of other officials visited the site on August 22 to meet the affected people.

Using a loudspeaker, he addressed the crowd: “When we say eviction, it can also mean that we discuss the issue, we explain everything to you that you do not have patta (land deed) for this land or that this is government land, and you voluntarily gather your belongings and vacate the area.”

“When we say eviction, we have the image of someone crying in their house, a JCB being brought, houses being broken. We are also people and we don’t like it. That situation is created when a notice is given, and even after talking and receiving notices, people do not leave in the time given,” he said.

The residents were being given three more days, he said.

“On Wednesday, our circle office will come and I would not like for police and JCBs to come in, for people to cry and for there to be a commotion. Instead, I request that you all go to your destination so such a situation won’t be created,” he said.

The TIDE is turning- encroachers who were earlier fighting our eviction drives are now supporting it.

This is what happened in Nagaon today. #AssamEvictions are lawful and are solely in the interest of Assam.

The best way forward is Compliance over Confrontation. pic.twitter.com/W5ZQD1oqjn

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 27, 2025

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Wahidur Rehman, a teacher whose family also had a house in the area, was one of the people who had met the district administration last month.

“After our first interaction, we were given additional time for a month, and after the DC came, we understood that it’s best to go quietly, because if we resist, it could become a clash and we will be the ones to suffer. After discussions, everyone decided that it’s best to empty the area ourselves because we cannot fight the government,” he said.

‘Might not work another time’

Assam’s evictions have turned violent on multiple occasions: while stone pelting and lathicharge were reported at Dhubri, a 19-year-old was allegedly shot dead and several people — including police and forest personnel — were injured in a clash between evicted families and authorities in Goalpara.

While many families cleared out before earlier evictions as well, the people at Jengoni Tiniali took it a step further.

“One of the boys was able to arrange a JCB because he works as an operator. People thought that rather than have the administration break down the buildings badly, we can break them carefully ourselves so that we can at least recover and take the building material because that is expensive,” Wahidur Rehman said.

When the residents began putting their equipment to use four days before the scheduled eviction, the district administration sent the circle officer to the site to oversee what was happening. Seeing them take matters into their own hands, the district administration supplied them with another three excavators to carry out the work.

By 10 pm on Tuesday, all buildings in the area were razed, and those with homes in the area moved into relatives’ homes.

DC Sharma said the way the eviction took place was because the administration decided to “try something new”.

“When they asked for more time, we gave it to them because they said that since they had been staying for many years, it would be difficult for them to vacate in 5-10 days,” he said. “I tried to have one-on-one conversations with leaders, and the basic point I made is that we should not let it reach a point of confrontation… There was some resistance, but this process of negotiation took place over quite some time,” he said.

This area, though, is a fraction of the roughly 19,000 bighas of land earmarked for eviction in Nagaon district alone, and was a relatively smaller area occupied by fewer people.

“It worked this time, (but) it may not work every time. If the people do not cooperate in some other place, we will have no choice but to go ahead as usual,” said Sharma.