Himanta urges non-Assamese residents to list Assamese as mother tongue in Census

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday appealed to people from other parts of the country who have made Assam their home to list Assamese as their mother tongue during the ongoing Census exercise.

Sarma made the appeal while addressing the Independence Day gathering after hoisting the National Flag, amid concerns over the declining share of Assamese speakers in the state's population.

He said people in the predominantly Bengali-speaking Barak Valley and members of tribal communities could exercise their own discretion while identifying their mother tongue.

“In Barak Valley, people will use their own conscience while mentioning their mother tongue. Bodos, Rabhas, Tiwas, Misings, others will also mention their own languages,” Sarma said, adding that the state wanted to promote and preserve all indigenous languages.

“Besides the tribals and Barak Valley population, the proud Assamese individuals who had at some point of time come from Rajasthan or some other place with a different language and culture, I request them to mention ‘Assamese’ as their mother tongue,” he said.

Sarma said the 2026 Census would be crucial for planning the country's future and urged people to participate in the exercise.

According to Census data, the proportion of Assam's population identifying Assamese as their mother tongue fell from 59.53 per cent in 1971 to 48.80 per cent in 2001 and 48.38 per cent in 2011.

The share of Bengali speakers rose from 27.53 per cent in 2001 to 28.91 per cent in 2011, while Hindi speakers increased from 5.89 per cent to 6.73 per cent during the same period.

Experts have attributed the decline in the proportion of Assamese speakers to several factors, including migration from other parts of India, alleged infiltration and indigenous communities increasingly identifying their own languages as their mother tongue.

The Census process in Assam has begun with self-enumeration underway from August 2 to August 16. House-listing and housing Census operations are scheduled from August 17 to September 15.

The exercise has been postponed in Sivasagar and Charaideo districts because of severe flooding.