Assam’s Golpara district administration on Tuesday sealed the newly inaugurated Miya museum after Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the police will probe the source of funding.
The private Museum was inaugurated on 23 October at Dapkarbhita in the Lakhipur area of Goalpara district.
The notification states ” As per the Direction of DC Goaplara this PMAY-G house of Mohar Ali, S/O- Somesh Ali of Village Dapkarbhita is hereby sealed until further order.”
Sarma said that he has been continuously saying that the emergence of Miya poetry, and Miya school are challenging issues of grave concern, North East Live TV reported.
Those associated with setting up the “Miya Museum” will have to answer the government, failing which legal action would be initiated against them, Sarma added.
The BJP leaders in Assam have demanded to immediately shut down the museum.
Miya community comprises Bengal-origin Muslims of the state who settled in modern-day Assam in the late 1890s after they were brought by the British for commercial farming. ‘Miya’ was a pejorative term which is now used by stakeholders in the community to reclaim its original meaning.
Hindutva bloc along with indigenous groups have been agitating for decades to deport Bengali-origin Muslims. They refuse to recognise millions of Bengali-origin communities as Indian citizens.
In 2020, a proposal for the Miya museum at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra, a centre in Guwahati showcasing the state’s cultural heritage, by Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed was rejected by Sarma.
The inauguration was attended by hundreds of people from the Miya community as well as invited guests and officials of the Miya Parishad.
