ABSTRACT
This chapter assumes that with the increasing pressure on land and the growing stratification within Assamese peasantry, the nature of rural politics underwent several layers of transformation. From the mid-1930s, Assam Congress initiated a concerted attempt at peasant mobilization, which eventually came to be known as the ryot sabha movement. It mobilized peasants, organized annual conferences where Congress nationalists delivered lectures and sought government intervention as a remedy for the peasant's hardships. Not long after the East Bengali immigrant peasant's arrival in Assam, they brought on to themselves the wrath of Assamese press, Assamese politicians and Assamese peasants. The Assamese press expressed its disapproval of the immigration of East Bengali peasants and rapid land reclamation by them. The Assam Provincial Muslim League (APML), with its considerable strength in the provincial legislature, declared the government's eviction policy as against the interests of East Bengali peasants and decided to put up a strong resistance.
