Makiko Kimura, author of The Nellie Massacre of 1983 in conversation with Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, The Hindu (28th October, 2013)
A dot of a town in Assam’s Nagaon district, Nellie, hit the national headlines in 1983 for all the wrong reasons. In just six hours on the morning of February 18, over 2000 Muslim villagers of East Bengal origin were massacred there. With the then ongoing anti-foreigner movement in the State as the backdrop, the incident attracted great attention. Hundreds of cases were filed against the attackers composed of indigenous tribal Tiwa and Koch communities; a commission was set up too to probe the massacre. But nothing came of it. The attackers and the attacked began living side by side yet again.
Read the rest of the interview here
What the Fields Remember 