The Nellie massacre

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Nellie massacre on 18 February 1983 was the worst bloodshed in the country since Indian independence in 1947. It is estimated that 3,000 people died that day.

Bedabrata Lahkar was a journalist working for the Assam Tribune newspaper at the time. He tells Gill Kearsley about the events that led up to the massacre and the devastating scenes he witnessed.

A warning this programme contains descriptions of violence and language that some people may find offensive.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Survivors of the 1983 Assam massacre. Credit: Santosh Basak/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:44.0	Music sounds. There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love. Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me,
0:49.3	Jill Kursley. I'm taking you back to the 1980s and the Nelly massacre in Assam,
0:55.9	a state in North East India that borders Bangladesh and Bhutan.
1:01.0	And a warning, this program contains descriptions of violence from the start
1:05.2	and language that some people may find offensive.
1:10.0	One young girl, she ran into the stream. Just her head was above the
1:16.0	water. She was trying to hide. One attacker came down along the bank and just struck at her head,
1:24.1	and I could see blood spilling out and she died instantly. That's journalist
1:31.3	Bedebrata Larka. The Nelly massacre on the 18th of February in 1983 was the worst bloodshed
1:38.6	since Indian independence in 1947. At the heart of the crisis in Assam is immigration. Ever since the turn of the century,
1:47.5	the Assamese have claimed that their culture and identity have been under threat of domination
1:52.0	from an influx of East and West Bengali immigrants. In the days before the massacre, elections
1:57.5	had heightened tensions between these two groups.
2:04.7	The Assamese people were unhappy that large numbers of Bengali immigrants had been given the right to vote.
	...

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