The Nellie Massacre: 2,000 – 3,000 (feb 18, 1983 – feb 18, 1983)

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The Nellie Massacre was carried out by mobs of Tiwa (Lalung) tribal people, ethnic Assamese Hindus, and Koch tribal members (many converted to Hinduism) who had been mobilized by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists, and the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) leadership against Bengali-speaking Muslim villagers on February 18, 1983 (lasting six hours), with an estimated death toll between 1,800 (official government figure) and 10,000 (unofficial estimates), predominantly women and children, making it the largest massacre of Muslims since Partition and one of the bloodiest pogroms in independent India.
Perpetrators engaged in encircling 14 villages at dawn, blocking all escape routes, systematic hacking with machetes (daos), spearing, bludgeoning with sticks, shooting with country-made guns, disemboweling pregnant women, impaling children, burning houses, killing entire families, bodies strewn across fields as far as survivors could see, attacks on fleeing villagers, and deliberate targeting of those too weak to run—elderly, women, children.

Police ignored urgent pleas for help despite forewarning. The violence erupted during controversial state elections that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi insisted on holding despite boycott calls from the Assam Movement protesting "illegal Bangladeshi infiltration," with BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech days before in Assam saying foreigners should be "chopped into pieces"—speech followed immediately by the massacre (though Vajpayee later condemned it).

It has been labeled as ethnic cleansing by scholars and characterized as "post-Independence India's first genocidal pogrom" by observers. Genocide Watch recognizes it as a massacre. However, no formal genocide recognition exists. The Tewary Commission report remained suppressed for 42 years until announced for tabling in November 2025 ahead of elections. Complete impunity—of 688 people charged, all were acquitted. No one has ever been punished. The massacre created 300,000 internal refugees.

Survivors carry lifelong trauma with no justice or accountability, while protesters from the anti-foreigner movement who died were declared "martyrs" and given state compensation—demonstrating how victims can be erased while perpetrators honored when state ideology aligns with ethnic violence.

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