# Assam CM urges settlers to list Assamese as mother tongue in Census 2026-08-15T17:10:22+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday appealed to people from other parts of India who have settled in Assam to list 'Assamese' as their mother tongue during the ongoing Census. He made the call amid concern over a decline in Assamese speakers, which fell from 59.53% in 1971 to 48.38% in 2011. The Census began in Assam on August 2 and will run until September 15, except in flood-hit Sivasagar and Charaideo districts. Sarma said Bengali-speaking residents of Barak Valley and members of tribal communities like Bodos and Misings should use their own discretion and mention their own languages. The share of Bengali speakers in Assam rose from 27.53% in 2001 to 28.91% in 2011, while Hindi speakers increased from 5.89% to 6.73%, according to Census data. ## Coverage - indiatoday.in - ndtv.com This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-09-27T06:16:42+00:00. Tags: Assam, Assamese language, Barak Valley, Census of India, Himanta Biswa Sarma Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/assam-cm-urges-settlers-to-list-assamese-as-mother-tongue/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/assam-cm-urges-settlers-to-list-assamese-as-mother-tongue/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/