In the summer of 2012, something unusual happened. Ethnic violence erupted in the North East and made it to primetime TV and front pages across India. Clashes had broken out between indigenous Bodo people and Bengali-speaking Muslims in the eastern part of Assam. More than a lakh people fled their homes for the safety and squalor of refugee camps.

But what made the violence newsworthy for the national media was not simply the humanitarian crisis that followed. It was the reverberations felt in places as distant as Mumbai and Bangalore. Seen as a conflict between Bodos and Muslims, and not indigenous people versus migrants, the violence had provoked Muslim organisations in other states and cities to hold protests and demonstrations. In some places, students from the North East, even those who were not Bodos, felt threatened enough to pack up and leave.

Under intense scrutiny, the Bodoland People's Front, the party that runs the government in the Bodoland Territorial Council, which used to get some sympathy in the national media during the years of its armed insurgency, found itself getting bad press for its anti-Muslim politics.

Two years later, on the eve of national elections, the national media is too busy to take note of what the BPF is up to. Even The Telegraph, the leading English daily of eastern India, tucked inside the Metro supplement of its Guwahati edition the news that in its election manifesto, the BPF had “extended its support to the creation of Kamtapur and Miyaland in an apparent bid to reach out to the Koch Rajbongshi and Muslim population”.

Kamtapur is a statehood demand that has existed for some years now. There is even an armed group called Kamtapur Liberation Organisation.

But what is Miyaland, who is asking for it, and why is a Bodo political party supporting it?

I called up Hagrama Mohilary, the leader of BPF, but he did not respond to my calls and text messages.

The next morning, I went to BPF’s office in Kokrajhar. A group of party workers sat outside, reading the morning papers.

"Your party has declared support for Miyaland. What is Miyaland?" I asked them.

"We don't know," said one of the men. "Our leaders know."

Sensing it was not a satisfactory answer, another intervened, "Miyaland is for Muslims."

“Who is asking for it?”

“Assam's original Muslims. They are called Miyas. They are asking for it.”

“But where do they want it?”

“Don't know. No one has spelt out the boundaries.”

Travelling through the towns and villages of Kokrajhar district, I stopped to ask Muslims if they knew more about it. Most of the villagers did not. In Bhawaraguri town, a group of Muslim businessmen, who sat reading newspapers and discussing politics, claimed the concept had originated in Dhubri district, and was associated with a former MLA named Rasul Haque, who was until recently a member of the All-Indian United Democratic Front.

The Telegraph had reported on April 25, 2013, "Former AIUDF legislator Rasul Haque announced the formation of a new political party, Assam Muslim League, here today and said it would strive to secure an autonomous council for the Muslims of the state." By an autonomous council, Haque said he meant “a satellite council whose jurisdiction will not be confined to any particular area.

“Haque argued that Muslims in the state had the right to demand an autonomous council. ‘If other communities like the Bodos, Rabhas and Misings can be given autonomous councils, why can’t we get it?’’

Responding to Haque’s proposal, in the same report, an AIUDF leader called it “a plot of a 'scared' Congress to 'damage' the AIUDF’s prospects". Founded by a perfume baron, Badruddin Ajmal, the AIUDF has very rapidly built a base among Bengali-speaking Muslims, once considered supporters of the Congress.

According to the 2001 census, Muslims constitute 30.9 per cent of Assam’s population. While Bengali-speaking Muslims are more numerous, and hence politically more significant, there is a small section of Assamese-speaking Muslims in the state, with diverse histories and ethnicities. Some of them are indigenous people who converted to Islam.

Sahiruddin Ali Ahmed, the president of an organisation called Sadou Asom Goria Moria Deshi Jatiya Parishad that claims to represent indigenous Assamese Muslims, told The Telegraph, “We belong to the Goria, Moria and Deshi ethnic groups of the Assamese Muslims. We want to be identified and referred to by our ethnic identities and not by religion.” Responding to Rasul Haque, the Parishad had reportedly “slammed the demand for a Muslim autonomous council in the state, saying it is the indigenous people who need a council to safeguard their identity...’We totally disagree and oppose to such demands for a Muslim council,’ he said.”

But, as it turned out, the demand for a Miyaland is not the same as the demand for a Muslim council.

Speaking with Scroll.in on phone, Rasul Haque said, “We have asked for a satellite council, not a Miyaland with fixed boundaries.”

So who has asked for Miyaland?

“A man called Hazarika of the Assam Miya Parishad,” he said.

Scroll.in tried contacting Hazarika but his phone could not be reached.

In the aftermath of the clashes that had taken place between Bodos and Muslims in 2012, The Telegraph had spoken with Hazarika: “Condemning the July 6 attack on non-Bodo people at Musalmanpara near Bhowraguri in Kokrajhar district that killed two persons, Asomiya (Asom-Mia) Parishad president Miah Giasuddin Ahmed Hazarika said, “This was not an isolated incident. There is constant pressure on the non-Bodo people living in the BTC. We want the territorial boundary of BTC to be abolished so that the non-Bodo people can live in peace.”’

If indeed it is Hazarika’s group that has asked for Miyaland, why were Bodo leaders supporting a group that was seeking the end of Bodoland?

In Gossaigaon, a division town of Kokrajhar district, at the BPF office, I ran into a man surrounded by armed gunmen. He was Reo Reoa Narzihary, BPF leader and Health Minister of Bodoland Territorial Council.

I asked him about Miyaland.

"There's a Muslim organisation – I can't recall its name. They are demanding it," he said.

"But why is your party supporting it?"

"Well, Miyaland does not affect Bodoland at all. Our area cannot be touched. It is protected under the sixth schedule of the Indian constitution," Narzihary said. He meant that Miyaland, if created, would not impinge upon the territory of Bodoland.

Dismissing the violence of 2012 as the work of outside elements, he claimed his party was secular. Then, pausing briefly to look for the right words, he added, "Humanist...Yes...Our support for Miyaland shows we are a humanist organisation."

Click here to read all the stories Supriya Sharma has filed about her 2,500-km rail journey from Guwahati to Jammu to listen to India's conversations about the forthcoming elections -- and life.

Click here to see the photographs Supriya took during her visit to Kokrajhar.