The Assamese people are a socio-
ethnic linguistic identity that has been described at various times as nationalistic or
micro-nationalistic. This group is often associated with the
Assamese language
Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a '' lingua franca'' of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian langua ...
, the easternmost
Indo-Aryan language
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
, and most Assamese people live in the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n state of
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
, especially in the
Brahmaputra valley
The Brahmaputra Valley is a region situated between hill ranges of the eastern and northeastern Himalayan range in Eastern India.
The valley consists of the Western Brahmaputra Valley covering the regions of Goalpara and Kamrup; the Central ...
. The use of the term precedes the name of the language or the people. It has also been used retrospectively to the people of
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
before the term "Assamese" came into use. They are an ethnically diverse group formed after centuries of assimilation of
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...
,
Tibeto-Burman
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spea ...
,
Indo-Aryan and
Tai
Tai or TAI may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain
*Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless''
*Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon''
Businesses and organisations ...
populations, and constitute a tribal-caste continuum
—though not all Assamese people are Hindus and ethnic Assamese Muslims numbering around 42 lakh constitute a significant part of this identity The total population of Assamese speakers in Assam is nearly 15.09 million which makes up 48.38% of the population of state according to the ''Language census of 2011''.
Etymology
The name "Assamese" is of British colonial coinage. Assamese is an English word meaning "of Assam"—though most Assamese people live in Assam, not all the
people of Assam
The People of Assam inhabit a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society. They speak languages that belong to four main language groups: Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic. The large number of ethnic and ...
today are Assamese people.
Definition
The Government of Assam faced difficulties in defining Assamese people for
Assam Accord
The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on 15 Au ...
, due to linguistically and culturally heterogeneous population. Though there is a political dispute over the definition of Assamese people, in general; the people belonging to the state of Assam are referred sometimes as Assamese people or more appropriately as
People of Assam
The People of Assam inhabit a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society. They speak languages that belong to four main language groups: Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic. The large number of ethnic and ...
. The lack of a definition has put stumbling blocks in implementing ''clause 6'' of the
Assam Accord
The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on 15 Au ...
, an agreement signed by the activists of the
Assam Movement
The Assam Movement (also Anti-Foreigners Agitation) (1979–1985) was a popular uprising in Assam, India, that demanded the Government of India to detect, disenfranchise and deport illegal aliens. Led by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and A ...
and the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
in 1985. Since a legal definition is important to provide "constitutional, legislative and cultural" safeguards to the Assamese people, the
Government of Assam
The Government of Assam is the subnational government of Assam, a state of India. It consists of the Governor appointed by the President of India as the head of the state, currently Jagdish Mukhi. The head of government is the Chief Minister, ...
had formed a ministerial committee to finalise the definition in March 2007. To address the ''clause 6'' issue,
AASU had announced a definition on 10 April 2000 which was based on residency with a temporal limit: ''All those whose names appeared in the 1951 National Register of Citizens and their progenies should be considered as Assamese''.
Despite the lack of a legal definition, social scientists consider the Assamese identity to constitute a tribal-caste continuum that has been the result of a historical process.
History
Origins of the nationalistic identity
Assamese as a nationalistic identity was seeded when the
Ahom kingdom came under repeated attacks from the
Bengal Sultanate in the early 16th century and the people banded together under
Suhungmung (1497–1539) to resist a common enemy. The kingdom not only succeeded in resisting the invasion, but a general pursued the invaders to the Karatoya river and freed most of the
Kamrup and
Kamata Kamata can refer to:
Places
*Kamata, Tokyo, a neighborhood in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan
**Kamata High School, a school located in the Kamata neighborhood, Ōta, Tokyo, Japan
* Kamata Kingdom, a 13th-century kingdom in Assam, India
* Kamata, New Zealand ...
regions.
The process of identity formation sped up during the rule of
Pratap Singha
Susenghphaa or Pratap Singha (), was the 17th and one of the most prominent kings of the Ahom kingdom. As he was advanced in years when he became king, he is also called the ''burha Raja'' (Old king). His reign saw an expansion of the Ahom k ...
(1603–41) when the
Mughals began
repeated incursions from 1615 and the
Battle of Saraighat
The Battle of Saraighat was a naval battle fought in 1671 between the Mughal Empire (led by the Kachwaha raja, Ram Singh I), and the Ahom Kingdom (led by Lachit Borphukan) on the Brahmaputra river at Saraighat, now in Guwahati, Assam, In ...
in 1671; and finally the
Battle of Itakhuli (1682 CE) when the Ahoms took direct control over western Brahmaputra valley. Many Muslim soldiers and professionals who had accompanied invading armies or immigrated peacefully since the 13th century, including those from the 16th century, were given power and eminence by the Ahom kings, and they in turn helped the Ahoms in repelling the Mughals. This was also the time when the
Assamese language
Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a '' lingua franca'' of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian langua ...
progressively replaced the
Ahom language in the court and outside. As a result of the Ahom kings increasingly patronizing Hinduism alongside the proselytizing activities of
Ekasarana Dharma
Ekasarana Dharma (literally: ''Shelter-in-One religion'') is a neo-Vaishnavite monolithic religion propagated by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in the Indian state of Assam. It reduced focus on vedic ritualism and focuses on d ...
since the 16th-century—a large section of the
Bodo-Kachari peoples converted to different forms of Hinduism in the 17th-18th century and a composite Assamese identity comprising caste-Hindus, tribals and Assamese Muslims began to form.
On the eve of British colonialism, the writers of that time included everyone in the Brahmaputra valley into the group called "Assamese".
Tribe-Caste continuum
Social movement due to state formations
Scholars believe that with the arrival of
Indo-Aryans in Assam, there was a simultaneous
sanskritisation
Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) is a term in sociology which refers to the process by which castes or tribes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek 'upward' mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the dominant castes or upper ...
and deshification processes beginning in the 5th–8th century during the reign of the
Varman dynasty
The Varman dynasty (350–650) was the first historical dynasty of the Kamarupa kingdom. It was established by Pushyavarman, a contemporary of Samudragupta. The earlier Varmans were subordinates of the Gupta Empire, but as the power of the Gu ...
of
Kamarupa;—and all Assam's kings were originally non-Indo-Aryan who were gradually Sanskritised. This enabled many of the common folks to follow the ruling classes into sanskritisation and also bring along with them elements of their own local customs and religions.
Social movement due to Ekasarana religion
The
Ekasarana dharma
Ekasarana Dharma (literally: ''Shelter-in-One religion'') is a neo-Vaishnavite monolithic religion propagated by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in the Indian state of Assam. It reduced focus on vedic ritualism and focuses on d ...
that emerged in the 16th century and the proselytising activities of the
Sattra
Satras are institutional centers associated with the Ekasarana tradition of Vaishnavism, largely found in the Indian state of Assam and neighboring regions. Numbering in the hundreds, these centers are generally independent of each other and ...
institutions created a path for individuals of tribal origins to traverse the tribal-caste continuum. Tribal people could take initiation at a Sattra—and a neophyte would be called a ''modahi'' if he still took liquor. A ''modahi'' successively advanced to the ''
Sarania'' group (also called ''saru-koch''),
Koch, ''Bor''-Koch, ''Saru''-Keot, ''Bor''-Keot and then a
Kalita. At the end of this tribal-caste continuum were the
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...
s and often the pontiffs of Sattra's were Brahmins called Goswamis. Some of these Goswamis were a few generations earlier
Kayasthas, and some Kayastha pontiffs were earlier tribal and low caste. It is this process by which many groups such as
Chutia, Borahi,
Moran,
Deori,
Boro __NOTOC__
Boro may refer to:
People
* Boro people, indigenous peoples of Amazonas, Brazil
* A variant spelling for the Bodo people of northeast India
* Charan Boro, Indian politician
* Isaac Adaka Boro, a celebrated Niger Delta nationalist and Nig ...
peoples to become Assamese peasants, especially in Upper and Central Assam; and it was noted that some kayastha ''sattradhikar''s were originally
Morans,
Kaibartas,
Chandalas,
Tantis and
Sankardev
Srimanta Sankardev( শ্ৰীমন্ত শংকৰদেৱ )(; ; 1449–1568) was a 15th–16th century Assamese polymath; a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of im ...
had himself instated ''gurus'' from Muslim, Kaibarta,
Nagas, and
Garo
Garo may refer to:
People and languages
* Garo people, a tribal people in India
** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe
Places
* Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia
* Garo, Colorado
* Garo Hills, part of the Ga ...
communities.
See also
*
Assamese Brahmins
Assamese Brahmins or Bamun are the Brahmins present in the Assamese society. There are two classes in Assam Bamun and Ganaks. Brahmins were originally priests. Religious worship in temples is generally carried out by them.
There they promot ...
*
Tribes of Assam
According to the 2001 census, the Scheduled Tribes population as in percentage of the total population of Assam was 12.4 percent. The Assam Tribune reported in 2009 that the tribal communities of Assam now officially account for 15.64 percent of th ...
*
Assamese Language Movement
*
Music of Assam
The music of Assam consists various genres of folk and modern music, drawing its artistic basis from the history of Assam, from Assamese culture and its ancient traditions. In recent times, starting from the late eighties, popular artistes hav ...
*
People of Assam
The People of Assam inhabit a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society. They speak languages that belong to four main language groups: Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic. The large number of ethnic and ...
*
Demography of Assam
Notes
References
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{{Authority control
Indo-Aryan peoples
Ethnic groups in India
Ethnic groups in South Asia
Linguistic groups of the constitutionally recognised official languages of India