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Immigration and Identity Transformation in Assam Author(S): Udayon Misra Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol Immigration and Identity Transformation in Assam Author(s): Udayon Misra Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 21 (May 22-28, 1999), pp. 1264-1271 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4407987 Accessed: 12-09-2016 13:51 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly This content downloaded from 59.180.134.145 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 13:51:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SPECIAL ARTICLES Immigration and Identity Transformation in Assam Udayon Misra For centuries imigrants have been accommodated in Assamese society. This article briefly reviews the shaping of Assamese society and culture over centuries and goes on to discuss pre- and post-independence changes in politics, attitudes and the demography of the state. It examines the language issue, the tribals versus Assamese middle class tensions and the position of Muslims in the state. The Assamese identity will likely be shaped by the criss-crossing ethnic, linguistic anld religious divisions in Assamese society. THIS paper is a brief attempt at tracing successful in repelling the Muslim rule of Rudra Singha (1696-1714) and the transformation that has been taking invasions, but by the 1530s the Ahoms had Siva Singha (1714-44) hastened the place within the Assamese community freed the greater part of Kamrup and assimilation of many of the tribes into the and how certain major demographic Kamata from Muslim occupation and Hindu fold and the idea of a composite changes over the past 100 years or so have "extended their dominion right up to the Assamese identity made up of the caste today reached a stage where significant Karatoya in Murshidabad in the west and Hindus, the plains-tribals and the small alterations are bound to take place in the almost to close proximity of Dacca" section of Assamese Muslims began to overall composition and cultural content [Barpujari 1992:141 . During the rule of the emerge. Sankardeva's (1449-1568) of the Assamese population. Assam has Ahom monarch, Pratap Singha (1603-41) reformist Vaishnavism had already rightly been called the melting-pot of consolidation of the Assamese community prepared the ground for bringing the plains diverse cultural streamns, the Indo-Aryan was further speeded up because of the tribals within the Hindu fold. Historians and the Austro-Mongoloid being the common fight against Mughal incursions have noted that during the 17th and 18th central ones. Assamese intellectuals point and encroachment on Assam territory. The centuries large segments of the bodo- out the 'liberal outlook' of the Assamese Ahom victory over the Mughals in early kacharis and other tribal groups embraced people and their capacity to take within 1616 was followed by the defeat of the Hinduism [Guha 1991:25]. their fold people of varying cultural and Mughal army led by Ram Singh in the The first Muslim invasions which had linguistic hues. The most common example Battle of Saraighat in March 1671. started from the early part of the 13th of the Assamese people's accommodative Prior to the advent of the Ahoms, the century and continued till the 14th, power that is referred to by the scholars western part of the country (referred to as resulted in a sizeable section of Muslims is that of the Assamisation of the Ahoms 'Lower Assam' by the British) was staying behind in Assam after the failure who came from upper Burma, who had generally known as Kamarupa with of their expeditions. This segment finally a religion and culture distinctively their Pragjyotispura (present-day Guwahati) as assimilated with the emerging Assamese own and who ruled Assam for 600 years its capital; the eastern part (referred to as nationality as Asamiya Mussalmans. The (1228-1818), giving the state its present 'Upper Assam' by the British) consisted Ahom rulers gave positions of power and name. of several tribal kingdoms and eminence to the Assamese Muslims and principalities. According to historians, the latter took active part in resisting during the early period of Ahom rule, successive Mughal attempts to overrun Historical Background Upper Assam was known as Ahom country the region. The assimilation of this segment Migration of peoples into Assam, andboth Lower Assam as the land of the of Muslims into Assamese society was so from the Indian subcontinent and from 'Dhekeris'. While the people of western complete that the historians who countries lying to its east, has been going or Lower Assam were usually referred accompanied to the Mughal expeditions into on for centuries. It is beyond the scope of as the Dhekeris by the Ahoms, they, Assam in noted that they were more Assamese this paper to go into the details of such turn. used to distinguish communities thanlike Muslim. migrations. But, what is today known as the 'Koches' and the 'Keots' inhabiting Thus, the demographic break-up of the the 'Assamese' or 'Asomiya' community eastern or Upper Assam from those Assamese of society on the eve of British of people, is related to the process of their own by terming them as 'Ahom Koch'entry into the province may be said to have Aryanisation as well as the rise and or 'Ahom Keot' [Baruah 1972:10]. It includedwas the different ethnic groups consolidation of Ahom rule in the only after the Ahoms spread their rule brought over within the Hindu fold, the caste Brahmaputra valley. The idea of a the greater part of the Brahmaputra valley Hindus, the plains tribal communities and composite Assamese or Asomiya jati' or that the country came to be known the as relatively small number of Assamese nationality took shape during the later part Asom, clearly a derivative from the wordMuslims. For instance, in his social division of the Ahom rule. This process had started Ahom. Even in Sankardeva's time, the of the Assamese, the 19th century writer, during the first Muslim invasion from word Asom often meant the Ahoms Padmanath Gohain Baruah, mentions the neighbouring Bengal in the 16th century [Baruah 1972:110]. following groups: brahmins, goswamis when the people were brought under an The adoption of the Hindu faith by (gosains), the Ahoms, baishyas, mahanta or Ahom or Assamese banner against the Ahom kings and the active patronage mahajan, of kayasthas, daibagyas, kalita, keot, common enemy. Not only were the Ahoms Hinduism in the 17th century during koch, the chutia and the Muslims known as 1264 Economic and Political Weekly May 22, 1999 This content downloaded from 59.180.134.145 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 13:51:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms marias [Gohain Baruah 1976:3]. There are ing national consciousness were (a) the was seen as a threat to Assamese identity other historians who have included all the struggle to regain the status of the Assamese and culture. The different stages in the plains tribes and the kalitas, brahmins, language, and (b) the increasing pressure fight for making Assamese the official kayasthas and the keots as well as the on cultivable land as a result of continued language of the state were marked by scheduled castes wilhin the umbrella immigration of land-hungry peasants from bitterness and violence, with the ordinary connotation of 'Assamese'. neighbouring East Bengal which intensi- Bengali Hindu peasant bearing the brunt. It is, however, interesting to note fied that from the early part of the 20th century. Unlike the Bengali Muslim, whose was common 19th and early 20th century While the first was a struggle led primarily primarily a struggle for survival and who perceptions about the Assamese nationality by the emerging Assamese middle class was prepared to adopt a low-key approach were limited almost exclusively to whichonly would, in the succeeding decades, regarding his language and culture, the those people who lived in the Brahmaputra play an increasingly hegemonic role in Bengali Hindu who had occupied an valley. Writing in the closing decades Assamese of society, the second factor important position in the administrative the 19th century, the leading Assamese affected both the tribal and non-tribal set-up under the British, was not prepared intellectual of the time, Gunabhiram Assamese peasants who were being faced to shed his distinctive cultural identity. Baruah (1837-94), berates his countrymen with growing land-alienation. With increasing numbers of immigrant for being extremely insular in approach Initially, the tribal and non-tribal Bengali-speaking Muslims declaring and xenophobic in their attitude towards segments within the still emerging Assamese to be their mother tongue, their hill neighbours as well as the peoples Assamese nationality came closer on the whether for political or other conside- of Bengal and beyond. Baruah concludes question of putting up a common fight rations, it was but natural that, in the his article by saying that education alone against the continuous occupation of struggle of the Assamese to secure a would help the Assamese to change their cultivable land by the immigrants and this rightful place for their language and attitudes and to look upon the Bengalees was also reflected in the concern expressed culture, they came to look upon the in- and other outsiders as their brothers by the Congress Party which, by the late nocuous immigrant Muslim peasant as a [Baruah 1885: 95-100].
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