INCORPORATION OF THE EASTERN DUARS TO THE COLONIAL RULE: THE SOCIO-POLITICAL & ETHNIC TRANSFORMATION OF THE BODOS (1866-1993) A thesis submitted to the University of North Bengal For the award of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY By Banabina Brahma GUIDE Dr.Ananda Gopal Ghosh Professor, (Retd) Department of History University of North Bengal March, 2016 Dated: 29 March, 2016 Contents Declaration Certificate Acknowledgement .................................................................... i Abstract .................................................................................... ii - v Preface .................................................................................... vi - vii Abbreviations .......................................................................... viii - ix Map ........................................................................................ x - xi Introduction ……………...................................................... 1 - 24 Introduction of Bodos.......................................................... 25 - 82 Rise of Social Awakening and the Background of Bodo Movements........ 83 - 125 The Bodo Movement and its Different Phases...................................... 126 - 194 Women Participation in in the Bodo Movement......................................... 195 - 243 Conclusion............................................................................................. 244 - 252 Appendix……………………………………………………………… 253 - 300 Glossary ................................................................................. 301 - 302 Bibliography........................................................................................... 303 - 322 Index…………………………………………………………………. 323 - 325 Acknowledgements Any accomplishment requires the opportunity and efforts of many people and this work is not different. I thank my guide Dr. Ananda Gopal Ghosh, Professor and former Head of the Department of History North Bengal University, for giving me the opportunity, patience and support in accomplishing this work. I am also grateful to Dr.Bijoy Sarkar, the present HOD History, North Bengal University for his kind guidance and support in every needful moment. Special thanks go to UGC New Delhi for providing monetary grant to my research work .I would like to thank all the librarians and staff of NBU and Kokrajhar Govt. College, Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Assam State Archive, Tribal Research Institute Guwahati, Hagzer Bhavan Head- Office of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, ABSU Office, Kokrajhar . I am grateful to my father Sri Batendra Nath Brahma for his support and encouragement. I would like to thank Mrs. Anjalee Basumatary (HOD, Physics, Kokrajhar Govt.College) for her guidance and support in every needful moment. I am grateful to my parents, my husband, my children, my brother Tapanjit and Rwmwi. I sincerely thank all those people who had helped me in accomplishing this work even in their smallest possible way. Despite my best efforts and care, there may be some errors. However, I owe all responsibilities for that. Banabina Brahma i ABSTRACT “Eastern Duars” holds an important a place in the history of Assam as well as in Indian History because of its typical geographical position. The entire tract called ‘Eastern Duars’ is the only connecting link between the entire Northeastern regions with the rest of the Indian Republic. In spite of her importance as the only connecting link between the entire northeast region with the rest of Indian Republic, the “Eastern Duars” has failed to receive adequate justice in the hands of historians both regional and national. There are already several historical works and monographs and articles in learned Journals on Western Duars, but work on Eastern Duars is extremely poor in number. The present work expects to evolve many critical aspects of socio-political and cultural conditions of Bodos of Eastern Duars in a new dimension. The earliest inhabitants of Eastern Duars are the Bodos, the Koches, the Garos the Rabhas and the Dobashias. Among these communities the Bodos were largest in number and all the Eastern Duars leading to Bhutan were dominated by them. The Bodo dominance in Eastern Duars has been mentioned by W.W.Hunter on his work “A Statistical Account of Assam”, Francis Hamilton in his work “An Account of Assam” and Alexander Macknenjee in his work “North East Frontier of Bengal”. Prior to the advant of Colonial rule in the Duars area, the entire tract was ruled by some petty chiefs on a regular payment of taxes to the Bhutan king. Most of the times the king of Bhutan used to appoint the tax collectors from the Bodo community as they were majority in the Duars and maintained a cordial relation with the Bhutiyas. P.R.Pemberton and Babu Kisan Kant Bose in their “Report on Bhootan” mentions the name of several Bodo tax collectors directly appointed by the Deb Raja of Bhutan. It was due to the reason that most of the Duars or passes to Bhutan were in Bodo dominated areas. They established socio- economic and cultural relationship amongst themselves in the Bhutiya Mela organized every year. i i After the occupation of Duars in 1866, the British inducted huge migration in the Eastern Duars. First, they brought laborers from Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to work in their tea plantation. These people were subsequently settled by the colonial rulers in Eastern Duars’. Secondly, the massive induction of immigrants triggered by the British are the land hungry Muslim peasants from East Bengal. At the early part of 19th century, the British Raj allowed the settling of land hungry peasants from the bordering districts of Bengal to the wastelands of Assam. This colonization scheme initiated by the British Government opened a floodgate for immigration of landless peasants from East Bengal to Assam, and at least 90 percent of these immigrants were Muslims. By the 1942, the Government of India had directed the Government of Assam to launch an intensive “Grow more Food” Campaign by utilizing all available land to provide adequate food to the allied troops stationed in Assam. Thirdly, the third wave of migrations that took place in Eastern Duars during the colonial period are the Nepalese from Nepal. They came to Assam in two roles — (a) as a part of the colonial army and (b) as graziers. A large number of ex-serviceman and graziers were encouraged to come and occupy the fertile Duars region and engage themselves in cattle keeping’. The colonial period also saw immigration of Marwari merchants from distant Rajasthan. Though their numbers was small, they played an important role in opening up the Eastern Duars to trade under colonial patronage. They acted as moneylender, bankers and general agents to the managers of the tea Garden and throughout the state sold articles imported from other parts of India and became dealers in rice and grains’. Thus the colonial period saw a drastic change of the demographic set up in the Eastern Duars. Groups of communities having distinct languages, cultures and ethnic characteristics – hitherto unknown in the area came to the region under the colonial patronage they were settled in the area. This change of demography had created a social tension for the first time in the Duars region. The phenomenon of immigration had shook the very foundation of social set up in the region and lead to the hardening of the boundaries of social formation in Eastern Duars into ‘sons of the soil’ and ‘outsiders’. The ‘sons of the soil’ generally wished to keep the ‘outsiders’ away from territorial resources and destinies. Now, the Bodos as they were major community of the area, they took the leadership in the protest against the immigration. They never reconciled themselves to their subjugation iii by the British. Their micro level freedom struggled and consistently asserted their ethnic identity and insisted on enjoying exclusive control over like land, water, forest, minerals etc. The Bodos under the banner of Plains Tribal League raised the question of land settlement and protection of tribal land under the Line System. From then onwards, the process of ethnic assertion of the Bodos in Eastern Duars begun. Here lies the genesis of transforming the ‘Eastern Duars’ into present ‘Bodoland Territorial Council’ In the meantime, the Bodos were already in the process of new social formation after the “Brahma Movement” which was started by Kalicharan Brahma. The movement led by Kalicharan Brahma gradually assumed a multi-dimensional form. It started as a religious movement but over the years socio-economic agenda of vital importance was added to it. That ensured for Kalicharan a position amongst the Bodos that went far beyond his primary role as a religious preacher. In 1929, when the Simon Commission visited Assam, Kalicharan submitted a memorandum demanding reservation of seats in the legislative assembly for the Bodos. This representation of Kalicharan marked the beginning of the Bodo politics in real sense of the term. Subsequently, in the Act of India’1935, the Government of India made provision for four reserved seats in the assembly for the Plains Tribals of Assam. This was the historical achievement as that point of time no such reservation for any other tribals or caste had been given under the British Government in India. Until then, the mainstream Assamese society could not recognize the Plains Tribals as potential political force. But, when the Simon Commission made provision for four reserved seats for the Plains Tribals of Assam, the mainstream