Assam is a mini-India if not more. The
human landscape is as colourful as her physiography. This land has been the
meeting ground of diverse ethnic groups and cultural streams since time immemorial.
Throughout history, people of different stocks have been migrating into this
land and merged into a common harmonious whole in a process of assimilation
and fraternisation not to be seen much elsewhere in India.
The principal migrants have been the Austro-Asiatics, the Dravidians, the
Tibeto-Burmans, the Mongoloids and the Aryans. The Austro-Asiatics, who were
one of the earliest to arrive, initially lived in the Brahmaputra Valley,
but were later pushed to the hills by the subsequent waves of migrants. The
Khasis and Jaintias of present-day Meghalaya are said to be the descendants
of this stock.
Next to come were the Dravidians, and the ethnological conjecture is that
the Kaibarta and Bania communities of modern Assam are descendants of this
group.
The Mongoloid migration to Assam took place at long intervals and from widely
varied sources. They, in general, belong to the Tibeto-Burman family of the
Indo-Chinese group. The early waves of this group constituted the ancestors
of the present-day Kacharis, Dimasas, Bodos, Rabhas and Lalungs, as also most
of the tribes living in the hills neighbouring modern Assam.
The Kacharis are a powerful family and are today mostly known as the Bodos
in the Brahmaputra Valley and Dimasas in the North Cachar Hills. The Koches
on the other hand are said to be an admixture of the Dravidian and Mongoloid
stocks. They are called Rajbangshis in the extreme western part of the State.
The Chutiyas in Upper Assam originally settled in the north-eastern tip of
the region, but later gave way to make room for the Ahoms, who belonged to
the Shan sub-section of the great Indo-Chinese family.
The Mishings and the Karbis belong to the Tibeto-Burman stock, and inhabit
the northern plains of Upper Assam and the Karbi hills respectively. The Khamits
of extreme Upper Assam, as also the Naras, Phakiyals and Shyams (Man-Tai and
Tai-Turung) belong to the Shan sub-section, and are believed to be groups
who arrived much after the Ahoms.
Assam today has 16 Scheduled Castes and 23 Scheduled Tribes, with proposals
for inclusion of more ethnic groups in the two categories still awaiting approval
of the Centre.
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