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In a Nutshell | History

About Assam. . .

PEOPLE

You find traces of them all there: the Australoids who were perhaps the first to come to the land; the Mongoloids who came to the Northeast in a series of migrations from the north, north-east and south-east; and the Caucasoids who came from the west by the valley formed by the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Today, the people of the State can be broadly classified as the Non-Tribals or Plains People who generally live in the plains and the Tribals who have mainly been living in the hills. However, there is a substantial tribal population in the plains too.

Roots

At present, though there is no Australoid population as such in any part of Assam, but recent anthropological researches support that Australoid elements are discernible not only among many tribes but also in certain caste groups of Assam. Most of the ancient australoid traits were absorbed by the Mongoloids and the Caucasoids in due course of time. It is very difficult to say who came first between the Mongoloid and the Caucasoid but by physical appearance they have both retained their identities as separate groups though it is very difficult, if not impossible to distinguish them on the basis of individuals. The Ahoms who figure so prominently in the history of the State were a Mongoloid people so are the small Buddhist populations of Khamti, Tai Phake, Khamyang, Aiton and Turung in Upper Assam. Among the Assamese castes, the Brahmans and the Khatriyas find mention in the records of Hiuen Tsang and are considered to be people of Caucasoid origin.

A Meeting Ground

Since time immemorial, Assam has been the happy meeting ground of people belonging to different ethnic groups, communities and cultural entities. For example, even the Brahmaputra Valley is an area rich with the contribution of different such groups most of whom got assimilated in the composite Assamese identity. To the south, in the Barak valley, Bengali-speaking people along with tribal communities have been making similar contributions to the emergence of a distinct identity of Assam.

Another group which deserves special mention is the tea garden community. During the second half of the Nineteenth Century, when the British started tea cultivation on a large scale in Assam, they were faced with the problem of dearth of labour. Hence, they brought in people from other parts of the country --- from Orissa and Bihar and from as far as Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

These people ultimately settled down in the State, and successive generations not only intermingled among themselves but also assimilated much of the Assamese culture to develop a lifestyle of their own. Some of them left the tea estates and found other occupations. Today, with their attractive dances (Jhumur) and songs, and their close rapport with the tea plant, they have a distinct culture of their own.