Ethnicity in Assam: Understanding the Complexities of Ethnic Identities and Conflicts
| Author | Kasturi Bharadwaj |
| Published date | 01 July 2016 |
| Date | 01 July 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120160315 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ETHNICITY IN ASSAM: UNDERSTANDING THE
COMPLEXITIES OF ETHNIC IDENTITIES AND
CONFLICTS
KASTURI BHARADWAJ
Assam
is a
land
"inhabited
by
varied
ethnic
groups".
Anthropological
Survey
of
India
(1985)
identified
115
communities residing in Assam. Hence ethnic discourse
of
Assam requires closer examination to see what identities
build
it
and
make it immensely overwhelming. However,
it
is
beyond
the scope
of
this article to consider all these communities
and
understand the relationship among all
of
them. So the present
article
is
con.fined to exploring two major ethnic groups in
Assam: the Axamiya
and
the Bodo. The Axamiya even though
it is the most popular ethnic identity among residents
of
Assam,
there is no official definition
of
'Axamiya
'.
It
will therefore
be dealt with details here.
On
the other hand, Bodos are the
largest plain tribe
and
second
largest lingual tribal community
of
1,352,
771
Bodo-speaking people (Census 2011). The article
tries to understand the complexities
of
these two major ethnic
identities
of
Assam
and
conflicts between them.
ETHNICITY AS a subject
of
study
is
getting popular in the various
disciplines
of
social· sciences.
On
that account, the concept suffers from
the complexities
of
multiple definitions and becomes a problematic term to
explain because
of
its similarity with the concept
of
caste, nation, and race
(Green 2006). Oxford English dictionary defines ethnicity as "the fact or
state
of
belonging to a social group that has a common natural or cultural
tradition". Even though the word ethnicity has been used in the English
language since the 14th century, in social sciences, it
is
relatively a new
concept.
It
grew as an important topic
of
debate and research since the 1960s
when anthropologists tried to make sense
of
emergent social and cultural
formations in Africa and other parts
of
the developing world (Eade 1996).
As it has already been mentioned, ethnicity is an ambiguous term;
scholars have proposed a variety
of
approaches to ethnicity. Max Weber
in
his book Economy
and
Society says "ethnic groups are those human
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