Identity And Colonialism In Assam

1.0 Introduction

Every postcolonial countries faces some inherent problems left behind by colonialism. Assam, a state of India is no exception of it. Assam as said by many is the ‘melting pot of culture of various ethnic groups and tribes’. In the post-colonial Assam, this melting pot however, came in such an environment that the pot is being broken by some external forces. The forces have its genesis in the colonial rule. Regarding the identity crisis in postcolonial Assam Nandana Dutta has given a very useful argument. She argued that ‘the identity problem here in Assam, as in many post colonial nations where the structure and imaginative model of the nation-state have been the result of colonialism, lies in the effort to integrate many ethnicities into the homogeneities of the nation-state.’1 In this paper, therefore, attempt will be made to highlight how the colonial policy later in the post-colonial period helped in arising the questions of identity and ethnicity in Assam.

1.1Methodology

The paper is mainly based on various books and scholarly articles in journals. The census reports and some other administrative reports are also used for collecting data. The data are, however, analyzed and organized for the purpose of the paper.

2.0 Interethnic Relation during the Ahoms

Ethnic conflict and problems of illegal migration, in Assam, is interlinked. Assam is a plural society which comprises various ethnic groups. Under the Ahom administration a highly feudal society had grown up in Assam and class division became quite distinctive. But in case of conferring offices and responsibilities ethnic or religious divisions were not taken into consideration. People of different religions or community were granted offices and tittles with...

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...dan; Census, Classification And Social Mobility In The Late 19th Century Assam in NEIHA; 2011; p,276

5. Sarma, Chandan; Identity And Politics In Late Colonial Assam in NEIHA; 2009; p 244

6. Ibid

7. Sarma, Chandan; Census, Classification And Social Mobility In The Late 19th Century Assam in NEIHA; 2011 ;p-269

8. Ibid

9. Reprint On The Caste And Tribes of Assam From Chapter VI of the Report of The Census Of Assam 1881 in Census of India 1961;Manager Of Publications; New Delhi; 1964;pp-37-111

10. Barua, Sanjib; India Against Itself; OUP; New Delhi-110001; p-46

11. Kalita, R.C.; 2011; Situating Assamese Middle Class in Colonial Period; Bhabani Print & Publications; Guwahati-781026; p-94

12. Goswami, Priyam; 1999; Assam In The Nineteenth Century: Industrialization, and Colonial Penetration; Spectrum Publication; Guwahati-78001; p-80

13. Kalita, R.C.; 2011; op cited; p-98