- Assamese people
The Assamese people are a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic people of
Assam . [" [http://assamgovt.nic.in/people.asp The Official website of Govt. of Assam] ". See alsoPeople of Assam .] Historically, the definition of the "Assamese people" has remained in flux and this has had strong political repercussions in Assam, especially in the colonial (after 1826) and post-colonial (after 1947) periods. Attempts in the past to define the Assamese people on linguistic, cultural or ethnic basis have failed.The lack of a definition has put stumbling blocks in implementing clause 6 of the
Assam Accord , an agreement signed by the activists of theAssam Movement and theGovernment of India in 1985. [" [http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040715/asp/northeast/story_3496709.asp Assam dithers over Accord] ", The Telegraph, July 15, 2004.] TheGovernment of Assam has formed a ministerial committee to finalize the definition of Assamese people in March 2007. [" [http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=mar2807/at01 1.40 lakh aliens deported since 1971] ", The Assam Tribune, March 27, 2007] [" [http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=mar3107/at04 Move to define Assamese people] ", The Assam Tribune, March 31, 2007] To address the clause 6 issueAASU had announced a definition on April 10, 2000 which was based on residency with a temporal limit: "All those whose names appeared in the 1951 National Register of Citizens and their progenies should be considered as Assamese". ["AASU joins 'Asomiya' debate", The Sentinel, Guwahati, April 1, 2007] [" [http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=apr0107/at03 AASU flays Barman, Prafulla Mahanta] ", The Assam Tribune, April 1, 2007.]History
Pre-colonial times
In the period before 1826, the eastern part of present-day Assam was called the "Kingdom of Assam", [Bowrey, Thomas (1663) "A Geographical Account of Countries around Bay of Bengal", ed Temple, R. C., Hakluyt Society's Publications. In this account, Bowrey describes the death of
Mir Jumla , who had occupied the capital of theAhom kingdom in the 17th century thus: "They lost the best of Nabobs, the Kingdome of Acham, and, by consequence, many large privileges".] presently known as theAhom kingdom , and the word "Assamese" was used to refer to the subjects of this kingdom. "Assamese" was also used to refer to the soldiers that fought under the Ahom king's command that included subjects of allied kingdoms. Therefore, in this period, Assamese was a political category, not cultural or linguistic, that was used to define those associated with the Ahom kingdom.ee also
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People of Assam Notes
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