RAJBANSHI PRIDE

The news on likely grant of scheduled Tribe status to Koch-Rajbanshis in Assam has been hailed by young Koch-Rajbongshis of Assam as they are hopeful to get jobs. While intellectuals among them are silent and shy, most of the educated lot of Rajbonghsi(including Rajbanshi Kshatriyas)) communities have taken it with mixed feelings. It happened earlier also; ST status was granted to Koch-Rajbongshis through an ordinance in Assam once before, but was in vogue for only few years. Is the move a step to put the clock back once again? Article 342 of the Constitution of India notifies Scheduled Tribes as having five major characteristics - primitive traits, geographical isolation, distinct culture, shyness of contact with community at large and economic backwardness. Do these characteristics still exist in Koch-Rajbongshsis of Assam? Not going by the answer in proper, let us see its implications. This time, motive of grant of ST status is different – to stop foreigners (Banglad...

RAJBANSHI-KAMTAPURI - AN OLD LANGUAGE AND NOT A MERE DIALECT It hurts my feelings if someone says that Rajbanshi or Kamtapuri is mere a dialect a not a language. After painstaking work of almost ten years, I endeavoured to find out the truth about the language and penned it down in my book ‘Koch Rajbanshi Kamtapuri – The Truth Unveilled (Guwahati, 2007) . To clear the doubts about this language, I wish to reproduce some relevant portions of the book as follows: [ “…. It was not an easy task to ascertain the circumstances under which today’s North Bengal and its neighboring areas lost their pristine glory, which, otherwise was once a central hub for acculturation among various races in northeastern part of India. Their language that was once believed to be the lingua-franca of the entire Koch Empire is dying today due to non-recognition. It still holds good for the Rajbanshi people to take Bankim’s suggestion seriously and get onto the job of writing history lest Koch or Rajb...

Excerpt from my book “Koch Rajbanshi and Kamtapuri – The Truth Unveiled”(Guwahati, 2007) … When the freedom struggle engulfed whole of India by turn of nineteenth century, Koch-Kamta people of North Bengal jumped into it. Many unknown freedom activists went to jails and many made their supreme sacrifices. On 18 th July 1947, Indian Independence Act was passed in British Parliament. India became a free nation on 15 th August 1947. As per Section 7(I) of the said British act, it was stated that British Crown lapsed their paramount hold over the Indian Princely states and these were free to either join any dominion of India and Pakistan or remain sovereign. Soon after India won her independence on the 15 th August, 1947, most of the erstwhile princely states numbering more than five hundred lined up for inclusion either with dominion of India or Pakistan. Except few princely states like Junagarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Hyderabad most of them had no choice but to agree to the instru...