From Ruler to Ruled: Emergence of the Identity Crisis: The journey of the Koch-Rajbongshi population from the early 16th century till today is marked by numerous ups and downs. The different courses of time transformed the community into different status where the community has to adjust with the existing political situations. The turbulent period of the Koch Rajbongshis starts with the penetration of the East India Company into the region. The English East India Company’s penetration into the region was marked by the interest in trade and commerce and further accessness to the North East frontier of India and Nepal. It was the strategic interest of the Britishers to engage Bengali educated people of the Southern Bengal and Calcutta in offices for the fulfillment of their administrative and political purposes. Thus, the migration of the English educated Bengali population into the region and their preoccupancy in governmental offices provide them an upper hand over the indigenous Koch Rajbongshis populations and reduced them into marginalized group. In the process they established a social hierarchy system where Koch Rajbongshis were subordinated and categorized as the lower caste group. Thus, the Khatriya Movement started by Panchana Barma to elevate the Koch Rajbongshi into the higher caste group i.e. Khatriya which is regarded next to Brahmin in the Hindu social hierarchy was largely a movement for recognition of the Koch Rajbongshi in the society and at the same time it was an movement against the alienation and deprivation of the upper caste. However, it is fact that merely being raised to a higher Varna category would not elevate the status of the Rajbongshis in the Hindu social hierarchy; this also required the recognition of the upper caste group in the society (Sarkar, in Rath, ed. 2006). This can be proved by the Schedule Caste status given to Koch Rajbongshis of the West Bengal. But in Assam the Koch Rajbongshis are included in the Other Backward Category. However, the demand of the Koch Rajbongshi organizations to include the community into Schedule Tribalhood in Assam possessing the Khatriya status in society has made the crisis more complex.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 04:52:49 +0000