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The Assamese people are a subgroup of the people of Assam. The total population of Assamese speakers in Assam is nearly 13 million which makes up 48.8% of the Assam population according to 2001 Language census report . Language Census of 2011 is yet to be made public by Government of India. Though there is a political dispute over definition of Assamese people in Assam, speakers of "Assamese" as first language are typically considered as Assamese socially and linguistically in the state. This Assamese speakers include Hindu ethnic groups like Ahoms, Moran, Muttocks, Sutiyas, Koch Rajbongshis and Assamese speaking Hindu caste groups like Assamese Kalita(the powerful age old group i.e Kshatriyas), Brahmins, Kaibartta, Yogi-Naths, and other small caste groups along with sizeable Assamese speaking ethnic Muslims groups like Goriya, Moriya, Jolha, Sheikhs. Sizeable population of recognized tribal groups like Deori, Sonowal Kachari, Thengal Kachari who speak Assamese as first language among themselves contribute to Assamese language.This subgroup is often associated with the Assamese language. Historically, the definition of the "Assamese people" has remained in flux and this has had strong political repercussions in Assam, especially in the colonial (1826–1947) and post-colonial (after 1947) periods.
Contents
The lack of a definition has put stumbling blocks in implementing clause 6 of the Assam Accord, an agreement signed by the activists of the Assam Movement and the Government of India (in 1985. Since a legal definition is important to provide "constitutional, legislative and cultural" safeguards to the Assamese people, the Government of Assam had formed a ministerial committee to finalize the definition in March 2007. To address the clause 6 issue AASU 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. Difficulty in definition is rooted in the heterogeneous nature of inhabitants of the Assam state.
History
The first usage of the English word "Assamese" is noted in colonial times; based on same principle as Sinhalese, Nepalese and Canarese, derived from the Anglicised word "Assam" with the suffix -ese, meaning "of Assam."
In contrast, Western Assam in pre-colonial times was known as "Kamrup" (instead of Asama, and considered a politically, socially and culturally separate unit from the rest of the state.
In the 16th-century, the Ahom kingdom came to be known as the "Kingdom of Acham" to the Mughals ; and following them, the British. In 1682 the eastern Kamrup was annexed by Ahom kingdom and the expanded kingdom continued to be called "Kingdom of Assam" till 1821 when the Ahom kingdom became part of the Burmese Empire.
Assamese was originally the local language of the Assamese Brahmins who taught Hinduism in Assam.
Just as "Assam" was associated with the Ahom kingdom till the 19th century "Asamiya" was used for the subjects and soldiers of that kingdom who belonged to different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds and not solely to the Ahom community.
After Assam became part of British India, the newly constituted province came to be known as Assam after its largest constituent, and the name Assamese / Asamiya came to be associated with the Assamese language erstwhile known as Kamrupi.
Different views
According to Yasmin Saikia, "the group that now identifies as Tai–Ahom were historically seen as Assamese people. However, the term ethnic Assamese is now associated by the Indian government at Delhi with the Assamese speaking Indo-Aryan group (comprising both Hindus and Muslims) of Assam. The latter group is the majority people of Assam, while the Tai-Ahom people were a dominant minority during the Ahom Rule.