GUWAHATI: Just as the agitation for secession by the ULFA has subsided, the Ahoms, who ruled Assam for over 600 years, are demanding a homeland within the State. The Tai Ahom Land Committee have threatened an agitation if their demand for a separate homeland is not conceded.
The committee has also demanded declaration of the Ahoms as Scheduled Tribes and reservation of seats in various bodies for them. Prominent Ahoms are already in high positions, including legislatures and educational institutions. Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia is also an Ahom. The Ahom or Tat Ahom community as it was originally known, fiad migrated from upper Burma and come to the Brahmaputra valley in 1215 AD under their first ‘king Sukapha. Offshoots of the great Tai race, thev first established their capital at Namrup and later moved to Sibangar, both in upper Assam. Since they brought few women with them, intercaste marriage became inevitable and the few hundreds Ahoms then now number about 50 lakh spread across Sadiya in upper Assam to Dhubri in lower Assam over both sides of Brahmaputra,
The community has demanded the area between Sadiya and Dhubri for the Ahom land with headquarters in Dhemaji district.
The community had early this year organized a Tai Ahom national convention where the committee general secretary Chao Jiban Knowar threatened of an agitational program if their demand for a separate land was not conceded. The convention, which also adopted a 17point charter of demands, was addressed by Salkia. A number of Tai Ahoms delegates form South East Asian countries and Europe also attended the convention. Saikia said the Ahoms had accepted Assamiya as their mother tongue and Hinduism as their religion. They like many other races have ambulated into the great Assamese culture.” The Ahoms have demanded that they be treated as separate ethnic group and be listed as such in census in order to trace back their roots, the convention has demanded an excursion program to the South East Asian countries for the Tai Ahoms.
The convention also criticized the Bhupindra Singh Committee which recommended for granting autonomy to different ethnic groups like Bodos, Tiwas, Rabhas and Misings but remained silent on the Ahoms. “If autonomy could be given to six lakh Bodos, why 65 lakh Ahoms should be forgotten?” Konwar asked,
He claimed that Ahoms had saved ‘Assam by fighting as many as 17 times until the treaty of Yandaboo in 1826. The historic treaty says the end of Burmese rule and beginning of British Raj in Assam.
The issue of granting autonomy to several ethnic groups in the State has become an issue of raging controversy with the Opposition parties saying such autonomy would only create division among different ethnic groups of the State, with each one demanding a separate land. Citing the example of Bodol and Autonomous Council, they say a section of the Bodo leaders including S.K. Bwismutiary who signed the Bodo accord have now revived their demand for a Bodo state.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 21, 1995
