Its political significance can be measured by the fact that not only did Amit Shah make a stop at the community leader’s residence, but the presentation of Assam’s budget was postponed because the state finance minister was required to accompany Shah.
The upcoming Assembly elections in the states of West Bengal and Assam have once again highlighted the long-standing problems of ethnic communities. Among these, the focus seems to be primarily on the Koch community. The politically conscious group, with a considerable number and well-defined demands, inhabits parts of Assam and Bengal.
Its political importance can be measured by the fact that not only the Union Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah, made a stop at the residence of the community leader, but also the presentation of the budget in the Assam Assembly. it was deferred because the state finance minister was supposed to accompany Shah.
Numerically, the community is important in more than 15 seats in North Bengal and several seats in the lower region of Assam. According to The Indian Express, estimated to total over 33 lakh in West Bengal and the the community affirms It has a population of 70 lakh in Assam.
Who are the Koch Rajbongshis?
Koch Rajbongshi is an ethnic tribe originally from the ancient kingdom of Koch. The Rajbongshi tribe is known as Koch Rajbongshi, Rajbanshi or Rajvanshi. The word “Rajbongshi” literally means “royal community”.
Their ancestral homeland, Greater Kamatapur, was divided into Bangladesh, West Bengal, Assam, Nepal, Meghalaya, Tripura, Bihar, and Bhutan, during British rule and after Independence. Large numbers of Rajbongshis now live in North Bengal and West Assam, in addition to a limited presence in Meghalaya, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The community is also awakening more politically in the two eastern states, where there are already a large number of political and non-political organizations. The most prominent are the Kamatapur People’s Party, the Greater Coochbehar Complainant Committee, the All Koch Rajbonshi Student Union, and Koch Rajbonshi Sanmilani.
This mobilization was the result of the decline in the social status of this historically wealthy class in the face of the migration of Hindus from higher castes to their traditional habitats. The Rajbongshis were traditionally landowners and the dominant community in North Bengal who prided themselves on their ruling class status.
However, things began to change dramatically for them, in both Assam and Bengal in the years after India’s independence.
According to a paper Written by Paresh Bora for Sikkim University, the one on Rajbongshi was at the unfavorable end of several agrarian reforms undertaken by subsequent Bengal governments (including the abolition of the Zamindari system in 1953, the distribution of land to the landless in 1967, the agrarian reforms of Operation Barga in 1977). The document also cites the ancient literature of the upper caste Bengali Hindus at the time showing that the Rajbongshi were considered socially inferior due to their limited exposure to education. Meanwhile, the Hindu immigrants already displayed a strong sense of cultural identity and knowledge of advanced agricultural practices. They treated the Rajbongshis like antyaj’s (lower).
“With the gradual settlement of the upper-caste Hindu nobility in what were traditionally Rajbanshi-dominated areas of North Bengal, the existing balance in the local power structure had shifted. The upper-caste immigrant nobility over time it became the most dominant group in the local community, society, economy and politics, ”the newspaper states.
An article in The times of India, published prior to the 2016 West Bengal elections states that, according to 1971 figures, 80 percent of the North Bengal population were Rajbongshis. Now it’s down to a mere 30 percent.
Similarly, in Assam, identity consciousness emerged among many small ethnic groups due to the discriminatory attitude of the Assamese Hindu groups. The Rajbongshis felt even more alienated in Assam after being caught in the crossfire of ethnic clashes between Muslims and the Bodo community in Assam that began in the 1990s and lasted until the early 2000s. The Rajbongshis, who mainly occupied Mixed villages and maintained a distinctive ethnic and linguistic culture of both Muslims and Bodo, they were easy targets on both sides, their homes in the way of rampant mobs.
The Koch Rajbanshis are now constitutionally known as programmed castes in Cooch Behar (North Bengal), programmed tribes in some parts of Maghalaya, most of the other backward classes (MOBC) in the Gaolpara district of Assam, other backward classes (OBC ) in another district of Assam and Hindu caste in the Karbi-Aanglong district of Assam.
What are your key demands?
According to the North Bengal government portal, its main demand, first articulated in the early 1990s, is the creation of Kamtapur, a separate state that includes its home districts. They also want their mother tongue to be included in the Eighth Annex of the Constitution.
In Assam, they are upset at the non-inclusion on the Bodoland Territorial Council even though they are considered important stakeholders as the Rajbongshi population is present in considerable numbers in the Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD) areas.
The Koch Rajbongshi community has also been demanding programmed tribe status in the state of Assam.
Political leanings
In West Bengal, they used to support the Left Front during their 34-year rule. When the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, many supported the new ruling party. But the Rajbongshis have supported the BJP in the 2014 general elections after the party promised to have a comprehensive view of their demand to recognize the Kamatpuri language.
The BJP once again cornered an impressive 28 percent vote turnout in the 2016 election in Cooch Behar (approximately 150,000 new voters), according to India today.
In Assam, the Koch Rajbongshi National Convention (KRNC) had offered their support for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the UPPL (United People’s Party Liberal) in the BTC (Bodoland Territorial Council) elections held in December 2020.
This time in Ananta Rai, the head of GCPA in Assam’s Chirang district has supported the BJP, possibly after Shah assured him that the community’s long-standing demand that it be granted Programmed Tribes status will be met. .
Rai, who calls himself a descendant of the Coochbehar royal family in Bengal, told the media that the Union Minister of the Interior had discussions with him about the pending demands of his community for a long time.
Shah, who had arrived in Guwahati on Wednesday evening, was accompanied by BJP National Secretary General Kailash Vijayvargiya, Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) coordinator Himanta Biswa Sarma, and Assam President BJP , Ranjeet Dass, during his visit to Rai’s residence in Chatipur.
“All of our pending demands were discussed at the meeting, and now I can only say that good morning is coming for the Koch-Rajbongshi community,” Rai said.
Rai also clarified that “his team, which has the support of 18.50 thousand members, is already part of the NDA,” when asked if an alliance with the BJP was in the offing, before the assembly elections in Assam. and Bengal. Assembly elections in Bengal and Assam are likely to take place between April and May.
With PTI inputs
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