The six communities of Assam seem to have been caught in a ping-pong game between the Centre and the State for the past 80 years, with a third player recently entering the fray. The demand for inclusion of the six indigenous communities of Assam — Moran, Matak, Chutia, Tai-Ahom, and Koch-Rajbongshi — in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list aims to protect their socio-political, economic, and land rights.
In 1908, Assamese leader Manik Chandra Baruah was elected to the Council of Eastern Bengal and Assam of British India for the first time. In his maiden speech, Baruah highlighted the adverse effects Assam had suffered since the partition of Bengal, stating, “We are reminded of the early days of British rule during which our best interests were sacrificed.” He added that “Assam has suffered the most” due to the partition and warned that “both Ahoms and the Assamese Hindus are in great danger of being elbowed out of all government as well as industrial employment by the people of Bengal.” Unless special measures were taken, he feared the Assamese and their language were “in great danger of being crushed out.” Those fears continue to haunt the Assamese community.
C.S. Mullan, in his 1931 Census report, recorded over half a million immigrants in Assam and warned that these influxes were likely to “alter permanently” the future of the state, predicting that “in another thirty years Sibsagar district will be the only part of Assam in which an Assamese will find himself at home.” Later, Assam witnessed the historic Assam Agitation from 1979 to 1985, resulting in the Assam Accord. Forty years have passed, yet the main clauses of the Accord remain unsatisfactorily implemented.
The All Assam Ahom Association (Sadou Asam Ahom Sabha), a 132-year-old organization established in 1893 by Sahitya Kandari Padmanath Gohain Baruah, with support from Panindranath Gogoi (the creator of the first Assamese Primer) and philanthropist Radhakanta Handique, works to safeguard the socio-political rights of the Tai-Ahom people. On 18 May 1941, the Kenduguri Convention of Ahom Sabha passed a resolution. On 2 July 1941, a “Memorandum on the Ahoms as Minority” was published, circulated across India, and submitted to the British Government. On 20 November 1943, late Surendra Nath Buragohain, MLA and Ahom Sabha leader, presented this proposal in the Assam Legislative Assembly: “This Assembly is of opinion that the Ahom community of this province be included among the recognized minorities in the future Indian Constitution and that the Government of Assam move the Government of India and His Majesty’s Government for consideration and acceptance of the community as such a minority.” However, the resolution was not passed.
After the Yandabo Treaty, the British steadily reduced the Ahoms to illiterate and landless peasants. The 1911 Census showed that of 1,000 persons, only 73 Ahoms had studied Assamese and English for over five years; the literacy of other Assamese communities was Ganak/Baidya (654), Brahmin (375), Kayastha (413), Kalita (95), and Sudra (103). The 1941 Census of the undivided Sivasagar district, the so-called Ahom-dominated district, recorded a population of Ahoms at 1,81,278; caste-Hindu Assamese at 5,93,007; Tea-garden workers at 2,59,508; Muslims at 51,769; and other tribes and castes (Kachari, Deuri, Miri, Mikir, Naga, Buddhist, etc.) at 2,56,110.
On 7 August 1967, the All Assam Ahom Sabha submitted a 22-page memorandum to the Union Home Minister, demanding a separate autonomous unit comprising the upper Assam districts of Lakhimpur and Sibsagar. The memorandum stated: “All Assam Ahom Association fully supports the Central Government’s federal plan for Assam in the interest of peace, security, and good neighboring relations between Hills and Plains people and demands an autonomous unit comprising the upper Assam districts irrespective of Hill peoples’ demands.”
The Tai-Ahom Co-ordination Committee submitted a memorandum for the inclusion of Tai-Ahoms in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list to the Prime Minister in August 1997. In June 2005, the Ahom Sabha approached the Chief Minister to take necessary steps for this inclusion. While the Tai-Ahoms were excluded, other tribes of Tai origin in Assam — Tai-Khamyang, Tai-Khamti, Tai-Phake, Tai-Aiton, Tai-Turung — were declared ST under the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 (Notification No. S.R.O. 510 dated 06/09/1950 and Assam Govt. Notification No. Ex/Misc./15N.49/89 dated 12/10/1950). Since 2014, the Ahom Sabha has been consulting with the state government regarding the ST issue.
Scheduled Tribes are notified under Article 342 of the Constitution of India. On 15 June 1999 (revised on 25 June 2002), the Government of India approved modalities for determining claims for inclusion and other modifications in the ST list. The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) reviewed the recommendations forwarded by the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) via Office Memorandum No. 8/1/2019-SS (Assam) dated 5 January 2019. The proposal for inclusion of six communities — Koch Rajbongshi, Chutia, Moran, Matak, Tai-Ahom, and Tea Tribes of Assam — has been examined by RGI since 2006. Fresh ethnographic reports on each proposed community were received in 2014, after which a committee was constituted on 26 February 2016 under the chairmanship of the Special Secretary (Internal Security), Ministry of Home Affairs, to suggest modalities for granting ST status to these six communities.
In the 110th NCST meeting on 7 January 2019, the commission reviewed the RGI recommendations. Paragraph 6 of the minutes noted: “After careful consideration, the NCST concludes that the above six communities possess characteristics of Scheduled Tribes and qualify to be included in the list of STs of Assam. Accordingly, the Commission supports the proposal of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs forwarded vide letter No. 12026/02/2003-C&LM dated 5 January 2018.”
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Bill No. III of 2019) was prepared by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to include the six communities in the ST list of Assam. However, the Bill was inexplicably shelved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The issue resurfaced on 23 July 2023, when Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Shri Bishweswar Tudu stated in the Lok Sabha: “The recommendation for inclusion of Matak, Moran, Tai-Ahom, Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi, and Tea Tribes has been received from the State Government of Assam.” On 6 February 2025, Minister of Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey confirmed that his ministry had received the State Government’s recommendation on ST status for the six communities from Assam.
Further delaying the process, Assam’s Group of Ministers (GoMs) took six years since 2019 to prepare quota recommendations for the six new ST communities. This created more confusion and uncertainty with a three-fold classification: ST (Hills), ST (Plains), and ST (Valley). Whereas in 2022, the Union Cabinet approved ST status for several communities in five states, including the Hatti community of Himachal Pradesh, Narikuravars and Kurivikkaran from Tamil Nadu, the Betta-Kuruba community from Karnataka, and the Brijjia community and 11 others from Chhattisgarh. The Cabinet also approved the inclusion of the Gond community with five sub-castes from Uttar Pradesh.
India now has over 705 individual ethnic groups recognized as STs. The GoM believes that Assam as a whole will benefit if the six new communities compete within the national ST pool. However, the delays indicate a lack of sincerity on the part of the state government, with the ST status issue becoming a political pawn ahead of the upcoming elections.