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The
Bodos need no special introduction. Even
if required, they have become well known
to the outside world as the real sons of
the soil of Assam, who, once were powerful
and dominant race in the entire northern
and north-eastern India, are struggling
for their barest existence till today. Racially,
the Bodos, the earliest known ethnic group
to inhabit Assam (erstwhile Pragjyotispur
and Kamrupa) with their distinctive culture
and linguistic traits, belong to the Mongoloid
or Indo -Tibetans from the historical point
of view and other general interests of India,
their contribution towards the Indian civilization
and culture is very great. According to
Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the Indian
National Scholar, "the great Bodo people
of Assam" are "offspring of the
son of Vishnu and Mother Earth". During
the Epic times, they were known as the "Kiratas".
They were well-known to the Vedic Aryans
also and they found mention in the Yajur
and Atharva Vedas too. It is rightly said
by the scholars that " Assam has thus
to meet all the tribal movements from the
east, involving the advent into India of
Tibeto-Chinese speaking Mongoloids; and
it was in Assam primarily that this great
element in the formation of the Indian people
became largely Indianised -particularly
in the Brahmaputra Valley……This
can be looked upon as Assam's great contribution
to the synthesis of culture and fusion of
races took place in India…..a synthesis
which had started in the pre-historic times
when two distinct races found that they
were to reside together in the same country
- the Austric and Mongoloid, the Dravidian
and the Austric, and the Dravidian and the
Mongoloids ". F.W.Thomas has rightly
observed that this sysnthesis took a definite
shape, and its character and line of movement
was forever, when the Indian Man as the
result of the fusion of the Aryan and Dravidian,
Mongoloids and Austric came into being at
the end of the Vedic Period (i.e.by 1000
B.C.). But it is an irony that such great
communities like the Bodos, who gave fundamental
contributions to the formation of great
Indian people, have been now neglected in
total and are being treated as the class
citizens. Hence, Dr. S.K.Chatterjee made
a significant regret -"The Mongoloid
contribution (especially the contribution
of the Bodos) has not yet been seriously
studied as element in Indian history and
civilization". But he has a timely
warning who made it long fifty years back:
"It is now the lot of Assam to act
as India's Sentinel against any aggression
from the East, where the basic Mongoloid
character of large masses of the people
(although they have become in some cases
wholly Indianised) would appear to afford
temptation and wistful thinking in quarters
for territorial expansion at the expense
of India which would seek the support of
this racial affinity".
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