Early colonisation of North-East India

Abstract

The earliest signs of human occupance in the North-East region are generally believed to have occurred during the Neolithic or at the earliest, mid-Palaeolithic times. The widespread occurrence of Megaliths in the region suggests a continuation of human culture for millennia. Whether these very early settlers evolved into successive generations of proto- and early historic human societies is a difficult question. The present distribution of different racial and linguistic groups leads one to believe that the earliest colonisers of this region were the Mongoloid people. On the basis of language, three distinct groups occupying three distinct regions can be identified. The Mongoloid people, speaking Tibeto-Burman language, were perhaps the first group to arrive from Tibet or adjacent areas, followed by people of eastern peripheral mountains, including the Nagas who spilled over from the Burmese highland. The Austric or Austro-Asiatic group, represented by the Khasis-Syntengs, is like an island in Bodo speaking sea of humanity. By all accounts, Bodos and Bodo-speaking people were one of the first to colonise Assam, away from the flood plain of Brahmaputra. The Bodos, as they dispersed, adopted different identities, like Garos, or Mech, or Kacharis or any other. They are the oldest and the most widely diffused group in the North-East region. The next important group that arrived in North-East India, though remained confined to Brahmaputra valley, were the Indo-Aryans who brought with them an Indo-Aryan language and a culture that reflected the tradition and style of a different ethnic group. In fact, the Indo-Aryans gradually absorbed in their fold a large section of Bodo and allied groups through conversion to their faith. The arrival of Ahoms in Assam in the thirteenth century brought another group in the reckoning. Most of these groups finally adopted an Indo-Aryan language – in the present case, the Assamese, and Hinduism as their faith, till Islam made its appearance with the invaders from Bengal in the fourteenth century. The early settlers were certainly the Mongoloid people, the Bodos, who assumed different names in different regions. The coming of Indo-Aryans in the region, however, changed the complexion of the society.