Assam, historically has been a land of tribes belonging to various descents. Apart from the various indigenous tribes, there exists a very large population within Assam who identify themselves as the Kalita people. It is popularly considered that the Kalita Community has been indigenous to the land of Assam, since time immemorial. Due to lack of proper research on the community’s age old history, there exists a lot of scepticism about it’s origins. The Kalita community is predominantly agrarian and have been dwelling along side many other tribes across the Brahmaputra valley, for ages. Dr Banikanta Kakati‘s work – “Kalita Jatir Itibritta (1941)” still remains one of the most prominent and widely accepted research finding on the Kalita community.
There has been minute efforts by the Assamese intelligentsia and the Government of the State to decipher the ancient history of Assam’s largest community – the Kalitas. Due to the dearth of a state-sponsored research, there hasn’t been conclusive proof which may redirect to the Kalita community’s roots. Recently, a research report published in one of the leading national news daily has intrigued a fresh thought about the Kalitas of Assam. Dr Madhurjyyamondit Baruah, in his latest work ‘Kalita Jatir Itihaas’, traced the history of the Kalita race to the royal Kuluta Dynasty of Kullu region in Himachal Pradesh. The researcher has put forward 4122 BC as the timeline for the Alpine Kalita/ Kuluta, dating much prior to the Mahabharata war. The research work also talks about the later Kalitas who migrated through the eastern foothills of the Himalayas, establishing a Kalita Kingdom in ancient Kamrupa in 3192 BC. This research work needs to be vindicated by other historians, and if verified by anthropological proofs, it would mean that the Kalita Community is one of the oldest indigenous communities of ancient India, not just Assam.
Historically, despite being the largest indigenous community of the state, the Kalitas had never been consulted while creating separate states and autonomous councils out of Assam. The disarrays pertaining to the consolidation of land rights, is still a burning issue for the age old Assamese community. There are instances where many Kalita families have been forced to vacate their ancestral land and farms that falls under the ambit of autonomous councils. The guarantee of protection of property of the non-tribal groups like the Kalitas residing in the autonomous tribal regions of Assam should be the prerogative of the state government. Of late, the “forward caste” tag has been a bane for the Kalita Community, as they’ve seldom been beneficiaries of the various governmental schemes aimed at indigenous communities of Assam.
There are evident instances involving brain drain among the Assamese Kalita Community that has only oomphed manifold over the years, for reasons of acute job deprivation within Assam and lack of concrete assurances by the various successive Governments at Dispur towards developing one of Assam’s oldest indigenous community. Today’s Kalita people are facing immense hardships in their ancestral home land of Kamrupa i.e Modern Assam for the arrant lack of sensitivity shown by political parties to lift the fortunes of 70 lakh Kalita people living across the State. Proffering some sort of constitutional protection to the Kalita Community is a long standing demand too. It is, therefore, a humble request to the state government to moot for constituting a committee to introspect the merits of the Kalitas of Assam, for availing affirmative actions within the framework of reservations in India. Of course, providing fresh reservation to any community is a tedious affair, but considering the merits of the Kalitas and their historical timeline in erstwhile Kamrupa, such demands should not be kept in isolation only to have them quashed by citing procedural constraints, at a later time by the agencies of the Government. There are no developmental councils for the Kalitas too, unlike other indigenous communities belonging to the State of Assam. Thus, the continuous political indifference of Dispur towards the Kalitas in general should change, now that there exists a popular and strong leadership of Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, by having the Community uplifted through educational and financial aids so that its members can explore opportunities within the state at ease, negating any apprehension of being isolated both politically and economically at their own homeland.
This excerpt by Banraj Kalita can be found on 3 different “Letters to the Editor”, published on the Assam Tribune Newspaper dated 11th March 2019, 27th August 2019, and 16th October 2020, respectively.