Assam Higher Secondary History key terms

A Tai-speaking state centred in the Brahmaputra valley from the 13th to the 19th century, founded by Sukaphaa, which resisted Mughal expansion and shaped Assam's medieval political and social order.

The Ahom labour and military organisation in which adult male subjects, called paiks, owed rotating service to the state in return for land use, supplying soldiers and workers for public projects.

A social and administrative grouping under the Ahom state into which paiks were organised by profession and locality, each khel under an officer responsible for recruiting and supplying labour.

The 1671 river battle near Guwahati in which Ahom forces under Lachit Borphukan defeated the Mughal army of Ram Singh, halting Mughal attempts to annex the Brahmaputra valley.

The Ahom commander and one of the five Borphukans who led the defence of Guwahati and won the 1671 Battle of Saraighat through naval tactics and knowledge of the river terrain.

The 16th-century Koch general and brother of King Naranarayan, celebrated for rapid campaigns across eastern India that extended Koch power and weakened Ahom and Kachari rivals.

A 16th-century state in the western Brahmaputra valley and northern Bengal founded by Biswa Singha, later divided, whose rulers patronised Sanskrit learning and temple construction.

The Koch king whose reign marked the dynasty's height, known for large-scale land grants to Brahmins, temple patronage, and the military expansion carried out with his brother Chilarai.

A Dimasa-ruled state in the southern Brahmaputra region with capitals at Dimapur and later Maibang and Khaspur, known for its own script, coinage, and resistance to Ahom power.

The early capital of the Kachari kingdom in present-day Nagaland, whose stone gate and ruins show a developed urban and architectural tradition before the capital shifted westward.

An early state in the upper Brahmaputra valley of Sadiya and eastern Assam, absorbed by the Ahoms in the 16th century, remembered for its temple wealth and local administration.

A frontier town in eastern Assam that served as a Chutia capital and later an Ahom administrative outpost controlling trade routes toward Tibet and the hills.

A medieval kingdom in the western Brahmaputra valley and Cooch Behar region, ruled by Khen and later Koch dynasties, whose decline allowed the rise of the Koch state.

The invasions of 1817 to 1826 in which Burmese armies occupied Assam, causing severe hardship and prompting British intervention that ended with the Treaty of Yandabo.

The 1826 agreement ending the First Anglo-Burmese War, by which Burma gave up claims over Assam and the British gained control of the region, beginning colonial rule.

The process by which the British East India Company took over Assam after 1826, first administering it as part of Bengal and later as a separate province under colonial law.

The colonial administrative unit created in 1912 when Assam was separated from Bengal, later reorganised in 1921 as a governor's province with its own legislature.

An organisation founded in 1926 that voiced the concerns of Assamese middle-class professionals, pressing for education, land reform, and representation under colonial rule.

The provincial wing of the Indian National Congress in Assam, which coordinated the freedom movement locally, including participation in Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience, and Quit India.

The 1920-22 nationwide campaign led by Gandhi urging Indians to withdraw cooperation from British institutions, which spread in Assam through boycotts of schools, courts, and foreign cloth.

The 1930-34 campaign of deliberate law-breaking launched with the Dandi March, in which Assamese activists joined protests, salt satyagraha, and picketing of liquor and opium shops.

The 1942 demand for immediate British withdrawal, which saw strikes, sabotage, and the killing of protesters at Gohpur and other Assam sites under leaders such as Kanaklata Barua.

A teenage freedom fighter shot dead in 1942 while leading a procession to hoist the national flag at the Gohpur police station during the Quit India Movement.

A colonial-era firm that began commercial oil extraction at Digboi in the late 19th century, making Assam one of the earliest sites of petroleum production in Asia.

An oil town in eastern Assam where the first successful oil well in India was drilled in the 19th century, giving rise to refineries and a lasting industrial settlement.

A railway company formed in the 1890s that linked Assam's tea and oil areas to Bengal ports, accelerating the export economy and migration of labour into the region.

The colonial arrangement of large estates growing tea with imported indentured labour under written contracts, which transformed Assam's economy and created a distinct plantation labour society.

Colonial land regulations allowing the government to lease uncultivated land to planters and settlers on favourable terms, which restricted peasant access and fuelled agrarian grievances.

A colonial policy of the early 20th century confining immigrant cultivators to specified settlement lines, intended to protect local landholding patterns but resented as segregation.

The agitation in the 1950s and 1960s demanding that Assamese be recognised as an official language of Assam, involving student protests and debates over minority linguistic rights.

The leading literary and cultural organisation of Assam, founded in 1917, which promotes the Assamese language, publishes scholarship, and holds annual sessions across the state.

The 15th-16th century saint and reformer who founded the Vaishnava movement in Assam, composing devotional works and establishing sattras that reshaped Assamese religion, art, and literature.

A Vaishnava monastery and cultural centre established after Sankardeva, housing monks, preserving devotional music and dance, and acting as a rural centre of learning and manuscript keeping.

Devotional songs composed by Sankardeva and Madhavdeva in classical Assamese style, sung in sattras and valued for their poetic and musical refinement.

A classical dance form developed in the sattras of Assam, performed as devotional offering and recognised nationally for its distinctive gestures, costumes, and rhythmic patterns.

A political and cultural movement among the Bodo people seeking recognition, autonomy, and self-governance, leading to accords and the creation of autonomous council structures within Assam.

The 1985 agreement between the Indian government, Assam movement leaders, and state representatives ending the anti-foreigner agitation, with provisions on detection of foreigners and safeguards for Assamese culture.

The 1979-85 mass agitation led by student organisations demanding the detection and deportation of illegal immigrants and revision of electoral rolls to protect Assamese identity.