Assam and North-East India - Ahom Rule, Colonial Assam and the Freedom Movement
Domain 5 - Assam and North-East India Studies
This domain weaves Assam's history, geography and constitutional arrangements into the social science paper, usually through short-answer questions on the Ahom kingdom, colonial Assam, the freedom movement and Sixth Schedule areas.
Pre-colonial Assam
- Chao Lung Sukapha founded the Ahom kingdom in 1228 at Charaideo; the Ahoms ruled for about six centuries.
- The Ahom–Mughal wars culminated in the Battle of Saraighat (1671), where Lachit Borphukan defeated the Mughal forces on the Brahmaputra.
- Srimanta Sankardeva (15th–16th century) founded the Vaishnavite satra and namghar institutions and shaped Assamese literature and culture.
Colonial period
- The First Anglo-Burmese War ended with the Treaty of Yandabo (1826), bringing Assam under British rule.
- Commercial tea began in the 1830s; Maniram Dewan, hanged in 1858 for his role in the 1857 uprising, was the first Indian tea planter.
- Peasant resistance: Phulaguri (1861) against taxes and forest curbs; Patharughat (1894) against enhanced land revenue.
- The Assam Association (1903) preceded mass Congress activity; the Congress held its 1926 session at Gauhati.
- In 1942 Kanaklata Barua was shot at Gohpur while hoisting the flag, and Kushal Konwar was hanged in 1943 for the Sarupathar derailment.
Post-independence
- The Assam Accord (1985) fixed 25 March 1971 as the cut-off for detecting foreigners and promised constitutional safeguards.
- Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao are Sixth Schedule districts; the 2020 Bodo Accord brought the Bodoland Territorial Region under that Schedule. Article 371B provides for a committee of Assam MLAs from tribal areas.
Worked example
'Why is Patharughat remembered as a peasant uprising?' The colonial government raised land revenue; on 28 January 1894 peasants protesting at Patharughat in Darrang were fired upon and over a dozen died. Cause = revenue policy, form = peasant gathering, consequence = lasting symbol of agrarian resistance.
Traps
Mixing 1826 (Treaty of Yandabo) with 1824 (war begins); crediting Saraighat to someone other than Lachit Borphukan; attributing the satra tradition to the Koch dynasty rather than Sankardeva.