ASSAM, a province of British India. Area (including the State of Manipur) 67,334sq.m. Pop.
The Brahmaputra emerges from Himalayan gorges into a valley, 5om. wide, with steep mountain sides, and flows west and west south-west till it turns south around the bastion of the Garo Hills. This broad valley is the main region of Assam but the province also includes the hills that bound this valley on the south. They are named from their peoples—the Garo, Khasi, Jaintia and North Cachar hills and the highest point in them is Shillong peak (6,450 ft.). South of these hills are the districts of Sylhet and South Cachar, essentially the Surma valley, flat below the very abrupt slope of the Khasi and Jaintia hills. To the east and south-east, Assam is bordered by hill ranges which make a barrier between it and Burma ; these are a part of the mountain curve that stretches down the west side of Burma. The hills of the As sam-Burma border are named from their peoples the Naga hills and rise to nearly 10,000 feet at Japro peak. Within the gen eral limits of the province are petty feuda tory states in the Khasi hills, while south of the Naga hills and east of Cachar lies the feudatory state of Manipur (area 8,62osq.m. ; pop.
445,606).
The Brahmaputra may be said to be formed by the union of a number of streams at the head of the valley of Assam.
The Dihang, called Tsang-po in Tibet, has its source far to the west on the north side of the Himalaya and flows parallel to that range for hundreds of miles until it breaks through Himalayan gorges in a series of waterfalls and rapids and emerges into the Assam valley. The Sesiri, Dibang and Luhit rivers from the north-east unite with it to form the Brahmaputra which receives further tributaries from the Himalayas on the north and from the other hills named on the south-east. The former include the Subansiri, Bhareli, North Dhansiri, Barnadi, Manas and Sankosh rivers, mostly glacier-fed. Among the latter are the two Dihings (Noa and Buri), the Disang, Dhansiri and Kalang, streams which dwindle as the dry season progresses. The valleys of the Dhansiri and Kalang isolate the Mikir and Rengma hills from the southern hill frame work. The Brahmaputra becomes a sheet of water several miles broad in the rainy season.
Geographically the Assam hills (Garo, Khasi and Jaintia, North Cachar, etc., hills), lie in the angle be tween the Himalayas and the Burmese ranges, but geologically they belong to neither. The greater part of the mass consists of gneiss and schists overlain unconformably by cretaceous beds, con sisting chiefly of sandstones with seams of coal, the whole series thinning out northwards as though towards a shore line ; they are covered by tertiary rocks, including nummulitic beds and valuable seams of coal. These rocks show neither Himalayan nor Bur mese folding but, while nearly horizontal towards the north, they are bent sharply downwards to the south in a simple monoclinal fold. The hill sides are generally forested. A good deal of the valley is raised well above flood-level and is rich agricultural land, partly under rice, partly in tea and other plantations. The alluvial deposits of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries show much varia tion of fertility and elevation ; there are vast chars of pure sand inundated every year but easily and rapidly transformed into pas tures in many places, and there are also terraces and islands of firm soil raised well above the floods. Many of the wetter lands are occupied by great reeds and grasses. The Himalayan and Burmese mountain frame includes great masses of tertiary rocks, with coal seams in the Burmese ranges.
In January the high pressure over the land gives rise to frequent winds down the valley of the Brahmaputra, though there may be some rain and fogs are common ; the tem perature at this season averages 61° F. But the wind from the sea soon begins to penetrate along this corridor and Assam thus con trasts strongly with many parts of North India which have a dry hot season whilst the rains have been watering Assam from early March onwards, merging finally into the great monsoonal rainfall. The Khasi hills are said to have the heaviest rainfall in the world, with an average of 424 inches at Cherrapunji overlooking the low lying land of the Surma, which, in monsoon time, becoines a lake of almost warm water. Sylhet on the southern lowland has an an nual rainfall of 1S9 inches, and Gauhati on the floor of the Brah maputra valley, that is north of the hills, only 67in. The heavy and long continued rains keep the temperature relatively moder ate, the mean temperature of the warm season not reaching above
F.
Assam is liable to earthquakes. By far the se verest shock known is that of 1897, the focus of which was in the Khasi and Garo hills. In the station of Shillong every masonry building was levelled to the ground. Throughout the country bridges were shattered, roads were broken up like ploughed fields and the beds of rivers were dislocated. In the hills there were ter rible landslips which wrecked the little Cherrapunji railway and caused 600 deaths. The total mortality recorded was 1,542. In 1918 another severe earthquake, which had its centre in the Balisera hills in Sylhet, caused considerable damage to property but very little loss of life.
Wild elephants are numerous on the lower slopes of the Assam range and in the Brahmaputra valley. The Government keddah establishment captures large numbers, and the right of hunting is also sold by auction to private bidders. The rhinoceros is found in swampy places along the Brahmaputra. Tigers, leop ards and bears are numerous. Another formidable animal is the wild buffalo or gaur which is of great size, strength and fierceness. Wild game is plentiful ; pheasants, partridges, snipe and water fowl of many descriptions make the country a tempting field for the sportsman.
An area of 6,000 square miles is occupied by Gov ernment reserved forests. The most valuable are those bearing Sal (Shorea robusta) in the districts of Goalpara, Kamrup and the Garo hills.
The principal and almost the only food-grain of the plains portion of the province is rice. In 1925-26 there were 44 million acres under rice, or two-thirds of the total culti vated area in the plains. In addition, jute is grown to a consider able extent in Goalpara and Sylhet ; cotton is grown in large quan tities along the slopes. Potatoes are raised in the Khasi hills, which are also the centre of orange cultivation supplying most of Bengal and Assam.
The most important article of commerce produced in Assam is tea. The rice crop covers a very great pro portion of the cultivated land, but it is used for local consumption, and the Brahmaputra valley does not produce enough for its own consumption, large quantities being imported for the coolies. The tea plantations are the great source of wealth to the province, and the necessities of tea cultivation are the chief stimulants to the development of Assam. At the close of the year 1925 there were 93o gardens in all, with 416,477 acres under tea, and a total output of 224 million lb. of tea. Two-thirds of the gardens are in the Brahmaputra valley, and the rest in the Surma valley; the ma jority are owned by Europeans.
The labour required on the tea gardens has hitherto been almost entirely imported, as the natives of the province are too prosperous to do such work. During the decade ending in 1921, 769,000 labourers were imported. The importation of coolies is controlled by an elaborate system of legislation. To ensure the protection and welfare of the labourer on the one hand and the enforcement of contracts on the other, there has been a series of legislative enactments dating back to 1863. By the latest act passed in 1915 recruitment by contractors has been abolished, and the sardari system is general, i.e., selected men, and sometimes women, are sent to their native districts to induce relations, friends and acquaintances to emigrate. Parties of them are con ducted to Assam by agents of the Labour Supply Association, ar rangements being made for food, clothing and medical attention en route. In 1925 there were nearly a million labourers, and 33,000 fresh importations, Industries.—Though Assam is rich in natural resources, diffi culties of transport and lack of capital have impeded their de velopment. Apart from the manufacture of tea, the industries are not of great importance. Coal mining is carried on in the Makum coalfield near Margherita and at Nazira in the Naga hills. Pe troleum is extracted at Badarpur on the Barak river in Cachar, and is exported for use as fuel. There are also oil wells in the Makum field in Lakhimpur ; the oil is refined at Digboi. Timber from the forests is brought to various saw mills and made up into tea chests. Limestone and iron ore are found in large quantities in the Khasi hills and formerly provided materials for flourishing industries—"Sylhet lime" was a monopoly of the Nawabs of Bengal, and cannon were forged at Sibsagar. Owing, however, to competition, the lime trade has declined and iron smelting has almost disappeared.
The external trade of Assam is still mainly carried by its waterways, though the railway traffic is steadily increasing year by year. The river borne trade of the Assam valley is chiefly con ducted by steamer and by native boat. No less than two-thirds of the total trade is conducted with Calcutta.
The Eastern Bengal State railway runs from Dhubri north of the river to Gauhati, whence it follows the Kalang valley eastwards to Lumding. At this point it meets the Assam Bengal railway which has come north from Chittagong via Karim ganj and across the hills. From Lumding the railway goes along the Dhansiri valley to the towns of North-east Assam. The Assam-Bengal railway has branches to Sylhet and Silchar.
total population of Assam, according to the census of 1931, was 9,247,857, of whom 56% were Hindus, 3o% Mohammedans and 11 % Animists. The number of Christians was almost doubled in the decade and in 1931 was 249,246: the increase was specially remarkable in the Lushai hills, where mass conversion brought up the number from 2,000 to S9,00o, nearly half the entire population. The total density is only 137 per sons per square mile and there are extraordinary variations. As explained in the Government review of the census of 1921, some of the sources of these variations are physical and climatic, but some at least are to be sought in history, and the devastation caused in the Brahmaputra valley by the Moamaria insurrection and the Burmese invasion left a scanty population at the time of the British an nexation. Until recent years an unhealthy climate and the absence of communica tions, in spite of the opening up of the country by tea gardens, prevented speedy development. In the Surma valley also, Cachar and the east and south portions of the Sylhet districts suffered too much from the raids of the neighbouring hill tribes to be inviting places of residence. In the hills it is not so long since head-hunting was considered to be the only proper occupa tion of a man, while the primitive condi tions of agriculture militate against a large population. Assam has moreover in the past suffered from the ravages of "black fever" or Kala Azar to an extent of which there is no record elsewhere. An intensive campaign undertaken by the Government and the discovery of effective methods of treatment have done much to counteract this terrible disease.
About one-sixth of the population is foreign born and consists of immigrants such as those who have come to cultivate waste land or to work in the tea gardens, the majority from Bengal and Behar and Orissa. The population is consequently somewhat heterogeneous; there are, for instance, 88,000 Nebans. Of the total population 4,723,000 (in round figures) are inhabitants of the Brahmaputra valley, 2,724,342 of the Surma valley, and 1,262, 535 of the hill districts. No less than 120 distinct languages, of which 6o are native to Assam, were returned at the census— figures significant of a heterogeneous population of which immi grants form a large constituent. Altogether 43% of the people speak Bengali, 22% Assamese and 18% various Tibeto-Burman languages. Bengali is the mother-tongue of the great majority of the people of the Surma valley. Assamese is written in nearly the same alphabet as Bengali, and the vernacular Assamese pos sesses a close affinity to that language. Indeed, so close was the resemblance that for a time Bengali was used as the court and official language; but with the development of the country the Assamese tongue asserted its claims to be treated as a distinct ver nacular, and the Government in 1873 re-established it as the lan guage of official life and public business.
The Singphos, Daphlas, Miris, Khamtis, Mish mis, Abors, etc., are found near the frontiers of Lakhimpur dis trict. The Nagas inhabit the hills and forests along the eastern and south-eastern frontier of Assam, residing partly in the British district of the Naga hills and partly in independent territory under the political control of the deputy-commissioner of the adjoining districts. Under regulation V. of 1873, an inner line has been laid down in certain districts, up to which the protection of British authority is guaranteed, and beyond which, except by special per mission, it is not lawful for British subjects to go. This inner line has been laid down in the Balipara Frontier tract towards the Bhotias, Akas and Daphlas; in the Sadiya Frontier tract and Lakhimpur towards the Daphlas, Miris, Abors, Mishmis, Khamtis, Singphos and Nagas, and in Sibsagar towards the Nagas. The line is marked at intervals by frontier posts held by military police and commanding the roads of access to the tract beyond, and any person from the plains who has received permission to cross the line has to present his pass at these posts. The inner line formerly maintained along the Lushai border has since 1895 been allowed to fall into desuetude. (For the ethnology of Assam see ASIA: Anthropology and Ethnology, § Farther Asia.) Administration.—Assam was under a chief commissioner from its formation as a province from 1874 to 1905, when it was merged in the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. In 1912 it was restored to its former status as a separate province under a chief commissioner. In 1921 it was constituted a province under a governor with an executive council (of two members) and two ministers. The capital of the province is Shillon7.
Assam was the province of Bengal which remained most stub bornly outside the limits of the Mogul empire and of the Mohammedan polity in India. Indeed, although frequently over run by Mussulman armies, and its western districts annexed to the Mohammedan vice-royalty of Bengal, the province main tained an uncertain independence till its invasion by the Burmese towards the end of the 18th century, and its final cession to the British in 1826. It seems to have been originally included, along with the greater part of north-eastern Bengal, in the old Hindu territory of Kamrup. Its early legends point to great religious revolutions between the rival rites of Krishna and Siva as a source of dynastic changes. Its roll of kings extends deep into pre-historic times, but the first rajah capable of identification flourished about the year A.D. 76.
When Hsiian Tsang visited the country in A.D. 640, a prince named Kumar Bhaskara Barman was on the throne. The people are described as being of small stature with dark yellow com plexions; fierce in appearance, but upright and studious. Hindu ism was the state religion, and the number of Buddhists was very small. The soil was deep and fertile, and the towns were sur rounded by moats with water brought from rivers or banked-up lakes. Subsequently we read of Pal rulers in Assam. It is sup posed that these kings were Buddhist and belonged to the Pal dynasty of Bengal. Although the whole of Kamrup appears from time to time to have been united into one kingdom under some unusually powerful monarch, it was more often split up into numerous petty states; and for several centuries the Koch, the Ahom and the Chutia powers contested for the Assam valley. In the early part of the 13th century the Ahoms or Ahams, from northern Burma and the Chinese frontiers, poured into the east ern districts of Assam, founded a kingdom and held it firmly for several centuries. The Ahoms were Shans from the ancient Shan kingdom of Pong. Their manners, customs, religion and language were and for a long time continued to be, different from those of the Hindus; but they found themselves compelled to respect the superior civilization of this race, and slowly adopted its customs and language. The conversion of their king Chucherigpha to Hinduism took place in the year A.D. 1655, and all the Ahoms of Assam gradually followed his example. From this time dates the deterioration of the Assamese and their decline as a power. In mediaeval history, the Assamese were known to the Mussulman population as a warlike predatory race, who sailed down the Brahmaputra in fleets of canoes, plundered the rich districts of the delta, and retired in safety to their forests and swamps. As the Mohammedan power consolidated itself in Bengal, repeated expeditions were sent out against these river pirates. The phys ical difficulties which an invading force had to contend with in Assam, however, prevented • anything like a regular subjugation of the country; and after repeated efforts, the Mussulmans con tented themselves with occupying the western districts at the mouth of the Assam valley. In 1638, during the reign of the emperor Shah Jahan, the Assamese descended the Brahmaputra, and pillaged the country round the city of Dacca; they were ex pelled by the governor of Bengal, who retaliated upon the plund erers by ravaging Assam. During the civil wars between the sons of Shah Jahan, the king of Assam renewed his predatory incur sions into Bengal ; upon the termination of the contest, Aurang zeb determined to avenge these repeated insults, and despatched a considerable force for the regular invasion of Assamese terri tory (166o-62). His general, Mir Jumla, defeated the rajah, who fled to the mountains, and most of the chiefs made their submis sion to the conqueror. But the rains set in with unusual violence, and Mir Jumla's army was almost annihilated by famine and sickness. Thus terminated the last expedition against Assam by the Mohammedans. A writer of the Mohammedan faith says : "Whenever an invading army has entered their territories, the Assamese have sheltered themselves in strong posts, and have distressed the enemy by stratagems, surprises and alarms, and by cutting off their provisions. If these means failed, they have de clined a battle in the field, but have carried the peasants into the mountains, burned the grain and left the country desert. But when the rainy season has set in upon the advancing enemy, they have watched their opportunity to make excursions and vent their rage ; the famished invaders have either become their prisoners or been put to death. In this manner powerful and numerous armies have been sunk in that whirlpool of destruction, and not a soul has escaped." The same writer states that the country was spacious and populous ; that the paths and roads were beset with difficulties; and that the obstacles to conquest were more than could be expressed. The inhabitants, he says, were always prepared for battle, and the approach to their forts was opposed by dangerous jungles, and broad and boisterous rivers. From the middle of the 17th century internal dissensions, inva sion and disturbances of every kind convulsed the province, and neither prince nor people enjoyed security. Late in the i8th century some interference took place on the part of the British government, then conducted by Lord Cornwallis; but his succes sor; Sir John Shore, adopting the non-intervention policy, with drew the British force, and abandoned the country to its fate. Its condition encouraged the Burmese to depose the rajah, and to make Assam a dependency of Ava. The extension of their en croachments on a portion of the territory of the East India com pany compelled the British government to take decisive steps for its own protection. Hence arose the series of hostilities with Ava known in Indian history as the First Burmese War, on the termi nation of which by treaty in Feb. 1826, Assam remained a British possession. In 1832 that portion of the province denominated Upper Assam was formed into an independent native state, and conferred upon Purandhar Singh, the ex-rajah of the country ; but the administration of this chief proved unsatisfactory, and in 1838 his principality was reunited with the British dominions. After a period of successful administration and internal develop ment, under the lieutenant-governor of Bengal, it was erected into a separate chief commissionership in 1874.
In 1886 the eastern Dwars were annexed from Bhutan; and in 1874 the district of Goalpara, the eastern Dwars and the Garo hills were incorporated in Assam. In 1898 the southern Lushai hills were transferred from Bengal to Assam, and the north and south Lushai hills were amalgamated as a district of Assam, and placed under the superintendent of the Lushai hills. Frontier troubles occasionally occur with the Akas, Daphlas, Abors and Mishmis along the northern border, arising out of raids from the independent territory into British districts. In Oct. 1905, the whole province of Assam was incorporated in the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.
See E. A. Gait, The History of Assam (1906) ; L. W. Shakespear, History of Upper Assam (1914)•
