The Outgoing Nature of Assamese People

There was a time when remaining confined to the state was a typical nature of the average Assamese. There would be numerous examples of Assamese people even quitting jobs just because he is transferred to a location outside the state. The Assamese was fond of or habituated to remain within his comfort zone. The Assamese was shy, would refrain from taking risks, and would remain rather jobless at home rather than looking for opportunities outside the state as people from other states do. There was a lack of the spirit of adventure too, so much so that there is no Assamese word or term equivalent to adventure. Some would also point out that there is no Assamese equivalent to the term “risk” – indicating that the average Assamese did not have it in his or her DNA to take a risk or go on an adventure. Things, however, have changed drastically in the past few years. Several lakh young people from Assam – most of them high school and college drop-outs – are now working as factory workers and even daily-wagers in different states. An official report prepared by the Government of Kerala in 2013 had said that of all workers from other states there, as high as 17 per cent were from Assam. The language data of the Census Report of 2011 on, on the other hand, was that there are sizeable numbers of Assamese people now in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, UP and so on. According to the Census language data, the number of Assamese-speakers in UP has increased from 7922 in 2001 to 10,356 in 2011. Likewise, the number has increased in Uttarakhand from 854 in 2001 to 1656 in ten years. In Bihar, it went up from 619 to 2087, in even in Manipur from 1446 to 2453. These figures are indeed encouraging, and much better than young men taking to the jungles at the behest of insurgent groups.