Bodo organizations oppose allotment of restricted holidays to all communities

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KOKRAJHAR: Several Bodo organizations on Wednesday opposed the announcement of allotment of restricted holidays to all communities of BTC without verification and justifying the historical relevancies. Leaders of certain organizations sent a memorandum to Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma through the Principal Secretary of BTC demanding his intervention over allotment of restricted holidays for their interest. In the memorandum, the organizations said that they had strong objection to the declaration of Pragiyotish Divas on December 22 and Ali Mech Day as legacy of Desi origin on April 4 as restricted holidays for Kalita and Deshi communities by the BTC authority on the BTC budget session on April 23 and 24.

In the memorandum, the organizations representing the Bodo community, including Bodó National Students Union (BONSU), Bodoland Janjati Suraksha Manch (BJSM), All Bodo Senior Citizens Forum, All- Bodo Women’s Welfare Federation (ABWWaf), All BTAD Gaonbura Association, All Assam Tribal Students Union (AATSU), and Bodo Writers’ Academy opposed the recent decisions taken by the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Chief Executive Member Promod Boro and BTC authority during the BTC budget session to declare December 22 as the Pragjyotish Divas for the Kalita community and April 4 as Ali Mech Day- Legacy of Deshi origin for the Deshi community, both to be observed as restricted holidays.

The memorandum said that the ancient kingdom of Pragiyotish (later known as Kamrup) was founded and ruled predominantly by the Mongoloid Bodo people, not the Kalita community. The earliest-known king, Mahiranga Danava (Mairong Raja), was a Bodo (Mech) ruler, as confirmed by scholars and ancient texts. The great Indian epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, describe Pragiyotish as a Mlechha (non-Aryan) kingdom ruled by kings like Narakasura (Narkhw Budang) and Bhagadatta (Bhwgdat Raja), who were Bodo rulers of Tibeto-Burman origin. It further said that the Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang’s 7th-century accounts also affirmed the Bodos as the indigenous rulers and inhabitants of Kamrup. “According to the dynastic lineage and timeline, the Danava dynasty was followed by the Naraka/Bhauma and Salastambha dynasties, all of Bodo origin. Kumar Bhaskar Varman (7th century CE), a celebrated king of the Varman dynasty, was a Hinduized Bodo ruler who proudly acknowledged his Mongoloid ancestry. The Salastambha dynasty, founded by a Mech (Bodo) king, continued this lineage, shifting the capital to Sonitpur. These dynasties ruled roughly from the early centuries CE through the 7th century, firmly establishing the Bodos as the historical rulers of Pragiyotish,” the organizations claimed.

They said that the Kalita community’s origin was traced to migrations from northwestern India and have no credible historical or cultural connection to Pragjyotish or the ancient Kamrup kingdom but their history is distinct and primarily linked to the Assamese Hindu caste system. The Mahabharata and Puranic texts do not mention any Kalita rulers or kingdoms named after them, which would be expected if they had founded Pragjyotish.

On the Ali Mech and the Deshi community, they said that Ali Mech was a Mech (Bodo) chief who converted to Islam during Bakhtiyar Khilji’s invasion, and that the name ‘Ali Mech’ was conferred by Bakhtiyar himself. The Mechs are the same group of the Bodo people and ethnically distinct from the Deshi community. The Kanai Barashi Rock Inscription No.1 further corroborates Ali Mech’s identity and historical significance as a Bodo chief. The organizations said that declaring Ali Mech Day as a holiday for the Deshi community was historically inaccurate and disregarded the clear genealogical and cultural distinctions between these groups. The leaders of the organizations said that the BTC’s decision to designate these holidays exclusively for the Kalita and Deshi communities disregarded well-established historical facts and disrespected the cultural identity of the Bodo people. Such actions distort Assam’s pluralistic history and risk communal discord, they said. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of the declarations of Pragiyotish Divas as a restricted holiday for the Kalita community and Ali Mech Day for the Deshi community, recognition and respect for the Bodo community’s rightful historical and cultural association with Pragijyotish and Ali Mech.

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