Page 79 - Changing Living Spaces

3

Living Spaces of Ethnic Groups and their
3
Relationship with the Ecological Environment

in Assam, India

Haruhisa Asada
Nara Women's University, India

© 2024 Haruhisa Asada
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-399-9.77-102

Introduction
Northeast India, which lies between South Asia and Southeast Asia, is
a crossroads of cultures. The region is far from the political centres of
either region, and until the mid-nineteenth century, population density
was extremely low. While the other northeastern Indian states are char-
acterized by rugged mountains or high plateaus, much of Assam consists
of highly productive, low-lying alluvial land ideal for agriculture. Due to
the fertile soils along the Brahmaputra River and abundant rainfall from
the southwest monsoon, rice has traditionally been grown in Assam.
Throughout history, people from all over the region have settled in the
area in search of arable land. Early inhabitants included the Bodos from
the Himalayas, who came here before the birth of Christ, and the Ahoms
from Yunnan Province in southern China, who settled here in the thir-
teenth century. For centuries, other indigenous ethnic groups have main-
tained their unique customs, languages, livelihoods, and religions.
When considering modern Assamese society, one cannot ignore the in-
fluence of the British colonies. Today’s problems in Assam, many of which
have to do with land and resources, have their origins in the colonial pe-
riod (Saikia 2011, 13). In the pre-colonial period, Assam had a low popula-
tion to land ratio (Guite 2019, 13). For example, in 1853, the population of
Assam was 1,059,513 and the total cultivated area was 1,575 square miles
out of 30,241 square miles. The population is ethnically diverse and scat-
Murayama, S., Ž. Lazarević, and A. Panjek, eds. 2024. Changing Living
Spaces: Subsistence and Sustenance in Eurasian Economies from Early Modern
Times to the Present. Koper: University of Primorska Press.

77