Page 93 - Changing Living Spaces

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

ing their products through agents or markets. The food produced in their
villages is transported not only within Nagaon district but also through-
out the state, and is consumed by many local people. Among them, the
fish supplied by the Muslim immigrants have a special importance for
the Hindus in Assam. In Muslim villages, fishing begins in November,
when the rainy season ends and the water level in the cultivated areas be-
gins to fall, and it reaches its peak in January. In mid-January, Hindus
in Assam celebrate Magh Bihu, one of the three Bihu festivals during the
year. Magh Bihu is an annual event when all the work of rice harvesting
is completed and farmers can rest at home. During the festival, it is cus-
tomary for families and relatives to visit their native homes and eat fish
and duck meat (Borah 2005, 23–4). On Uruka Day, the eve of Bihu, peo-
ple in rural villages go to nearby rivers and ponds to catch fish with bam-
boo fishing gear. On the same day, people in the towns go to the mar-
ket to buy fish. A certain amount of the fish consumed by Hindus living
in the towns during the Bihu festival is supplied by Muslim immigrants.
Although they do not participate directly in the festival, they use it as a
great business opportunity. When the price of fish increased during this
period, some villagers from village C made a turnover of more than 1 lakh
rupees in one day in Uruka by supplying fish for the town dwellers.
In contrast, Muslim immigrants also depend on the Asamiyas in the
study area. One example is rice straw, which is essential as cattle feed. In
Muslim immigrant villages, cows used for tillage are gradually being re-
placed by power tillers and tractors, but many households keep cows to
produce milk for their own consumption. It is important for these house-
holds to have fodder for their own livestock throughout the year, but the
straw from the boro rice they grow is not as good as fodder. Boro rice is
harvested from May to June, which is the beginning of the rainy sea-
son. After harvesting, the rice straw is piled up and stored in the home-
stead garden. However, since it is in the open, it gets wet from the rain
and rots easily. Cows do not eat rice straw that is wet and damp. In addi-
tion, boro rice grown in village C is a high-yielding variety (HYV) whose
stalks are generally harder than those of local varieties, so they do not
fall over when a large amount of chemical fertilizer is applied. Because of
this characteristic, the stalks and rice straw of HYV boro rice are not suit-
able for livestock feed.
Some Muslim immigrants who grow only boro rice buy rice straw as cat-
tle feed from the Asamiyas who grow sali rice (figure 7). Sali rice is har-
vested in November and December, when the rainy season is over and the

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