Agrarian Life and Folk Cults: The Rajbanshi Community of North Bengal under Colonial Rule

Abstract

Rajbanshi are the most indigenous community in the North–Eastern part of India. They particularly lived in Kamrup, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Naogon (now in Assam), Rangpur, Pabna, Dhaka (now in Bangladesh), Kathiar, Purnia, Kishanganj (now in Bihar), Morang, Jhapa (now in Nepal), Meghalaya, Tripura and especially in the northern part of West Bengal, which is North Bengal. The religious beliefs and rituals of the Rajbanshi community were totally different from those of other Hindu castes. There was a long-term debate about whether they are Aryan or Non-Aryan, whether they belonging from Indo Mongolian tribes or to Dravidian tribes. Dr Charu Chandra Sanyal, in his book “The Rajbanshis of North Bengal”, clearly said that the Koch people, who adopted Hinduism, are known as Rajbanshi. Even in Sunity Kumar Chatterer’s work, the identity of the Rajbanshis is said to be that they are mostly of Bodo origin or a mixture of Austric, Dravidian, and Mongolian and feel comfortable calling themselves Koches. But the Rajbanshi writers and intellectuals have claimed that they belong to the Aryan race and the language belongs to the Indo-Aryan group. Agriculture was the primary occupation of the community.