Assam

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Assam , state (2001 provisional pop. 26,638,407), c.30,000 sq mi (77,700 sq km), extreme NE India. Dispur is the capital. Almost completely separated from India by Bangladesh, Assam is bordered by Nagaland and Manipur on the east, Mizoram , Tripura , and Meghalaya on the south, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan in the north and west and West Bengal in the west. The terrain consists largely of hill plains and some hilly ranges in the south. The river valleys, particularly those of the Brahmaputra and Surma, contain the richest soil and support most of the people. The rainfall is often excessive.

Tea, grown on large plantations in the piedmont sections, is the principal crop. Rice, citrus fruit, sugarcane, sesame, cotton, and jute are also grown. Industry consists of the processing of agricultural products. Assam is an important oil-producing region with refineries at Digboi and Nunmati. A pipeline delivers oil to Barauni (Bihar state), and Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh). Locally, the Brahmaputra is important for river transportation. Railways supplement the waterway and are linked with other Indian lines by a route through West Bengal. Rail and road transportation are limited. Kolkata (Calcutta), in West Bengal state, is the nearest large Indian city. Assam has a highly heterogeneous population. Assamese, a dialect related to Bengali, is the predominant language.

The Ahom dynasty (from which the name Assam probably derives) established its rule c.1400 and held it intermittently for four centuries. Aurangzeb , the Mughal emperor, conquered Assam in 1661-62 but ruled only for a short time. The British assisted the Assamese several times in expelling Burmese invaders. By the Treaty of Yandabo (1826), ending an Anglo-Burmese war, Great Britain acquired Assam; it was administered as part of Bengal until 1919, when it became a governor's province. It was made a self-governing province in 1937. A southwest section (Sylhet) was incorporated in 1947 into East Pakistan. Assam's first university was opened in 1948.

There were serious riots in 1959-60 when Bengal-speaking Hindu refugees, fleeing from Muslim East Pakistan, settled in Assam. More refugees arrived from East Pakistan in 1971. Immigration of Bengali speakers sparked serious unrest in 1989. In 1960 and 1961 the Chinese invaded the North-East Frontier Agency (now the state of Arunachal Pradesh), which is N of Assam, but the Chinese withdrew in 1963. To improve its defenses, India embarked on a vast road-construction program.

Assam lost territory as non-Assamese populations were granted autonomy by the Indian government. In 1963 the Naga hills district was made into the state of Nagaland. The Naga independence movement has maintained its guerrilla struggle. In 1970, Meghalaya was created in the south. Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, separated in 1972, received statehood in 1987. Meanwhile, in 1979, a group of Assamese launched a guerrilla movement with the goal of independence for Assam. In 1995, India's improved relations with Myanmar led to joint military operations aimed at containing various rebel contingents, each separately seeking independence from India, but fighting has continued. The state has also experienced violence between ethnic groups.

Assam is normally governed by a chief minister, a cabinet responsible to a unicameral legislature, and by a governor appointed by the president of India. In 1990, however, Assam was put under direct central government rule.

Assam, India Kamarupa A state named in the 13th century by, and after, the Ahoms, originally Shans, who came from Burma to establish a kingdom. The Ahoms' own name for themselves was Tai, but Ahom was pronounced Asam, hence the name of the state. It may mean ‘Undulating Land’; or it may be derived from the old Ahom word asama ‘peerless’, or possibly from the Thai ahom ‘invincible’. The area became part of British India in 1826. It was reduced in size when a portion of it was ceded to East Pakistan in 1947 on partition, and the creation of new states within it: Nagaland in 1963 and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram in 1972.

Assam A constituent state of the Republic (Union) of India, to which it is linked by a narrow corridor through the lower Himalayas. Conquered by the British by 1838, it was developed into a plantation economy. A large Hindu and Muslim labour force was imported to this end, as a result of which it suffered from some of the worst ethnic and communal tensions after Indian independence in 1947. These were aggravated by Indian administrative reorganizations aimed at destroying Assam as a single entity, and by the influx of around two million Muslims from neighbouring East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the Pakistan Civil War (1970).

Assam State in ne India, almost separated from the rest of the country by Bangladesh. The capital is Dispur and the largest city is Guwahati. It became a state in 1950, but its people have resented, and forcibly resisted, immigration from West Bengal and Bangladesh. The Bodo minority continue to push for a separate state n of the River Brahmaputra. Industries: tea, jute, timber, oil. Area: 78,438sq km (30,277sq mi). Pop. (2001) 26,638,407.

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