Bodo-Kachari
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Approx. 12 - 14 million) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Assam | n/a |
| Tripura | n/a |
| Meghalaya | n/a |
| Arunachal Pradesh | n/a |
| Religion | |
| Predominant Minority | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
|
|
Bodo-Kachari, is a generic term applied to a number of ethnic groups, predominantly in Assam state, India, speaking Assamese and Bodo language with a common or shared ancestry. Although most of these groups spoke different forms of Bodo-Kachari languages in historical times, today majority of them speak Assamese. Bodo language, one of the languages spoken by this group, has been recognised as an eighth scheduled Indian language in the year 2004.They are part of the Tibeto-Burman speaking community of Assam.
The term Bodo was first used by B H Hodgson in 1847, to denote a group of languages,(Hodgson) took the word 'Bodo' from the Meches (Bodos) of Darjeeling district in 1846 while he was writing about them." Grierson took this term to denote a section of the Assam-Burma group of the Tibeto-Burman speakers of the Sino-Tibetan speech family, which included the languages of (1) Mech; (2) Rabha; (3) Lalung; (4) Dimasa (Hills Kachari); (5) Garo (6) Tiprasa and (7) Chutiya.
The term "Bodo" is used to denote a large number of tribes. In recent times, the tribe that was originally called Bodo Kachari, are now being called Bodo. This contraction, from Bodo-kachari to Bodo, is widely accepted now.
They were first classified by S. Endle as the Kacharis. Here, Bodo is derived from Bod which means Tibet and Kachari is derived from Kachar meaning area near the river. They are considered to have reached the Brahmaputra valley via Tibet and South China, and settled in the foothills of the eastern Himalayan range which includes the whole of Assam, Tripura, North Bengal and parts of Bangladesh. That the Bodo-Kacharis were early colonizers of the river valleys is taken from the fact that most of the rivers in the Brahmaputra valley today carry Tibeto-Burman names — Dibang, Dihang, Dikhou, Dihing, etc. — where di- means water in Dimasa language.("Ti/twi"-Tripuri language,"Dwi" in boro & "Chi" in garo)
Based on an 1881 census, there were 19 groups within the Kachari classification:
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