Koch is a
social group
In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...
(''
jati'') in the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n state of
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
. The members of the caste are converts from different ethnic groups such as the
Bodo Bodo may refer to:
Ethnicity
* Boro people, an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India
* Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Bodo people
Culture and language
* Boro cu ...
s,
Garo
Garo may refer to:
People and languages
* Garo people, a tribal people in India
** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe
Places
* Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia
* Garo, Colorado
* Garo Hills, part of the Ga ...
s,
Tiwa Tiwa and Tigua may refer to:
* Tiwa Puebloans, an ethnic group of New Mexico, US
* Tiwa (Lalung), an ethnic group of north-eastern India
* Tiwa language (India), a Sino-Tibetan language of India
* Tiwa languages, a group of Tanoan languages of the ...
s,
Karbis etc.
[:"In Upper Assam, “Koch” only applies to groups reputed to have converted to Assamese Hinduism and which no longer recognize themselves as Tiwa, Karbi or Bodo."] The Koch is one of many categories in the
tribe-caste continuum in
Assamese society. In some instance, the identity of the Koch overlaps the identity of the Kachari.
[:"The Koch category does not, however, encompass all the intermediary statuses between caste and tribe. For instance, in the same region of Upper Assam, the Koch category conceptually overlaps the Kachari, the second term being more common on the northern bank and the far east"] The caste is mostly found to be concentrated in
Upper Assam
Upper Assam is an administrative division of the state of Assam comprising the undivided Lakhimpur and Sivasagar (previously, Sibsagar) districts, of the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra valley. The other divisions are: Lower Assam, North Assam a ...
section of the
Brahmaputra Valley
The Brahmaputra Valley is a region situated between hill ranges of the eastern and northeastern Himalayan range in Eastern India.
The valley consists of the Western Brahmaputra Valley covering the regions of Goalpara and Kamrup; the Central ...
.
See also
*
Boro people
Boro (बर'/बड़ो ), also called Bodo, is the largest ethnolinguistic group in the Assam state of India. They are a part of the greater Bodo-Kachari family of ethnolinguistic groups and are spread across northeastern India. They are ...
*
Garo people
The Garo is a Tibeto-Burman ethnic tribal group from the Indian subcontinent, living mostly in the Indian states of Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, and Nagaland, and in neighbouring areas of Bangladesh, including Madhupur, Mymensingh, Haluaghat, ...
*
Tiwa (Lalung)
Tiwa is an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the states of Assam and Meghalaya in northeastern India. They are also found in some areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. They are recognized as a Scheduled tribe within the State of Assam ...
*
Karbi people
*
Assamese people
The Assamese people are a socio- ethnic linguistic identity that has been described at various times as nationalistic or micro-nationalistic. This group is often associated with the Assamese language, the easternmost Indo-Aryan language, a ...
Notes
References
Printed sources
*
*
*
Social groups of Assam
Ethnic groups in South Asia
Ethnic groups in India
Indian castes
{{India-ethno-stub