The Koch are a small trans-border ethnic group of Assam and Meghalaya in India and northern Bangladesh.[7] The group consists of nine matrilineal and strictly exogamous clans, with some of them preserving a hitherto sparsely documented Boro-Garo language called Koch, whereas others have switched to local varieties of Indo-Aryan languages.[8] It is a Scheduled Tribe in Meghalaya, India.[9][a] Koches want to preserve language and culture and heritage.[11]
The Koch people in this group are those who have preserved their languages, their animistic religions and follow non-Hindu customs and traditions.[6] They are related but distinguished from the empire building Koch (the Rajbongshi people) and the Hindu caste called Koch in Upper Assam which receives converts from different tribes.[12]
Etymology of Koch
According to Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, western Kamrud (Kamrup) was inhabited by the Koch, Mech & Tharu.[13] In Yogini Tantra, Koches were called as Kuvachas.[14] According to the Fatiyah-i-Ibriah written between 1661 and 1663, Cooch Behar was inhabited by Koch.[15]
Groups and clans
The Koch people consist of nine ethno-linguistic groups: Tintekiya, Wanang, Koch-Rabha/Kocha, Harigaya, Margan, Chapra, Satpari, Sankar and Banai. These groups are generally endogamous, with very little intermarriages till recently. Each of these nine groups have matrilineal and strictly exogamous clans called nikini.[16] The matrilineal rules of the Koch are not as rigid as the Garo and the Khasi peoples.[17]
The group that is known as Kocha in Assam's Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts, identify with the Rabha people, and are also known as Koch-Rabha. Since the name Koch in Assam is associated with the caste Koch, this identity allows the Kocha people to benefit from state support that are open to the Rabha but not to the Koch.[18] Advisor of Koch Development Council, writer and social worker Indramohan Koch said that the government of Meghalaya accorded ST status to Koch People while the Assam Government had not recognised them as Koch but ST status had been given in the name of Rabha.[19]
The UNESCO report mentions Koch language as "Definitely Endangered".[20] The Koch language is spoken in the states of Assam (Goalpara, Nagoan, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Baksa, Udalguri, Karbi Anglong, Golaghat districts) and Meghalaya (West Garo Hills, South-West Garo Hills, South Garo Hills and East Khasi Hills districts). It is also spoken in some parts of North Bengal and in Bangladesh.[20] The different Koch groups are associated with different varieties of the Koch language[21]—at home and within their own group they use their own mother tongues; within the Koch groups they usually use the Harigaya variety which is understood by many other Koch groups; and outside the community they use Hajong, Assamese, Bengali, Garo, Hindi, and English.[22] The relationship between the six Koch speech varieties are rather complex. They represent a dialect chain that stretches out from Koch-Rabha in the north to Tintekiya Koch in the south. This is diagrammatically represented as — Koch-Rabha (Kocha)→ Wanang→ Harigaya→ Margan→ Chapra→ Tintekiya, where the adjacent dialects exhibit more lexical similarity than those at the ends.[20] Among the nine endogamous groups, six have retained their own language; whereas the Satpari, Sankar and Banai speak either an Indo-Aryan variety called Jharua, or Hajong (which is also sometimes referred to as Jharua).[23]
History
In Takabat-i-Nasiri, which contain records of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji expedition into Kamrup in 1205 A.D, mention that the people inhabiting between the country of Lakhanawati (Gauda) and Tibet were the Kunch (Koch), Mej/Meg (Mech) and Tiharu (Taru).[24][25] In Persian history, these population (Koch, Mech, Tharu) possessed the physiognomy of the Turks and the Mongols and their language was different from the rest of the subcontinent.[26]
Notes and references
^In Meghalaya, Koches are government notified scheduled tribe.[10]
^ ab"The Koch included in this report are those who preserved their tribal
dialects, animistic religion and non-Hindu cultures and traditions." (Kondakov 2013, p. 5)
^"Koch is a people group mainly found in the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam and in northern Bangladesh. The Koch people call themselves Kocho (in Meghalaya) or Kocha (in Lower Assam). The number of Koch in Meghalaya is about 25,000 people (Census 2011). (Kondakov 2020, p. 1)
^"The clans are matrilineal and strictly exogamous (Koch 1984:180), i.e. marriages are not permitted within the same clan. The first six groups have preserved their original Tibeto-Burman forms of speech while the remaining three have long switched to local Indo-Aryan varieties." (Kondakov 2020, p. 1)
^"The Koch of western Meghalaya also claim relationship with those empire-building Koch. On the other hand, Koch is known as a Hindu caste found all over the Brahmaputra Valley (Majumdar 1984: 147), and receives converts to Hinduism from different tribes (Gait 1933: 43)." (Kondakov 2013, p. 4)
^"Even at the time of Grierson's work early in the twentieth century it was noted that each group of the Koch spoke a different dialect (Grierson 1903: 96). The fact was later documented by D.N. Majumdar and S.N. Koch, and is now supported by the findings of this survey." (Kondakov 2013, pp. 7–8)
^"From there, he [Bakhtiyar Khalji] was tempted to invade “Bhutan and Tibet” and went against Assam, calle Kamrud (sic, with a “d”). The description of his disastrous campaign provides us with some information about the populations (Siraj 1881: 560-1): In the different parts of those mountains which lie between Tibbat and the country of Lakhanawati are three races of peoples, one called the Kūnch [N66], the second the Mej (Meg), and the third the Tihārū; and all have Turk countenances.They have a different idiom, too, between the languages of Hind and Turk [N77]." (Jacquesson 2008, p. 16)
^"(A)n account of the two expeditions of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji to the kingdom of Kamarupa (ancient assam) in the first part of the 13th century, noted that during that time this region..Kamarupa was inhabited by Kunch(Koch), Mej/Meg (Mech), Tiharu (Taru) tribes of Turks countenance. S.K Chatterji in this connection rightly observes that their Mongoloid features and speech made a distinct impression upon the Turks, who were also members of the same race" (Nath 1989, p. 3)
^"(W)e read in Persian history that these races [Koch, Mech, Taru] had Turki countenances (i.e slanting eyes, snub nose, high cheek-bones and yellow complexion of the Mongols), and they spoke a 'different idiom' from the language of India proper" (Chatterji 1951, p. 101)
Bibliography
Chatterji, S.K (1951). Kirata-Jana-Krti. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.
Jacquesson, François (2008). "Discovering Boro-Garo"(PDF). History of an Analytical and Descriptive Linguistic Category.
Kondakov, Alexander (2013). Hyslop, Gwendolyn; Morey, Stephen; Post, Mark W (eds.). "Koch dialects of Meghalaya and Assam: A sociolinguistic survey". North East Indian Linguistics. 5. Cambridge University Press India: 3–59. doi:10.1017/9789382993285.003. ISBN9789382993285.
Kondakov, Alexander (2020). "Outline of Harigaya Koch Grammar"(PDF). Language and Culture Documentation and Description. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
