The Changing Face of Rural Assam

The villages have long been considered as the microcosm of Indian society and flagbearers of traditional social life. Popular conceptualization of the village portrays it as a signifier of authentic life - a site where the original India resides. This view of the village was initially invented by the Britishers and later carried forward by the nationalist leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru. Gandhi, even famously said that the the soul of India lies in its villages. Such an ideal typical construction of the village as a representative of Indian civilisational values has a strong presence in the nationalist imaginations of a majority of Indian people. 

India has historically been a land of villages. According to the 2011 census, there were around 6,49,481 villages in India. On the other hand, in Assam there were around 26,395 villages which is also a huge number. There are different types of villages which exist in Assam such as plain villages, hill villages, forest villages and tribal villages. Also, there are model villages which are developed by the government in order to provide better infrastructure and other facilities. The villages in Assam are mostly multi-caste, multi-religious and multi-ethnic in nature and represent a lot of diversity in terms of the composition of population. 

Rural Assam has always been imagined as a static entity marked by stagnation and seen as largely untouched by significant alteration or development. The traditional rural social structure, marked by a strong dependence on agrarian activities and relative backwardness, continues to define the popular perception of the Assamese village. However, rural Assam today is experiencing a quiet but decisive transformation shaped by demographic shifts, new socio-economic forces, developmental initiatives and the expanding influence of the state and the market leading to the spread of modern values and urban lifestyles across the countryside.

Agriculture, which has always been the backbone of the state’s economy, is gradually witnessing a change. For decades, agriculture in Assam was subsistence-oriented, smallholder based and reliant on monsoon patterns. While this continues to be true for a large share of cultivators, the empirical trends indicate a significant reorientation. The intensification of winter-crop cultivation, the spread of irrigation in different pockets of rural Assam and the gradual adoption of improved seed varieties have ushered in new production possibilities.

However, despite commercialization of agriculture, the fragmentation of landholding and decline of agricultural land are some of the problems that rural Assam faces today. Also, for many households agriculture is becoming supplementary rather than central to livelihood. This has led to the diversification of rural livelihoods as the most visible marker of change. The rise of non-farm occupations ranging from transport, construction work, retail shops and small-scale trade to other services have become indispensable. This is primarily because the younger generation is increasingly viewing agriculture as non-remunerative, leading to the shift in occupations. Migration plays a critical role here. The young men from districts such as Nagaon, Barpeta, Morigaon and Dhubri travel to Kerala, Karnataka and the Gulf for work, sending back remittances that sustain household consumption and even modest investments. The birth of a new rural middle class in the villages of Assam is a recent phenomenon pushed by factors such as occupational diversification and migration. 

The gender roles and relations have also been subject to change in rural Assam. The rise of micro-enterprises and self-help groups (SHGs) activities, especially among women, reflects the growing penetration of empowerment and self-reliance in the villages of Assam. The gender dynamics within the households shift as Assamese women today are taking on a lot of expanded responsibilities. The women are no longer just housewives and child rearers but rather perform multiple roles and actively take part in activities such as rural local self-government. 

Urbanization and the proliferation of urban values is significantly changing the countryside. As per the 2011 census, Assam’s urbanization rate stood at 14.10% indicating an increasing rate of urbanization over the previous 2001 census rate of 12.90%. Although urbanization in Assam as compared to the national average is low, the rate of urban population growth has consistently been higher than rural population growth for decades. Urbanization has brought along with it the rise of urban values leading to transformation of lifestyles and change in the consumption patterns. The rural education system, previously characterized by government public Assamese medium schools is gradually giving way to private English medium schools as a result of urbanization. Higher education remains largely urban-centric, compelling young people to migrate to towns and cities - a movement that subtly drains human capital from the countryside. Moreover, the rural markets are no longer isolated units, but rather they are well connected to the urban centres through better systems of transport and communication. 

One can also witness the change in the institution of caste in the village. Caste system, although not absent, historically has had a weaker presence and limited influence in Assam as compared to the north Indian states. The rigid caste notions of purity and pollution are slowly disappearing due to the intrusion of modern egalitarian values. This is evident in the inter-caste marriages which were once rare but now are a more frequent occurrence in rural Assam. The government of Assam, in recent times, has also taken a significant step forward in this direction by encouraging inter-caste marriages through a financial incentive scheme, offering a one-time payment of ₹50,000 to eligible couples. Furthermore, the gradual disintegration of the joint family system and the rise of nuclear households in the countryside reflect broader shifts in social values, individual aspirations, and economic priorities brought about by modernization and mobility.

The Assamese village, therefore, represents the blend of tradition and modernity. The modern social forces have interacted with the traditional institutions of the village and have ushered in perceptible social change and yet have not been able to replace them entirely. The Assamese villages, hence stand at the cross-roads of continuity and change. The villages of Assam can therefore no longer be viewed as relics of the past but rather as evolving and changing entities in response to modernization and the diffusion of urban values.

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