People of Bam

PEOPLE OF BAM:


Composition

The total population of Bam as per 2011 census was 97,087 making it 5.59% of Cachar District population. The average population per village is 1115. Bam is the home of 14872 scheduled caste people and 3259 Scheduled Tribe people constituting 15.31% and 3.35% of total Bam population respectively. The remaining  population of Bam is comprised of others including caste Bengalee Hindus , a substantial portion of Hindi speaking people from Northern India. Bam is an anthropologist’s delight. There are Meitai Muslims,Maimal Muslims, Bengali speaking Muslims, Meitai and Bishnupriya Munipuri, ethnic Dimasa known as Barmans, Mizo, Khasi, Scheduled Castes of different shades, Nath community, North Indian, caste Bengali Hindus, mostly indigenous, all coming here from various places with so much diversity but coexisting  without any  schism. Bam is virtually a melting pot of different  communities coming from different part of Barak Valley and outside.

(Click to enlarge)

 A typical middle class home of Bam complete with betel nut ,bamboos and fruit bearing trees,a water tank (Pukuri) with split bamboo fencing  and a private approach road called Jangal

Image of Bam Outside

Bam is perceived differently by different people of mainland Cachar district and others in Barak Valley. It is almost like proverbial seven blind men ‘seeing’ an elephant. Some people refer it as Bam Dholai or Bam Bhaga perhaps suggesting that these two places are in Bam.Dholaibazar and Bhagabazar are only two emerging growth centers in Bam located in Sadagram and Bangram village respectively. Again, to some like  one retired Subject Teacher of Narsing HS School,Silchar Bam is a place somewhere in deep South of Silchar where milk is found in abundance. Yet again to retired Deputy Secretary to the Government of Assam,coming from Katigorah area, Bam is inhabited by rough and tough people. He still remembers that during 1950 riot after partition of the India while there was panic among Cachar Muslims and uncertainty was there the people of his area were hoping that Bam people would resist and that they were fighting on horseback. If Bam people gave away there was no hope. In the perception of a Cachar origin   CA in Guwahati, musclemen and tough people are available in Bam on hire to execute orders of eviction etc. But as a general rule, to the people of mainland Barak Valley the name Bam suffixed with Bouri, another notional region around Swadhin Bazar,east of Sonai and twenty km from Bhagabazar, makes  a phrase ‘Bam-Bouri’and conjures up an image of backwardness ,remoteness, lawlessness  and all that go with it. Bam continues to be an enigma to outsiders. This image of Bam has rightly or wrongly stuck and has not gone away even in this age of communication boom. Google Earth has not helped. Bam continues to be far removed from the psyche of the mainland Cachar as North Eastern Region continues to be far removed from the psyche of mainland India. But Bam people do not complain as Sardarjees no longer complain at Sardarjee jokes. Despite this negative image, Bam continues to draw investors as also brides from outside. Daughters of Minister, Tea Planter, Zamindar, Business Tycoon, Bureaucrats , Doctors and Technocrats  have gone to Bam as brides and lived happily.

P.S.:To be continued in the next section-"OLD HISTORY OF BAM"

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