Kalicharan Brahma As A Social Reformer In Boro Society

Abstract

The Boro community is the largest ethnic groups and plain tribes inhabiting in Assam. Assam is a land of multilingual culture and different ethnic groups mostly of Mongoloid stock entered into Assam and settled there. The modern name of province of Assam is a recent origin. Different writers suggested different opinions in Tai-cham mean to be defeated with the Assamese prefix ‘Asam’ which means undefeated. Another suggestion is that the name (Asam) is most probably traceable to the Boro word Ha-som which means plain areas. The earliest inhabitants of Assam were the Karata’s Cinas and other tribes known as Mlecchas and Asuras (Dikshit: 2014: 286). Bodo people worshipped Bathou religion from ancient times as the prime religion. But among the Bodo’s many new religions came to be seen in the sacrifices and use of wine rice beer (jou) and others in the name of performing traditional rituals, the Boro society came to be perceived as suffering from many socio-religious ills. Gradually, due to this situation, many people slowly converted to other religions like Vaishnavism, Christianity, and most popular being the Brahma Dharma led by Kalicharan Brahma also known as Gurudev Kalicharan. The present study is an attempt to bring out the role played by Kalicharan Brahma in bringing socio religious reform.