To be or not to be a Tribe

On 29 November 2025, thousands of protestors, mostly students from Bodoland University and Kokrajhar University, marched to the Bodoland Territorial Council Secretariat, protesting the state government’s decision to grant Scheduled Tribe status to six communities. The demonstrators walked for around six kilometres, carrying banners calling for tribal unity, and shouted slogans calling the Assam government anti-tribal. They pushed past the gate, where they vandalised the furniture, as the state police force stood watching.

Three days earlier, the state cabinet had approved a report presented by a group of ministers, headed by Ranoj Pegu, the minister for the welfare of plain tribes and backward classes of Assam. It recommended the inclusion of the Ahoms, Sutias, Moran, Matak, Koch-Rajbongshi and Adivasis (the so-called tea tribes) in the ST category in Assam. This was a result of long-standing demands by these groups for ST status. In the last few months, they had carried out various rallies calling upon the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, which had been promising them ST status since 2014. But the communities currently classified as STs—the Bodos are among them—had continuously opposed this demand and carried out protests to warn against this move.

These protests and counter-protests made several political analysts predict doom for the BJP government in the state elections, which are expected to take place in early 2026. While such sweeping analysis may be premature, the issue of granting ST status to these communities was definitely becoming a concern for the BJP in the state. Currently, in Assam, the STs are divided into two categories—ST (Plains), with ten percent reservation, and ST (Hills), with five percent reservation. Fourteen communities were listed under these categories, with a population of about 4 million, comprising 12.4 percent of the state’s population, as per the 2011 census. The BJP is already in alliance with many of the existing ST communities and was in control of some autonomous councils as well. But it also relies on the other six communities for votes—together, these groups form a little less than a third of the state’s population, and had largely supported the party in the previous election. The BJP government formed the GOM to seek a way out of the political challenge it faced. The group was tasked with a complex job—to offer reservations to the six communities without tampering with the rights and protections of the existing ST groups.

The GOM recommended the creation of a new category called ST (Valley), which would include the Ahoms, Sutia and Adivasi communities. It also proposed that the Moran and Matak communities be included in the ST (Plains) list. For the Koch Rajbongshis, one of the largest groups among the six communities, it suggested that inclusion be based on their habitat. The report proposed that those living in the undivided Goalpara area, currently covering four districts, be included in the ST (Plains) category. Those within the Bodo Territorial Region would have to seek a no-objection certificate from the Bodo Territorial Council to classify. Any Koch-Rajbongshi living outside of these regions would be included in the newly created ST (Valley) category.