ABSTRACT
In the agrarian society of Assam, grazing had occupied an important position as a supplementary economy. Gorokhias (the cowherd) are integral to the traditional economy and culture. The integral nature of the cowherds in the traditional agrarian society is apparent in the cultural festivals of the society. During the springtime festival, the rongali bihu, a seven-day festival – the first day is dedicated to the cattle and their cowherds. The livestock was mostly composed of buffaloes and cattle. Grazing was generally done on harvested rice fields and in winters in the swamps and marshes, where grasses grew luxuriantly. During the rainy season the villagers experienced hardship
regarding grazing their livestock because it tended to fill with water, which rose. In the summer months, there is a general tendency towards floods and so grazing was not possible on the riverbanks, therefore it became necessary to graze in the highlands. During the winters there was excellent grazing in the chaporis, the riverine belt and the jungles near it. In Assam, professional grazing was mostly confined to buffaloes because of their being of better breed and the superior quality of milk and milk products. Most of the grassland areas, the chaporis in particular are occupied by professional graziers, the majority of whom by the end of the nineteenth century were Nepalese.1 In the twentieth century due to increase in the immigration and settlement (discussed below) scarcity of grazing land gave rise to tension between the indigenous agriculturist, who had their own cattle to graze and the professional graziers. The root of this conflict was the colonial government’s policies of wasteland settlement and forestry as the following discussion would show.
