ABSTRACT
Like other Indians, the Assamese too are segmented along caste lines, openly and recognizably in the case of the Hindus and by derivation and imitation by other non-Hindu Assamese. The expression in Assamese to denote caste is jat, derived but distinct from jati. This Asamiya jati itself is a conglomeration of not merely various jats identified with the Assamese Hindu society, of Assamese Muslims and of Assamese Christians many of whom, but also many tribal communities from whose very stock the overwhelming majority of the present non-tribal Assamese people have been derived. The anomaly of a person belonging to the tea garden labour community and whose ancestors were of Munda stock being classified as a member of more other backward castes has to be traced to the rules laid down by the bureaucracy according to which people lose their tribal identity when they move into an area where that particular community is not formally notified as a scheduled tribe.
