ABSTRACT
At the time of the 1961 Census there were 16,307 inhabited villages in Assam with an average population of a little over 500 (Census of India 1961, vol. III, Assam: 113). Of these 2,300 were in Sibsagar District. The cadastral village, however, is not a social unit and the village, as such, is not a social fact. Villagers associate on the basis of membership of a local centre of devotional worship called a Name House (nām ghar) whose members describe themselves as ‘one people’ (rāij). Name Houses may be single-caste or multi-caste, and there are usually several Name Houses in a village.
