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Rabha
Total population
	c. 357,000 (2011)
Regions with significant populations
	Population in India
Assam	296,189
Meghalaya	32,662
West Bengal	27,820
Languages
	Assamese, Rabha, Bengali
Religion
	Majority; Hinduism (94.36%); Minority; Christianity (5.17%) Islam (0.05%)

The Rabha people are a Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group who live mostly in the Northeast Indian state of Assam, with a lesser population in the adjacent state of West Bengal.^[4] They primarily inhabit the plains of Lower Assam and the Dooars, while some are found in the Garo Hills. Most of the Rabhas of Dooars refer to themselves as Rabha, but some of them often declare themselves as Kocha.^[5]

Language

Linguistically, Rabha has been classified in the following way: Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, JingphoKonyak-Bodo, Konyak-Bodo-Garo, Bodo-Garo, Koch (Lewis 2009). Members of each of the nine groups of Rabha are thought to speak their own dialect. However, except Rongdani and Maituri, the rest of the Rabha groups have abandoned their mother tongue for Assamese. In their day-to-day conversation they speak a broken variety of Assamese mixed with some Rabha words and expressions, and it has been called by a few researchers (perhaps jokingly) “Rabhamese” (Tibeto-Burman speeches and their studies, n.d., 22). The language of the Koch-Rabhas is much more similar to that of the Koch rather than Rabha. A sociolinguistic survey conducted among the Koch (Kondakov 2010) establishes the evidence for this. According to U.V. Jose, the dialectic variations between Rongdani and Maituri are minimal. They are mutually intelligible, and the one merges almost imperceptibly into the other around the GoalparaBaida-Rongsai region. The Rongdani-Maituri dialectical differences become gradually more marked as one moves further west (Jose 2000). Rabha in many cases shows points of resemblance with Atong – a variety traditionally considered a dialect of Garo^[6].^[7]

Notes

^ "Table ST-14 A: Scheduled tribe population by religious community". 2011 Census of India. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
^ "Table ST-14 A: Scheduled tribe population by religious community". 2011 Census of India. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
^ "Table ST-14 A: Scheduled tribe population by religious community". 2011 Census of India. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
^ "Rabha, Bodo and Garo, all of which belong to a close-knit group of Tibeto-Burman languages."(Joseph 2006:1)
^ "There stills exist another group of Rabhas called the Kocha or Koch"(Joseph 2006:2)
^ Kondakov, Alexander (2023). "A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Rabha Dialects of Meghalaya and Assam". Journal of Language Survey Reports (2013): 7 – via SIL International.
^ "A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Rabha Dialects of Meghalaya and Assam". SIL International. 2022-09-15. Archived from the original on 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-12-31.

References

Mitra, A. (1953), West Bengal: District Handbooks: Jalpaiguri, Govt. of West Bengal
Basumatārī, Phukana Candra (2010). The Rabha Tribe of North-East India, Bengal and Bangladesh. Mittal Publications.
Joseph, Umbavu (2006). Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, Volume 1 Rabha. Brill.

Saha, Rebatimohon (1987) "Jalpaiguri Jelar Koch-Rabha Samaj" (in Bengali) published in Ananda Gopal Ghosh edited Madhuparni, Special issue on Jalpaiguri District.
Raha, M.K. (1974) "The Rabhas of Western Duars: Structural Analysis of a Changing Matrilineal Society", Bulletin of the Cultural Research Institute, Vol. 10 (1 & 2).
Ghosh, Saumitra (1990) "Vanbasi Rabhara" (in Bengali) Desh, Vol 57 (12), January 20.
Roy Choudhury, B. (1970) "Social Mobility Movement among the Rabhas of North Bengal", Man in India, Vol 50 (1).
Gupta, Pabitra Kumar (1977) "Uttarbanger Rahba Samaj O Dharmasanskar Aandolon", (in Bengali) in Madhuparni: Special North Bengal Issue, 1977.
Sarma, Dr. Nabin Ch (2006) "Oral Songs of Tribal Communities of Assam" a project of Assam Sahitya Sabha, Assam Institute of Research for Tribals and Scheduled Castes