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The correct position regarding the
names Assam and Oxom are as follows:
Assam was known as Kamrup in the
middle ages. Huen Tsang who visited the land in the 7th century described it
as Kamrup.
Then the Shan or Syam tribe from
Upper Burma conquered Kamrup in the 13th century. Local people used to call
these people as Asam or Asyam which is a derivation from the word Syam.
Since then our land was known as Asyam or Assam by the Moguls and all other
people in India. The Ahom buronjis as well as the Mogul historians used to
describe the land as Asyam or Asam. When the British came, they have
formalized the English spelling to Assam.
From this word Asyam, the word Oxom
was derived in local Assamese language. Originally used by Sri Xongkordev in his
Kirton, the word Oxom used to mean the Shan or Syam people in Assamese. Later
the word went phonetic change to become Ahom to represent the Syam people while
the word Oxom was adopted in the 17th century to mean the land of
Assam in local Assamese language. But so far as outside Assam, all know
our land as Assam till today. Even when Assam got independence in 1947, the
official name of the land was adopted as Assam in the Constitution. The word
Oxom does not exits in the Constitution.
Thus Assam has two names; Official
name Assam and local name Oxom.
The case is similar to India which
also has two names: Official name India and local name Bharat.
We should recognize this fact
that words Assam and Oxom are two separate words and we should leave
these as they are. The word Oxom is not an Assamese translation of the word
Assam like the word Bharat which is not an Indian translation of the word
India. Like we are not trying to change the word India to Bharat, we should
leave the words Assam and Oxom as two separate words and not try to change
anything. If we know the correct derivation of these two words, we will see that
the words Assam represent the Monglian culture while the word Oxom represent the
Aryan culture in Assam. Both the words are local Assamese words. We need both
the words.
The spelling 'Asom' on
the other hand is, as correctly stated by MM is neither here nor there and is a
Bhusung Pohu spelling in my opinion. It simply shows how dumb and
ignorant the Assamese intellectuals are (are there any Assamese intellectuals
really?). To lead these ignorant Assamese dumb intellectuals here comes
the leaderless The Assam Tribune, a litikai News paper, who is
sticking to the spelling Asom like a obedient servant of GOA. People
are taking it with a typical Assamese 'Hobo Diok' attitude. Some ignorant
people are following Assam Tribune and writing Asom. This simply shows how a
litikai nation the Assamese are. May be the Assamese
people are waiting for some Central minister to tell them what is
right. No wonder Assam is at the bottom of the Indian ladder. A Nation
which does not know the root of its own name, deserve to be at the
bottom.
GOA is thinking that if it does not
say or do anything, people will forget oneday that it ever took a resolution to
change the name to Asom, and things will simply die down. However, some people
are preparing to file a case against the GOA and to use the Right To
Information Act to shake up the litikai nation to action.
I say Hobo Diok.
RB
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