Dimasa people

The Dimasa people (local pronunciation: [dimāsā]) are an ethnolinguistic community presently inhabiting in Assam and Nagaland states in Northeastern India. They speak Dimasa, a w:Tibeto-Burman language. This community is fairly homogeneous and exclusive, with members required to draw from both parents' separate clans. Dimasa kingdom, one of many early states in Assam following the downfall of Kamarupa kingdom, was established by these people. The Dimasas were till recently agricultural, centering on shifting agriculture; but in recent times this has changed with profound changes in the community. Following political problems in the 18th century, the Dimasa ruler moved further south in the plains of Cachar and there took place a division among them–with the hills Dimasa maintaining their traditional living and political exclusiveness, the plains Dimasas have made no attempt to assert themselves.

Quotes

• But in the same year, a Hindu tribe called Dimasas had suffered immensely because of religious strife. This was reported by other prominent human rights watch groups in 2005 but ignored by USCIRF’s biased filtering. For example, the US-based Committee for Refugees and Immigrants mentioned that Dimasa tribes were becoming internally displaced refugees. Unfortunately, it failed to provide the religious dimension behind this displacement. It merely acknowledged that ‘about two thousand Dimasas, displaced by communal rioting in 2003 between the Dimasa and Hmar tribes over land and governance in the northeast, were still living in camps in southern Assam as well as in Manipur and Mizoram. About three thousand others had likely returned to their homes’. Major Anil Raman, a strategic analyst and commander in the Indian Army in the Northeast, explains the role of Western Christianity in this conflict:
  The Hmars are devout Christians while the Dimasas are mainly Hindus. The Hmar church-bodies and social networks, including those abroad, have been heavily involved in directing political activities. The Dimasas lack this external support and are extremely apprehensive and critical of activities of Hmar religious bodies. The unchecked and widespread proselytism by missionary groups to achieve a ‘Christian belt’ from Meghalaya to Nagaland has brought them into direct conflict with the Dimasas, who are staunch Hindus.
  • Major Anil Raman, Malhotra, quoted from Malhotra, R., Nīlakantan, A. (2011). Breaking India: Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit faultlines