The Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) was constituted by the Government of Assam in 2005. It was constituted for all round development in the area of economic, educational, socio-cultural and ethnic identity of Rabha people residing in the council area.
The Rabhas are one of the aboriginal tribes of Assam. They are categorized as plain Schedule tribe in the state. They are identified as a sub-tribe of the Bodo-Kachari family who belong to the Indo-Mongoloid racial stock. They are believed to have originated from the Tibetan region and it is estimated that several hundred years ago, they migrated to Garo Hills, now in Meghalaya and spread to the plains of Assam (B.N. Bordoloi, 1987, p. 128). At present, they are widely scattered in the plains districts of Goalpara, Kamrup, Darrang, Dhubri, Nalbari, Kokrajhar etc. but their main concentration is found in the undivided districts of Goalpara, Kamrup and Darrang of Assam. Besides Assam, their distribution spreads over the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Bihar districts of West Bengal, Manipur, Nepal and Bangladesh. As per 2001 Population Census, the total Rabha population of Assam is 2, 77,517 and it is 8.4% of the total Schedule tribe population of Assam.
The Rabhas’ perceived injustice done on the community by the so-called high caste Hindu society in the fields of socio-cultural system, political and economic avenues had led them to mobilize on ethnic line and to develop identity consciousness since pre-independence period. Such development among the Rabhas involved them in organizing movement for asserting a variety of demands as their constitutional rights. As a result of which the Government of Assam had to pass the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council Act as an option of solving the Rabha problems which received assent of the Governor of Assam on 5 th July, 1995 (RHAC Act, 1995). Consequently, the Memorandum of Settlement was done by signing the Rabha Accord on 10 th March, 1995 (Accord, 1995) through which the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) came into existence. The council includes 779 villages of Goalpara and Kamrup districts of Assam (Notification, 2005) and its headquarter is in Dudhnoi. Thus, it may be stated that the RHAC is the result of Rabha ethnic identity consciousness and assertion whose nature, power and function are necessitated to be analyzed
According to the RHAC Act, 1995, the State Government of Assam has the responsibility to conduct election to the general and village councils of the RHAC after every five years (RHAC Act, 1995). An Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) has been constituted with its headquarters at Dudhnai town. The jurisdiction of this council extends up to Rani area of Kamrup district and embraces almost the entire district of Goalpara. The autonomous council has been created to fulfill the longstanding demands of the Rabha people of the area. Immediately after the formation of RHAC, the State Government constituted an interim council on 20 th July, 1995 to run the council for time being which lasted till 1996. Instead of conducting election after the first interim council the State Government constituted second interim council which existed from 1996 to 2001. Moreover, the State Government constituted another interim council for the third time in 2001 which became malfunction after 2010 (Batori, 2012, p. 2). Accordingly, the RHAC had been run by the nominated members for many years since its inception and the State Government never held election to the council till 2012. Although the Government announced the 30th April, 2013 (Tribune, 2013, p. 1) as the date for election to the RHAC after 17 years of its formation, election could not take place due to panchayat-council election debate among the Rabhas and non-Rabhas. For such a long period of time, neither the council nor the panchayat election was held in the council area as a result of which the people falling within the council are deprived from the right to exercise grassroots democracy. On such ground, it may be observed that the Government has failed to implement the Act. Moreover, the RHAC had been run under the control and administration of the commissioner of lower Assam division since 2011 (Batori, 2012, p. 2). After the interim council became malfunctional, the RHAC had no political executive and every power and function of the general council and village council was carried out by the commissioner. However, election to the RHAC was held in November, 2013 for the first time and 12 member executive council was formed with Tankeswar Rabha as chief executive member of the council.