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One of the items on display at most of the local Autonomous Council sponsored/organized exhibitions at BTC areas of Assam is different varieties of rice seeds, including indigous and hybrid ones. The main target is to create awareness of hybrid varieties of rice but what it does is also make aundience realize the invisibility of indigenous varieties.
Jou is the most favoured traditional brew of the Boro people in Assam. It has social, cultural and religious usage but jou for a long time was identified with the community. Particularly the Hindu caste society of Assam looked down upon the indigenous (tribal) people of Assam because of their traditional lifeways that involved making and drinking of jou. But for the Boros, no ritual and custom is complete without it. Traditionally, Boro women were expected to know how to make jou, and therefore, this community knowledge also is held by women.
The rice in the photo is known as "Namar catsa" or " Caca". It looks strange from its name to its colour. According to the farmers, the rice used to be eaten by the Kings and the senior citizens because it is nutritious. The interviewee shared, "it made up complete balanced nutrition for the sick or weak. But now most of our people don't have much knowledge concerning with that kind of paddy ( including me). Today that kind of rice is not grown widely".
Let's build this up together
Let's build this together
The Kokrajhar workshop on rice revealed how urbanization and ‘modern’ non-agricultural lifestyle is putting pressure on the practice of rice cultivation. The space for transmitting indigenous knowledge system is shrinking and rice as a site of knowledge and meaning is being challenged, though it continues to be the main staple in the region. With growing number of younger people migrating to urban areas looking for job opportunities and the gradual spread of urbanization process, the biggest challenge is how to sustain productivitity.
COVID-19 is not the only challenge that common people across the world have been faced with. But there are places where this problem has been compounded due to other kinds of natural challenges felt locally. This has been particularly so in the state of Assam in India where annual flooding ravaged lives and livelihood. The worst hit have been the ones settled in low lying flood prone zones across the state, making it simply impossible for many to engage in cultivation of the staple food crop, rice.
Ma Mya Than, 58 years old, is a middle class Rakhine (Arakanese) lady who lives in Buthidaung, a town in northern Rakhine. She used to sell various varieties of rice. Rakhine, situated on the western coast of Myanmar, is rich with natural resources including fish, timber, oil and gas. According to her, although Rakhine exported many acres of rice under Burmese Socialist Programme Party for years, there were around five types of rice that farmers in Rakhine mainly grew.
There existed unusual terms used to refer certain types of rice during the BSPP government. Here are three examples. U Myo Win Than is a 55 years old Burmese man who used to live in Myittha, Kyaukse district, Mandalay.
He explained that “Yar Kyaw Sa Par” refers to the variety which exceeds a hundred tinns (Burmese unit of volume measurement that equals to 40.9148 L) per acre when harvested.
Neglected Inheritance (or) Pa Oh Ethnic Traditional Rice Variety
Daw May Myo Khine, 49 years old, who once lived in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine, and whose grandfather and father owned many rice farms explained that under the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, some farmers grew two different kinds of rice. They grew low quality rice, which they would sell to the government at the prescribed price and good quality variety, which they would eat themselves. The government gave farmers loans called “Amadaw Kyay” for growing rice. In return, the farmers had to sell the harvested rice to the government.
Genetic research into rice from the inlands of Suriname draws attention to the history of West Africans who were deported as slaves to this former Dutch colony. While there are many grains of Asian rice, Surinamese black rice, ‘Blaka aleisi’, turned out to be almost identical to rice farmed by Mande-speaking farmers in West Ivory Coast according to research by Tinde van Andel. This rice was rarely eaten but instead was sacrificed to ancestors and used in spiritual herbal baths.
The different varieties of rice are differentiated on the basis of their qualities, nutrition, features, and taste. Though there are many varieties of rice, based on my interview, Paw San still takes the first place. The rice shop owners that I talked to said that Paw San is the best seller althoug its 'price is a little high'. Mostly, people from the middle class consume it. But Shwe Bo, Zi Yar and many others are moslty used by the Hta Min Sai, the restaurants, because of their low price and suitability for their business.
Pitha is the common name used in Assam for rice cake. The Boro pitha is traditionally prepared during the harvest festival. In earlier times indigenous varieties of rice were used for making pitha. Each household has its own way of making pitha/ rice cakes and it is generally women who engage in such activities. Now-a-days with indigenous rice varieties slowly disappearing, hybrid rice varieties are used for making pitha; and pitha is no longer related with festivities alone.
Story from an Intercommunity Dialogue on Rice Cultures and Cultivation
Ag lainai, the ritual of cutting the first fruits of paddy
Dharitri Narzary
Bakhri - I
This is a play song from Kokrajar, Assam, India. Elders enact this with the children. The rough translation of the song is:
Rice cook … cook… cook…
Curry cook … cook… cook
Will you eat … will you eat … will you eat?
Keep for dinner also okay?
Lets go to plant rice now
Let’s make alli now
Let’s break alli
Let’s plant plant
Now let’s go to catch crabs from the holes
No way this side…no way that side… what about this side jogo…jogo…jogo!
