Context: Recently, the Union Home Minister address a community vital to upcoming Assembly elections in Assam and West Bengal i.e. the Koch Rajbongshis.

• They are estimated to number over 33 lakh in West Bengal, mostly the northern districts, and have a large presence in Assam.

About Koch Rajbongshis

• Koch Rajbongshi is an ancient tribe originally from the ancient Koch kingdom.
• However these community never been considered as tribes by any government or anthropological study and they do not possess any characteristics that tribal people do.
• The Rajbongshi tribe is referred to as Koch Rajbongshi, or Rajbanshi, or Rajvanshi.
• The word "Rajbongshi" literally means "royal community".
• They have a rich cultural heritage and their own language.
• They traced their roots to the Kamata kingdom, which comprised parts of Assam, West Bengal and adjoining territories.
• The community was dominant and ruled their territory of Kamatapur during the medieval period.
• It was comprised of a large part of Bangladesh, West Bengal, Bihar and India’s north-east.
• They are found in Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal and Bihar, and in Bangladesh, Nepal and some parts of Bhutan.
• The main dialects are Western Rajbanshi, Central Rajbanshi, Eastern Rajbanshi and the dialect of the Rajbanshi of the hills, also known as Koch language.
• They were primarily animist, but later on they followed Hinduism/Sanatana (both Shaiva and Vaishnabhite).