• Dr Faguna Barmahalia

Politics of ethnic identity in the north-east India is well-known phenomenon. The ethnic assertion in this region is mostly linguistic and cultural in nature. Consequently, the socio-cultural identity movement emerged among the Bodos since the 2nd decade of 20th century. The socio-political identity movement did not start before the independence it came after the independence. During the freedom movement of India, the Bodos of Assam also participated strongly and sacrificed their valuable lives for the sake of their motherland. After the independence of India, the Bodos started negotiating for the introduction of Bodo medium in the school and attained Bodo as their medium of instruction in 1963. As most of the Bodo leaders took education through the Assamese medium of instruction, many of them accepted Assamese script for writing and publishing the Bodo books to teach their students in the school but many leaders did not accept Assamese and submitted a memorandum for the use of Roman script in place of Assamese but the Assam government did not respond and accept it. Later, they decided to launch a democratic movement under the aegis of All Bodo Students Union in 1974.In this movement, 16th Bodo people were shot dead by the defense people. Yet, they didn’t attain Roman as their script from the government of Assam. Since then, the Bodos of Assam felt that they are not safe and exploited by Assamese Hindu people and had been demanding for the creation of a separate state on the northern part of the mighty river Brahmaputra. In the name of the separate state, many people lost their valuable lives in the hands of defense people and fratricidal killing. Some women have lost their husband at the age of younger stage, their sons, parents, sisters, brothers and many of the children have become orphans. Despite signing two agreements namely Bodoland Autonomous Council was on 20th February 1993, and Bodoland Territorial Council on 10th February 2003, the expectation of the Bodos could not fulfill. The creation of a separate state movement is still going on under the aegis of different Bodo nationalists’ organization. The main aims of this paper are: i. to focus on how the Bodos of Assam are using the folk media in their political movement and iii. to explore the role of folk media towards serving the ethnic unity and nationalism among the Bodos.

Media, culture, nationalism, ethnicity, identity, politics

"Folk Media and Political Movement: A Case Study on the Bodos of North East Indi", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 8, page no.198-208, August-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1808776.pdf

"Folk Media and Political Movement: A Case Study on the Bodos of North East Indi", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 8, page no. pp198-208, August-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1808776.pdf