What it means to be a Boro

Boros are habitually simple, humble and honest. Literally, “Boro” means man and they treat every human being equally. But there are people around the world who consider themselves superior and others inferior. Being a self-respecting community, Boros are less likely to respect such people. The consicence of being Boro inspires them to do good things and prevent them from doing wrong things. They easily trust people and unfortunately this gullible nature makes them vulnerabile to easy manipulation and exploitation by leaders and intellectuals. Boros form an egalitarian society, though there are some traditional clans based on factors like historical kingdom, tradition and occupation. Boro society follows Democratic principles. They have rich cultural heritage. Folk dances like Bagurumba, Bardwi Sikhla, Kherai etc are popular worldwide. Boro society has evolved throughout history with multiple state formations.
Physically, Boros have high cheekbones, epicanthic folds and visible brow ridge. Colonial Officer-Scholars also categorised them as “Indo-Chinese” because of the physical and linguistic similarities with Chinese. Boros are plain dwellers, hence classified as “Plain Kachari” and they are said to possess more plain features than other tribes of Northeast India. No doubt, Boros look very innocent because they have been living civilized way of life for millenia.
Historically, Boros are the earliest settlers of Brahmaputra valley, though Austroasiatics were believed to be earliest in past but the modern studies (Sidwell 2021) by Austroasiaticists and Geneticists have confirmed that Austroasiatics are late neolithic migrants in first millinium B.C.E. Boros being the earliest settlers of the valley is quite event from the fact that Boros have highest frequency of HbE gene which began mutation 5000 years ago. Boros have strong sense of ethnicity and identity. Boros were given many names by Indo-Aryan speaking Hindus. Boros’ past has been chronicled by using those terms viz. Mleccha, Mech, Kirata, Kachari and Varaha or Baraha. Boros also had some self-boasting terms like Rangsa and Ramsa, which are probably lineage or political identities. But Boros have thrown all the exonyms into Dustin and abandoned the self-boasting terms. They use “Boro” to self-desinate and prefer to be addressed as “Boro” only.