In ancient times, the land which the Rajbanshi inhabit, was called
Kamarupa. Its inhabitants spoke
Tibeto-Burman languages. There is no mention of 'Rajbanshi' in Persian records, the
Ahom Buranjis or the 18th-century Darrang Raja Vamsavali: the genealogical records of the
Koch Bihar royal family, although there is mention of the Koch as a distinct social group. From the 17th century the Koch society came under increasing brahminical influence and by the end of the 18th century a greater part of the Koch became amenable to it.
Late 19th century and early 20th century Starting from 1872 to 1891, in a series of social movements, a section of Koch who were at tribal or semi-tribal form in present
North Bengal and
Western Assam in an effort to promote themselves up the caste hierarchy tried to dissociate themselves from their ethnic identity by describing themselves as Rajbanshi (
of the royal lineage). This attempt of social upliftment was a reaction against the ill treatment and humiliation faced by the community from the caste Hindus who referred to the Koch as
mleccha or barbarians. The term
Rajbanshi was used to connect the group with Koch royalty who called themselves
Shiva-banshi or
Rajbanshi under
Biswa Singha, the founder of the Koch dynasty and a tribal who was Hinduised and promoted to Kshatriya varna in the early 1500s. By 1891, the Koch who came to be known as Rajbanshi claimed a new status of Bhanga Kshatriya to proof themselves to be a provincial variety of the Kshatriyas, the movement of Bhanga Kshatriya was undertaken by Harimohan Ray Khajanchi who established the "Rangpur Bratya Kshatriya Jatir Unnati Bidhayani Sabha" for the upward mobility of the community in the Hindu society. To justify this, the group collected reference from Hindu religious text such as the
Kalika Purana,
Yogini Tantra etc and created legends that they originally belonged to the
kshatriya varna but left their homeland in the fear of annihilation by the brahmin sage
Parashurama and took refuge in
Paundradesh (currently in Northern bengal and Rangpur division of Bangladesh) and later came to be known as Bhanga Kshatriyas. The story so created was to provide a convincing myth to assert their Kshatriya origin and perform as an ideological base for the movement but this failed to make any wider effect on the community and were denied the Kshatriya status. In 1910, the Rajbanshi who were classified as the member of the same caste as the Koches claimed a new identity of Rajbanshi Kshatriya, this time under the leadership of
Panchanan Barma who established the Kshatriya Samiti in Rangpur, it separated the Rajbanshis from their Koch identity and was also successful in getting the
Kshatriya status after getting recognition from different Brahmin pandits of
Mithila,
Rangpur,
Kamrup and
Koch Bihar. Following this, the district magistrate gave permission to use surnames like
Roy,
Ray,
Barman,
Sinha,
Adhikary etc. to replace the older traditional surnames like
Sarkar,
Ghosh,
Das or
Mandal and the Kshatriya status was granted in the final report of 1911 census. The movement manifested itself in sankritising tendencies with an assertion of
Aryan origin and striving for higher social status by imitating
higher caste customs and rituals. With this
lakhs of Rajbanshi took ritual bath in the
Karatoya River and adopted the practices of the
twice born (Dvija), like the wearing of the sacred thread (
Upanayana), adoption of
gotra name, shortening in period of 'asauch' from 30 days to 12. They gave up practices that were forbidden in the Hindu religion like the drinking of liquor (
Teetotalism) and rearing of pigs. From 1872 to 1911 in an effort to be a part of the higher caste, the Koch went through three distinct social identities in the census, Koch to Rajbanshi (1872), Rajbanshi to Bhanga Kshatriya (1891), Bhanga Kshatriya to Rajbanshi Kshatriya (1911). Today the Koch-Rajbongshis are found throughout North Bengal, particularly in the
Dooars, as well as parts of
Lower Assam, northern Bangladesh (
Rangpur Division), the
Terai of
eastern Nepal and Bihar, and Bhutan. Some writers suggest that the Rajbanshi people constitute from different ethnic groups who underwent
Sankritisation to reach the present form and in the process abandoned their original
Tibeto-burman tongue to be replaced by the
Indo-Aryan languages. There exist Rajbanshi people in
South Bengal districts of
Midnapur,
24 Paraganas,
Hoogly and
Nadia who might not belong to the same ethnic stock.
Post-independence (1947–present) After Partition, the Kshatriya Samithi lost its headquarters at Rangpur and attempted to reestablish itself at
Dinhata. However, a variety of new organisations to represent the Rajbanshi were being created. In Assam, the Rajbanshis were classified in a special category of
OBC called MOBC. In North Bengal, the various new Rajbanshi organisations began to see the Rajbanshi identity as ethnolinguistic in nature rather than a caste, since the various other communities living in North Bengal and Lower Assam also spoke the Rajbanshi language. This linguistic awareness was heightened in 1953, when the government decided to reorganise the states on linguistic basis. Many of these organisations, such as Siliguri Zonal Rajbanshi Kshatriya Samiti agitated for the merger of
Purnia division of Bihar and
Goalpara district of Assam into West Bengal since these regions were largely populated by Rajbanshi speakers. This was continued into the 1960s with Rajbanshi activists frequently demanding for their speech to be recognised as separate from Bengali. == Occupation ==