Religion & Believe of Koch Rajbongshi:

Primitively Koch Rajbongshi were Animist and presently in their religious practice the same tradition of Animism is found to be significant.

Some of the Koch Rajbongshi also practice mixed Animism and other religion like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jewis, Basnaivism, Sikhism, Buddhism etc.

Ideally Koch Rajbongshi Tribe believe in all the religion, because primitively there were found to be Animist.

Goalpariya Lokogeet:

Traditional Folk song of Koch Rajbongshi community, It is also popularly known as Bhawaiya gaan in North Bengal and Goalpariya Lokogeet in Assam.

Koch Rajbongshi Tribe have their own distinct language and culture which is widely spoken in the Historic Kamatapur area.

Cooch Behar Merger Agreement:

On 15th August 1947, it was the birth of an independent India and Pakistan, free from two decades of Colonial Rule. Question arose regarding which nation the State of Cooch Behar will cede to. On the 28th of August 1949 an agreement was contracted between the Governor-General of India and Koch Rajbongshi King  His Highness the Maharaja of Cooch Behar Jagaddipendra Narayan, which came to be known as the Cooch Behar Merger Agreement, in which His Highness the Maharaja of Cooch Behar ceded to the Dominion Government (Govt. of India) -
"full and extensive authority, jurisdiction and powers for and in relation to the governance of the State" and agreed "to transfer the administration of the State to the Dominion Government on the 12th day of September, 1949." It was stipulated that from the 12th September, 1949 the Government of India would be competent to govern the State in such a manner and through such agency as it might think fit.

Demand of Scheduled Tribe Status in Assam:

Koch Rajbongshi Tribe of Assam have been demanding the ST status from a long time.

Koch Rajbongshi People

Koch Rajbongshi lives in peace and harmony with people, animal and nature because culturally, religiously they are animist. They live in brotherhood among all the community and religion, they can be found celebrating Christmas with Christians as well as Eid al-Fitr with Muslims, Durga Puja and other Hindu festival along with Assamese and Bengali. They also celebrate Bihu with Assamese community and also celebrate Bhai Phota with Bengali Community, when it comes to Raksha Bandhan, Koch Rajbongshi also celebrate it, in other words Koch Rajbongshi do not leave any festival with out celebrating it, It starts from the  Roman New Year.

Kamatapur is not the formation of New State, rather its the re-unification of the Kamatapur Kingdom, which had merged with the Indian territory on 28th of August 1949 and later on India divided Kamatapur into various parts, where by the eastern part of the Kamatapur merged with the Present Assam and the Western part of the Kamatapur is being merged with the present West Bengal and few of the parts went with Meghalaya, Bihar and Nepal.

The Koch Rajbongshi Community

The Koch Rajbongshi Community of India.

Koch  Rajbongshi community lives in various parts of the India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and other parts of the world.

They are mainly found in Lower Assam, Meghalaya, North Bengal, Certain parts of Nepal, and few parts in Bangladesh.

They had a ancient kingdom called Kamatapur Kingdom also they called it Koch Dynasty

Later on after the Indian Independence the Kamatapur joined with Indian territory and became the part of India.

Further the kingdom became the various part of the Indian states, namely Assam, West Bengal, Some parts of Bihar Few parts are said to be in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The community is spread across different states.

Koch  Rajbongshi's mainly were animist and also they found to rejoice in Christianity, Sanatana/Hinduism, Sankari and other religion practice also.

Koch Rajbongshi

Welcome to Koch Kiingdom/Kamatapur

Kamatapur Kingdom was also known as kamatapur or Kamata, The kamatapur Kingdom was ruled by the Kochrajbongshi Kings, The historic Kamatapur Kingdom merged with the Indian territory after the independence of the Indian territory from the British.

The capital of the  Kingdom was Cooch Behar.[1]

Cooch Behar Merger Agreement                                

On 15th August 1947, it was the birth of an independent India and Pakistan, free from two decades of Colonial Rule. Question arose regarding which nation the State of Cooch Behar will cede to. On the 28th of August 1949 an agreement was contracted between the Governor-General of India and Kochrajbongshi King His Highness the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, which came to be known as the Cooch Behar Merger Agreement, in which His Highness the Maharaja of Cooch Behar ceded to the Dominion Govt. of India.[2]

People

The inhabitant of the Kingdom were the Kochrajbongshi Tribe, later on after the merger of the Kingdom the community got divided into various parts of the India and outside the Indian domain.

The Present Kamatapur

The historic Kamatapur was divided and later on merged with the Indian territory, the Western Part of the Kamatapur Kingdom got merged with the West Bengal state, the eastern part merged with the Present Assam, the entire lower Assam was the part of the Kamatapur Kingdom, The Rongpur part merged with the Present Bangladesh, few parts joined with Bihar and Nepal.

Folk Song

Kamatapuri have various folk song of their own, in Assam they call it Goalpariya lokogeet, where as the same group call it Bhawia Gan in West Bengal, in Rongpur of Bangladesh they call it Rongpuriya Folk song.[3]

Kamatapur Movement

The Kamatapur movement by the Koch Rajbogshi people for the demand of the separate state within the Indian domain have taken a historic movement, Rajbongshi community and tribe also known as or called as Kochrajbongshi in Assam, Rajbongshi in West Bengal, Rajbanshi in Nepal,

All Koch Rajbongshi Student Union, the student wing of the tribe have been demanding of the ST (Scheduled Tribe) status for the community and the separate state hood demand for the community. Kamatapur State demand is very much legitimate for the community as it is not the formation of the new state rater it is the re-unification of the Historic Kamatapur Kingdom, various petition have been submited to the Government of India for the formation of the Kamatapur state and the ST status of the community.[4]

Kochila Movement in Nepal

The Rajbongshi community of the Nepal have declared a movement of United Kochila Province, The demand for the Kochila comprises of the present three district of Nepal – Morang, Jhapa and Sunsari.

They community urged the need for all people living in the Kochila region to wage a joint struggle for achieving the separate Kochila Province in Nepal.[5]

References:
1] http://coochbehar.nic.in/htmfiles/history_book.html
2] http://coochbehar.nic.in/htmfiles/royal_history2.html
3] www.bipuljyoti.in/music/pratima_barua_pandey.html
4] www.kamatapur.com
5] http://thtimes.pugmarks.in/fullNews.php?headline=%27We+want+Kochila+province%27&NewsID=314721