Kalita is a Hindu caste or social community among the Assamese people of Assam, India.Kangkan Kalita (6 October 2020). "Study traces Kalitas to Himachal in 4122 BC" The Times of India. Kalitas are presently classified among the forward castes and fall under the General or Unreserved category. Although some earlier historians regarded the Kalitas as a caste of ancient Assam, historians note that no direct reference to the Kalitas has been found in the inscriptions of Kamarupa surveyed for the period c. 600–1300 CE. They suggest that the Kalitas became more clearly defined as a caste in a later period, while processes of assimilation had begun earlier.
The Kalita designation functioned historically as a channel of social mobility through which tribal, occupational and lower-ranked caste groups could seek incorporation into a higher social status. Anthropologist Audrey Cantlie consequently describes the Kalita caste as having acted as a "refuge for other castes seeking to improve their status", while colonial census reports recorded persons from other castes entering the lower grades of the Kalita community. Occupational groups recorded as adopting or claiming the Kalita designation included Kumar, Komar, Sonari, Katani, Nat (Dancers),"From the earliest Census reports two features of the Kalita caste were noted. Firstly, that the caste occupies an undisputed rank as the highest of the Shudra castes native to the Assam Valley, and secondly, that a number of artisan castes attach the term Kalita to their names, although they are not permitted to eat or marry with the agriculturalists." while groups such as Suts, Duliya Jogis and Chutias also adopted compound Kalita identities. Kalita also represents an upper stage in the tribe-caste continuum described for Assamese society, whereby some formerly tribal groups could acquire progressively higher caste status over successive generations.
Origin The early history of the Kalita community is uncertain. Birinchi Kumar Barua included the Kalitas, along with the Koches, among the castes of ancient Assam. However, historian Silpisikha Baruah, in a study of the social groups of Prāgjyotisha-Kāmarūpa between 600 and 1300 CE, notes that the contemporary inscriptions contain no direct reference to the Kalitas. She therefore cautions against assuming that these communities existed in the same clearly defined caste form during the early medieval period as they did later. According to Baruah, the Kalita identity appears to have become more distinct as a caste in a later period, although processes of assimilation had begun earlier.
Some scholars have proposed migration-based explanations for the emergence of the Kalitas in Assam. Swarnalata Baruah associated an early section of the community with immigrants entering Assam during the reign of Dharmapala. Silpisikha Baruah also notes later traditions concerning a Kalitadesa outside Assam and early nineteenth-century accounts which regarded the Kalitas as immigrants subsequently incorporated into Assamese caste society, while stressing that the period in which such assimilation occurred cannot be determined from the available evidence.
Early historical references Although no direct reference to the Kalitas has been identified in the inscriptions of Kamarupa surveyed for the period c. 600–1300 CE, references to the community occur in later sources describing events of the early sixteenth century. The Buranji accounts of the Ahom annexation of the Chutia kingdom in 1523–24 record Kalitas among the populations of the conquered kingdom. According to Swarna Lata Baruah's summary of the chronicles, families of Brahmins, Kayasthas, Kalitas and Daivajnas, together with numerous groups of artisans, were transferred from the former Chutia kingdom to the Ahom capital following its annexation.
The Purani Asam Buranji, in an account of the resettlement of the Baro-Bhuyans of Rowta–Temoni (present-day Darrang and Nagaon) during the reign of Suhungmung (1497–1539), similarly mentions a Lacam Kalita Bhuyan family among the Bhuyans relocated to the north bank of the Brahmaputra. The family was settled at Bahbari, with related branches settled near the Sonari river and in the hills. These Buranji passages concern events of the early sixteenth century, but are preserved in later chronicle manuscripts and therefore do not constitute contemporary sixteenth-century epigraphic attestations.
A potentially related form occurs in the contemporary Chamdhara pillar inscription from the reign of Pratap Singha. The inscription commemorates the Ahom–Mughal conflict of 1615–16 and names three victorious officials—Fulung Gohain, Kuluta Gohain and Jadu Baruah. The inscription itself does not explain the designation Kuluta, and its identification with the caste name Kalita is therefore not certain. Older Assamese scholarship, however, records Kalita, Kolita, Kulita, Kolota, Kolta and Kulta as historical and regional variants of the caste name.
An unambiguous literary occurrence is found in the Gurucharit of Daityari Thakur, where the form Kolota () occurs in an enumeration of social groups alongside Kaivartas, Koches and Brahmins. Banikanta Kakati identifies Kolota as a Lower Assamese form of Kalita. During Mir Jumla's occupation of Garhgaon in 1662, Shihabuddin Talish described the "ancient inhabitants" of the surrounding region as belonging to the Ahom and Kulita communities. Edward Gait interpreted the statement as applying only to the country around Garhgaon rather than to Assam as a whole.
Legendary origins A popular tradition in Assam associates the Kalitas with Kshatriyas who escaped the destruction of Kshatriyas by Parashurama by concealing their caste identity. In this tradition, the name Kalita is connected with the Sanskrit expression kulalupta, interpreted as "lost caste". Baruah (2016) notes that the Kālikā Purāṇa contains a passage concerning Kshatriyas who, fearing the son of Jamadagni (Parashurama), assumed a different guise and sought refuge with Jalapisa; however, the passage itself contains no reference to the term Kalita or Kulta. The association of this passage with the origin of the Kalitas is therefore a later traditional interpretation rather than a direct reference to the community in the Purana.
A different explanation of the term kulalupta was recorded by Assamese lexicographer Hemchandra Barua in the first edition of the Hemkosh (1900). Barua suggested that the Kalitas were originally Kayasthas who had lost their former caste status after ceasing to observe Kayastha customs, and derived the name Kalita from Sanskrit kulalupta ("lost caste"). He further distinguished between Bar Kalita and Saru Kalita, describing the former as having descended from the Kayastha rank and the latter as Kalitas who had subsequently lost status through occupations regarded as low or through marriage relations with other castes.
Social mobility and incorporation The "Kalita" category also expanded through processes of social mobility. Anthropologist Audrey Cantlie describes the Kalita caste as having acted as a "refuge for other castes seeking to improve their status" through adoption of the prestigious Kalita designation. She notes that the independent economic organisation of specialist castes had facilitated substantial upward mobility, with groups such as Kumar, Kamar, Sonari, Nat, Duliya and Katani claiming Kalita status."The independent economic organisation of the specialist castes, however, who usually live apart in their own villages, has contributed to a high degree of upward mobility. Many now claim to be Kalita, which is the highest of the Shudra castes: e.g. Kumar Kalita (Potters), Kamar Kalita (Blacksmiths), Sonari Kalita (Goldsmiths), Nat Kalita (Dancers), Duliya Kalita (Palki-bearers), Katani Kalita (Silk-rearers), etc"
The distinction between these occupational groups and the Saru Kalita division was not always clear. Cantlie notes that occupational Kalita groups were often described simply as Saru Kalita rather than by their occupational names. She further states that early census officials considered a number of these occupational subdivisions to have originated among artisan groups who subsequently adopted the "Kalita" designation. Such incorporation was already noted in the colonial census reports. The 1901 Census of Assam divided the Kalitas into Bar and Saru divisions together with a number of professional subdivisions, including Mali, Sonari, Kamar, Kumhar, Tanti, Napit and Nat. B. C. Allen suggested that the relatively lower position of these professional groups was partly due to persons following the same occupations who were not originally Kalitas having gained admission into their ranks. The 1911 census similarly distinguished between the Bar Kalitas, whom it described as the established or "real" Kalitas, the Saru Kalitas, who were then supposed to have originated among Kewats, and several functional Kalita groups such as Kumar, Bez or Napit, Mali, Nat and Sonari Kalitas. Early census reports distinguished the established agricultural Kalitas from artisan communities which attached the Kalita designation to their names."From the earliest Census reports two features of the Kalita caste were noted. Firstly, that the caste occupies an undisputed rank as the highest of the Shudra castes native to the Assam Valley, and secondly, that a number of artisan castes attach the term Kalita to their names, although they are not permitted to eat or marry with the agriculturalists." Census officials believed that at least some of these subdivisions had originated among lower-ranked artisan groups which subsequently adopted Kalita status."Alternatively they may derive from lower caste artisans, who styled themselves Kalita, and most of the Census Commissioners are of opinion that this was true at any rate of some members of the sub-castes."
The connection between the lower or occupational Kalita sections and social incorporation continued to be noted in later official accounts. The 1961 Census study Selected Handicrafts of Assam observed that artisan sections such as Kumar, Mali, Nath and Bez Kalitas were often collectively described as Saru Kalita instead of by their occupational names. The study noted that the historical position of these functional subdivisions was uncertain: some regarded them as originally distinct occupational castes which had subsequently adopted the Kalita designation, while another view held that they were originally Kalitas who had lost status through taking up particular occupations. Thus, the occupational and Saru Kalita strata appear to have been open to incorporation from outside groups, even if their origins cannot be reduced to a single process.
Cantlie records specific examples of this process. The Duliya Kalitas were associated historically with a subdivision of the Jugi or Nath caste and underwent a collective purification ceremony in the late nineteenth century as part of an attempt to obtain Kalita status. In her field study at Panbari, the descendants of this group had abandoned their earlier occupational identity and described themselves simply as Kalitas, although other villagers continued to distinguish them as Duliya Kalitas. Cantlie regarded their transformation, which involved a change of occupation and name together with the acquisition of land, wealth and social respectability, as an example of group-level caste mobility. She also recorded groups of Borias or Suts in the vicinity of Panbari who had begun describing themselves as Sut Kalita, regarding this as another manifestation of the Kalita caste's role as a socially absorptive category. In Kamrup, Cantlie further reported that socially mobile Chutias were known to pass into the Kalita caste.