The Boro Intelligentsia: It’s Role in the Change and Transformation of the Boro Society

Abstract

Scholars of ethnicity and nationalism observe that a society undergoing modernization and industrialization creates alongside a class of elites which takes major decisions bringing change and transformation in the society. In the multi-ethnic societies, spurring of elites involve inter and intra elite competitions for the sharing of the developments and fewer employment opportunities. The growth and development of an ethnic community often depends on the situations around and the kind of inter elite competition they are pressed into. The Boro society too began undergoing modernization with the spread of modern education in the early decades of the 20 th century. In the beginning they were meagre in number, but as time passed by, they grew in number and strength and by 1930s they emerged as one of the formidable political force of the state proving themselves as the king makers of that time. As saying goes, intellectual revolution precedes political revolution; the Boro intelligentsia of the early decades of the 20 th century was also more