The Multiverses of Axom

Encyclopaedic in scope and epic in range, The Assamese: A Portrait of a Community by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty is full of details about Axom's origins and the pluralities of its history, society, art, culture

- Rahul Jayaram

In this 600-page doorstopper on the Assamese community, the writer aims to survey almost every aspect of what constitutes being Assamese (more accurately "Axomiya") and the several crisscrossing worlds that those who consider themselves people of Axom inhabit and carry forward. From the extremely distinctive linguistic miscellany and originality of the pronunciation of the word "Axomiya", (the velar fricative - the distinct tonal inflection of the "xh" turning into "suh" in spoken Assamese), to the differentiating factors of the community's history, its fraught equation with Bangla and Bengalis, the conflict-ridden relations with ethnicities that populate Axom and neighboring states (and country) with which Assam shares its border - this book wants to enclose as much as it can in its gigantic embrace.