Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography The answer to each chapter is provided in the list so that you can easily browse throughout different chapters SCERT Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography and select need one.
Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography
Also, you can read the SCERT book online in these sections Solutions by Expert Teachers as per SCERT (CBSE) Book guidelines. These solutions are part of SCERT All Subject Solutions. Here we have given Assam Board/NCERT Class 12 Geography Chapter 23 Assam Geography Solutions for All Subject, You can practice these here…
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY
Q.1. Give an account on the urban population of Assam.
Ans :- According to 1991 census data, as high as 11% of the state’s population lives in the urban centres numbering 87 Just after independence in 1951, the proportion of urban population in Assam was only 4.03% as against India’s 12-30%. Assam is in fact, lagging far behind the nav of the states of the country in respect of urbanization. The root causes associated with this are the state’s extremely marginal location combined with very slow pace of transport and Industry development with a population of 5.84 lakhs Guwahati turns out to be the largest city in the state. With a high primacy it is gradually emerging as a city of metropolitan character in the entire North-East region. Guwahati city alone constitutes 23.5% of the state’s total urban population.
During the period 1971-91, the urban population growth in Assam has been 93% as compared to 53.26% for the entire population. Although there has been a high growth rate population. Although there has been a high growth rate of population in the already existing urban centres during 1971-91, the formation of 15 new laws during the period has been primarily responsible for considerably high urban population growth during 1971-91 in the state.
The study of occupational structure and characteristics of urban population also reflects the behaviour of different urban centres in the state. Due to lack of industrialisation most of the urban centres in the state that have emerged are based on administrative and trade and commerce functions.
Q.2. Give an account on the population growth pattern of Assam.
Ans :- The decadal variation of population between 1901 and 1951 was cound 20%. Even that was much higher than that in India. In fact between 1901 and 1951, Assam experienced an increase of 144% against the country’s 51%. Subsequently, during the period 1951 and 2001, Assam saw a growth of 232% against the country’s growth of 184%.
The causes of high growth of population in Assam may be –
(a) Firstly, reason may be attributed to immigration.
(b) Secondly, it may be noted that the health and hygiene condition has improved since independence following a check on epidemies like cholera, Kala Azar, small pox etc.
(c) Thirdly, Social awareness and literacy being low among some groups of people.
(d) Fourthly, the practice of holding marriage of the girls at their tender ages of 12-13 yrs among some group of people, leading to a greater number of children in their family.
(e) In some families, polygamy is very common.
(f) In some families parents are expecting a boy child but giving birth to a girl child. More girl childs are produced unexpectedly and the family size is increased.
There has been significant variation in the district wise growth of population in Assam during the last few censual decades. However, during 1991 2001, the district of kamrup experienced the highest rate of growth of 25.75% followed by N.C. Hills (23.47%), Dhubri (23.42%), Goalpara (23.07%)
Karbi Anglong (22.57%), Nagaon (22.30%) and Karimganj (21.35%) In all these districts the growth rate has been higher than the national norm (21.34%). In the remaining 26 districts, the rate of growth of population during the period 1991-2001 was less than the national norm.
Q.3. Discuss the density variation of population in Assam.
Ans :- The plains have a high density of population. As per the census of 2001, Nagaon is most densely populated district of Assam with a density 604 person per km followed by Dhubri (584), Kamrup (579), Karimganj (555), Barpeta (506), Nalbari (504), Morigaon (455), Goalpara (451) and Darrang (432). Each of these nine districts has a density of more than that of the state’s norm (340) while the remaining 14 districts have lower density of population.
It may be noted that each of the above districts, except Karimganj, has a large immigrant population, while Karimganj has a large refugee population. Kamrup’s higher density is partly explained by the rapid growth of Guwahati, whose present population is at 1.5 million. The least densely populated districts are Dhemaji (176), Karbi Anglong (78), and N.C. Hills (38). Dhemaji is the only plain district where density is relatively low. The two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar are sparsely populated because of their hilly topography with limited cultivable land and underdeveloped transportation and communication system.
Q.4. Discuss the pattern of Social Composition of the people of Assam.
Ans :- While discussing peopling of Assam’, it is noticed that migrants from different ethnolinguistic, social, cultural, economic and geographical backgrounds came to build up the present population of the state. In course of time, therefore, many of their racial, social and cultural traits have merged with one another, while some remain still identifiable. Besides, on reaching north-east India different migrant groups may have lived under different ecological conditions for long. As such the socio-cultural traits of different groups of people are found to be somewhat different.
Ethno Linguistically the people of Assam may be divided into Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Chinese and Indo-Aryan groups. The Khasi and Jaintia people living in the Meghalaya foothills in Kamrup, Morigaon, Hamren sub-division (K.A.), and NC Hills belong to the Austro-Asiatic group. Tibeto. Chinese groups of people can be divided into the Tibeto-Burman language speaking and Sino-Siamese language speaking groups.
The Tibeto-Burman speaking people in Assam include almost all the tribal groups of the state like the Bodo. Mishing, Karbi, Tiwa, Dimasa, Rabha etc. The people of the Sino-Siamese group includes the Ahom, Khamti, Khamyong, Aiton. Turung and Phake. Of these six groups the Ahom’s mother tongue is Assamese, while other five small groups speak their own Tai dialects, although they can also speak Assamese.
The Indo-Aryan groups of people of the state are found to be divided into four linguistic groups. They are Assamese speaking non-tribal people, Bengali speaking people, Hindustani speaking people and Nepali speaking people.
Apart from ethnolinguistic division, there are many other religious, social, cultural and economic criteria on the basis of which the people are divided in India. The constitution of India, in order to bring all the citizens of the country into a homogeneous socio-economic level, has listed the backward communities of the country under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The scheduled castes are traditionally so called ‘low castes’ in the Hindu social hierarchy. The scheduled Tribes are those people who have their own traditional language and who traditionally have been living in economically less productive areas and eke out their living in more archaic manner.
There are altogether 17 scheduled castes in Assam. Some of them are Assamese speaking, some Bengali speaking and some Hindustani speaking. The highest proportion of the scheduled castes can be found in cachar 15.24% followed by karimganj (12.99%), Morigaon (12.91%) Hailakandi (10.91%), Bongaigaon (10.27%) and Nagaon (9.29%)
Q.5. Give an account on the urbanisation in Assam.
Ans :- Urbanisation : From the view point of urbanisation, Assam is one of the backward states of India. Because of lack of industrial and commercial activities and because of underdeveloped transport and communication, the state has remained less urbanised. In fact, there emerged only nine towns in the later part of the nineteenth century. These are Dhubri, Goalpara, Barpeta, Guwahati, Tezpur, Nagaon, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Silchar. With the turn of the century new towns like Jorhat, Nazira, Tinsukia, Digboi, Lakhimpur, Golaghat, etc came up. In 1901 urban population in the state accounted for 2.34 percent of the total population. It rose to 7.21 percent in 1961 and further to 12.72 percent in 2001. In 1991 Assam had 85 towns (93 including 8 census towns attached to some neighbouring old towns). In 2001 the number rose to 109 (125 including census towns). Out of these 80 are statutory (notified by state government) towns and 45 are outgrowths and census (as per census criteria) towns.
Generally a town grows up initially on the basis of one or two social, cultural and/or economic functions. But as a town grows, some other functions also come to contribute towards its growth. A large number of towns of Assam have grown up on the basis of administrative activities, coupled subsequently with commercial, transport and educational ones. Guwahati, Dhubri, Silchar, Nagaon, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Hailakandi, Diphu, etc are the examples of this category of towns.
Second category of small towns grew up in the state on the basis of industries like tea, oil, plywood, paper, etc. Original tea towns of Assam include Doom Dooma, Chabua, Nazira, Dergaon, Biswanath Chariali, Dhekiajuli, Tangla etc. Towns based on oil industry are Digboi, Duliajan, Numaligarh, Noonmati and Dhaligaon. While Margherita grew up on the basis of the plywood industry, Jagiroad has grown up in the paper and pulp industry. Sualkuchi has grown up in the silk-weaving industry. Tinsukia, Mariani, Lumding Badarpur, Rangia, Bongaigaon and Golakganj are transport (railway) towns Sorbhog. Pathsala, Tihu, Kharupetia, Mairabari, Daboka. etc grew up as commercial centres of the local agricultural products.
Assam also has two centres of pilgrimage that have grown up into towns. They are Kamakhya and Hajo.
Most of the towns of Assam are small based, as mentioned above, on tertiary sector of activities such as commerce, service etc. In fact, out of 09 towns of the state, only six belong to class I having a population of I lakh or more in each. Guwahati is the largest town not only of the state but also of the whole of north-east India. It has a population of 814,575 (2001) followed by Silchar (184,285), Dibrugarh (137,879), Jorhat (135,091), Nagaon (123,054) and Tinsukia (108, 102).
There are 8 towns belonging to class II, with a population of 50.000-99, 999 in each, 22 belonging to class III (20000-49999), 31 belonging to class IV (10,000-19,999), 40 to class V (5000-9,999) and 4 to class VI (less than 5000 persons in each). The class II towns are Tezpur, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, Sibsagar, North Lakhimpur, Karimganj, Diphu and Lumding. All of these, except Lumding, are primarily administrative centres (district headquarters) and then commercial and transport centres. Lumding is an important railway junction and commercial centre.
Hi, I’m Dev Kirtonia, Founder & CEO of Dev Library. A website that provides all SCERT, NCERT 3 to 12, and BA, B.com, B.Sc, and Computer Science with Post Graduate Notes & Suggestions, Novel, eBooks, Biography, Quotes, Study Materials, and more.
