Assam

Assam is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur, a part of Guwahati. Located south of the eastern Himalayas, Assam comprises the Brahmaputra and the Barak river valleys and the Karbi Anglong and the North Cachar Hills. Assam is surrounded by the rest of the Seven Sister States: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya. These states are connected to the rest of India via a narrow strip in West Bengal called the "Chicken's Neck." Assam also shares international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh; and cultures, peoples and climate with South-East Asia—important elements in India's Look East Policy.
Assam is known for Assam tea, petroleum resources, Assam silk and for its rich biodiversity. It has successfully conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction in Kaziranga, the tiger in Manas and provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. It is increasingly becoming a popular destination for wild-life tourism and notably Kaziranga and Manas are both World Heritage Sites. Assam was also known for its Sal tree forests and forest products, much depleted now. A land of high rainfall, Assam is endowed with lush greenery and the mighty river Brahmaputra, its tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a unique hydro-geomorphic and aesthetic environment.

Physical geography

Geologically, as per the plate techtonics, Assam is in the eastern most projection of the Indian Plate, where it is thrusting underneath the Eurasian Plate creating a subduction zone. It is postulated that due to the northeasterly movement of the Indian plate, the sediment layers of an ancient geocyncline called Tethys (in between Indian and Eurasian Plates) have been pushed upward to form the Himalayas. It is estimated that the height of the Himalayas is increasing by 4cm each year. Therefore, Assam possesses a unique geomorphic environment, with plain areas, dissected hills of the South Indian Plateau system and with the Himalayas all around its north, north-east and east.
Geomorphic studies conclude that the Brahmaputra is a paleo-river, older than the Himalayas, which often crosses higher altitudes in the Himalayas eroding at a greater pace than the increase in the height of the mountain range to sustain its flow. The height of the surrounding regions still increasing forming steep gorges in Arunachal. Entering Assam, the Brahmaputra becomes a braided river and along with its tributaries, creates the flood plain of the Brahmaputra Valley. The Brahmaputra Valley in Assam is approximately 80 to 100km wide and almost 1000km long and the width of the river itself is 16km at many places within the valley.

Tradition and culture

Assamese culture is traditionally a hybrid one, developed due to cultural assimilation of different ethno-cultural groups under various politico-economic systems in different periods of pre-history and history. The roots of the culture go back to almost two thousand years when the first cultural assimilation took place with Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman as the major components.

Major cities and towns
Guwahati is the largest urban centre and a million plus city in Assam. The other important smaller cities and large towns are Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tinsukia (Tinicukiya), Sibsagar (Xiwoxagor), Silchar (Silcor), Sonari, Tezpur, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, Nalbari, Mangaldoi, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Dhubri (Dhubury), etc. On the other hand, Namrup, Duliajan, Digboi, Moran, Bongaigaon, Numaligarh, Jogighopa, etc are major industrial towns. Currently, there are around 100 total urban centres in the state.

Religious places in Assam
Assam has several important temples, and this includes:
The Kamakhya Temple is situated near Guwahati in Assam. It is revered as one of the Shakti Peethas, and is visited by thousands throughout the year. It is also the focus of many myths, stories, and historical events.
The Kachakanti Temple im Udharbond, near Silchar is one of the most respected places of worship for Hindus in Assam.

Problems in Assam
The region was part of the British Empire and most of the nationalities of this region were integrated peacefully into the new country. Unfortunately economic indexes of the region, which were above average before independence, began to fall compared to the rest of the country.
Militant groups began forming along ethnic lines after Independence, and demands for sovereignty grew, resulting in the new states of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram in the 1970s. ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom), and NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) are two major militant groups that came into existence in the 1980s, leading to a strong military crackdown. The low-intensity military conflict has been continuing for more than a decade now without an end to the insurgency at sight. High rural unemployment adds to this insurgency.