The Karbis, historically known as the Mikir, are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group indigenous to Northeast India, concentrated primarily in the hill districts of Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong in Assam. They rank among the oldest known communities of the Brahmaputra valley, with folklore and archaeology pointing to a long presence in the region before successive waves of displacement pushed them into the hills. The community refers to itself as Arleng, meaning "man" or "people" in the Karbi language, and the name Karbi, given by outsiders, has since been formally adopted. The designation Mikir, applied during British colonial administration and retained in the Constitution Order of the Government of India, is today considered derogatory within the community. The two Karbi-majority districts are governed under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution through the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, which grants them self-governing powers over land, forests, culture, and local administration.
According to the 2011 census, the Karbi population registered under the Scheduled Tribes category stood at 421,156, while the total Karbi-speaking population across India was 528,503, of whom 511,732 lived in Karbi Anglong alone. Scheduled Tribes constitute 56.3 per cent of the total population of Karbi Anglong district as per the same census, while the overall literacy rate for the district stood at 69.25 per cent, with a gap between male (76.14 per cent) and female (62 per cent) literacy.
Besides Karbi Anglong, Karbis are found in Dima Hasao, Kamrup Metropolitan, Hojai, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Biswanath Chariali districts of Assam; in the Balijan circle of Papumpare district in Arunachal Pradesh; in Jaintia Hills, Ri Bhoi, East Khasi Hills and West Khasi Hills districts in Meghalaya; in Dimapur district in Nagaland; and in parts of Mizoram.
thumb|right|Location of [[Karbi Anglong district within Assam.]]
Etymology
The origin of the word Karbi is not definitively established. The community's own name for itself, Arleng, literally means "man" in the Karbi language and reflects how the Karbis have historically identified themselves by their humanity rather than by an external label. During British rule the community was registered as Mikir in official and administrative records. The word's meaning in the Karbi language remains contested, though the closest proposed derivation is from Mekar, meaning "people." The legacy of this colonial naming has had real administrative consequences. The Constitution of India still recognises only the designation Mikir, which means Karbis living in states such as Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland cannot claim Scheduled Tribes status, despite being the same community.
History
Racially the Karbis belong to the Mongoloid group and linguistically to the Tibeto-Burman family. The ancestral homeland of Tibeto-Burman-speaking peoples is understood to have lain in western China, in the region of the Yang-Tee-Kiang and Howang-ho rivers, from which successive groups migrated down the courses of the Brahmaputra, the Chindwin, and the Irrawaddy into the Indian subcontinent and Burma. Karbi oral tradition holds that the community once occupied the lowland plains along the Kalang and Kopili rivers and that the area now known as Kaziranga National Park lay within their ancestral territory. Megalithic and monolithic stone monuments found scattered across parts of West Karbi Anglong are embedded in Karbi folklore and stand as physical markers of this long settlement history, though they remain incompletely researched.
During the reigns of the Dimasa Kachari kings the Karbis were driven from the plains into the hills. A portion entered the Jaintia Kingdom, living under Jaintia suzerainty, while others pushed northeast across the river Barapani, a tributary of the Kopili, and established a seat at Socheng in the Rongkhang Ranges. The Karbis who remained under Jaintia rule eventually faced persistent harassment that forced many northward into Ahom territory, where they sought protection from the Barphukan at Raha from the early seventeenth century. Those who entered the Ahom Kingdom later endured the Burmese invasions of Assam between 1817 and 1825, which drove many communities from their homes and into deep forest refuges. Some Karbis crossed the Brahmaputra northward, settling in the areas now comprising the districts of Biswanath, Sonitpur, and Lakhimpur.
Regional divisions
From the point of view of habitation, the Karbis are divided into three groups: Chinthong (also called Nilip-Ronghang), Ronghang, and Amri. Those who live in the plains districts are referred to as Dumrali. These groupings are geographic and should not be confused with clan divisions; they do not reflect fundamental cultural differences but rather reflect the varying environments in which different Karbi communities have historically lived.
Colonial period and the formation of Karbi Anglong
Under British administration the Karbi-inhabited territory was designated the Mikir Hills. In 1935 it was classified as a "Partially Excluded Area" under the Government of India Act, meaning it was not directly subject to ordinary provincial legislation. Following Indian independence, political leaders including Semsonsing Ingti, Khorsing Terang, and Seng Bey lobbied the Assam Governor for a dedicated hill district, and in 1946 a socio-political organisation called the Karbi-A-Dorbar was formed to advance this cause. On 17 November 1951 the United Mikir and North Cachar Hills District was established as the first autonomous district council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The territory was bifurcated in 1970, creating the Mikir Hills district, which was renamed Karbi Anglong on 14 October 1976 to reflect the community's preferred designation. In 2016, the Hamren subdivision was separated to create West Karbi Anglong district, bringing the total number of Karbi-administered districts to two.
Insurgency and the 2021 Peace Accord
From the late 1980s onward, Karbi Anglong was significantly affected by armed insurgency rooted in longstanding demands for a separate state. Several militant organisations were active across several decades, including the Karbi Longri NC Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), the People's Democratic Council of Karbi Longri (PDCK), the Karbi People's Liberation Tiger (KPLT), the Kuki Liberation Front (KLF), and the United People's Liberation Army (UPLA). These groups were associated with killings, abductions, and ethnic violence over many years.
On 4 September 2021, a tripartite peace accord, the Karbi Anglong Agreement, was signed in New Delhi between the Government of India, the Government of Assam, and the five insurgent organisations. Over a thousand armed cadres laid down their weapons and rejoined civilian life. The accord included a special development package of Rs 1,000 crore over five years from the central and state governments, provisions to increase the legislative and financial autonomy of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, the establishment of a Karbi Welfare Council for Karbis living outside the KAAC area, and a commitment to consider recognising Karbi as an official language of the KAAC. As of April 2025, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the district and noted the transformation from armed insurgency to economic participation among former cadres, with many reintegrated as agricultural and fishery entrepreneurs.
Language
thumb|right|Location of [[West Karbi Anglong district within Assam.]]
The Karbi language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family and is spoken by 528,503 people as the first language across India as of the 2011 census. Two main varieties are recognised: Hills Karbi, the standard form spoken in Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong, and Plains Karbi (also called Dumra Karbi or Amri Karbi), spoken in Kamrup, Morigaon, and Ri Bhoi districts. The language has a tonal system and follows a Subject-Object-Verb word order typical of Tibeto-Burman languages. It was historically an oral language with no native script and is now commonly written in the Roman script.
Assamese functions as the dominant lingua franca for Karbis communicating with other communities, and a number of Assamese loanwords have entered the Karbi vocabulary over generations. The word kaam, for instance, from Assamese, is now used in parts of Karbi Anglong in place of the native sai for "work." The language exists in a diglossic situation where Assamese holds higher prestige in education and formal administration, while Karbi remains the living medium of traditional songs, oral epics, and ritual practice. Local organisations and the KAAC have in recent years invested in Karbi language education and the publication of literature in the language to counter the gradual erosion of its everyday use.
A significant milestone in the recognition of the Karbi language occurred in April 2025, when the Government of Assam officially declared Karbi an administrative language in Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong districts, to be used alongside English for all official correspondence. The move fulfilled a key provision of the 2021 peace accord and was widely welcomed by community organisations and cultural leaders as a long-overdue recognition of linguistic rights.