A few North Indians who come from Assam were talking among each other 'in log ka bhasha bhi bhot alag hota hai. hamlog me kela khane wala kela hota hai, in log me kela gali hota hai.' It was very brief conversation but a very important one that made me realize how Assamese as a language is quite different from other Indo-Aryan languages in some manners. Such as this word kela which actually comes from the Tai-Burmese word kəla. Let us dive in deeper to understand the nuances of this word

Meaning of 'kəla', or 'kla'

In Burmese, the word kəla is used for Indians and indian looking people as a racial designation. Even in Burmese Media you will see Rohingya people are not called as rohingya or muslim but as 'kalar bengali.' Although, based on how it is written the Myanmar Language Commission officially trace this word to Pali kula ကုလ meaning group or clan but based on how it is actually pronounced it most probably comes from word kala ကာဠ meaning dark or black.

Originally this word was used for all non-mongloid people in the west, for example the word for Europeans in Tai Phake language is literally kla phək or literally white kalar. Note that Burmese is weird with finals, we niether have r-final in Tai nor in Burmese, so its instead used to represent the /a:/ vowel (as simply writing kla will be read as kle by a Burmese speaking person)

Even the ancient word for India in Tai language is merng kalar or literally the country of kalars. Please note that the word kalar is still a racial designation here and not a slur, in same way as all Asiatic people are called as chino in mexican and all Europeans are called as falang in Thai and Lao although by definition these words should only mean Chinese and French people. So simiarly there can be very fair skinned Indian and still be called 'kala' because this word no longer means black such as its alleged indic root but to refer to all Indian people in general. Same was how Mizo term vai today refers all indo-aryans in general although historically it was only used for East Indian coolies who were called as bhai or bhaiiya

History of Kalars in Ahom Kingdom

If you notice the word kela is from Upper Assam region, you will not find anyone using this word in Lower Assamese/Dkheri. Which itself gives us idea that this word has something to do with Ahoms. And turns out it does. The Ahom Kings imported many people from Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh to work in the Ahom Kingdom. Although they were first hired only as scribes but soon took many jobs of Ahom nobles who derogatorily called them kla offended by their increasing presence and it is a possibility that this kla also became kalita later as the word kalita is nowhere found before Ahom or outside Assam (even in the Koch Behar region this word is very foreign which means it is Upper Assam origin word just like kela)

The hatred for Kalars was so much that when the Ahom Monarch installed a kla as Buragohain all Ahom nobles stopped fighting the Mir Jumla invasion and some even took side of the enemy. The dynamics are very similar to present day Assam where closeness to one 'immigrant' group by one faction leads to conspiracies and collaboration of other factions with other groups (only people with knowledge of Assam politics will understand what I mean here). Such alliances and collaboration shouldn't be implied as acceptance of so-called kalars but as mere tools for political leverage or revenge, the endless cycle and repercussions of which ended up completely destroying the Ahom Kingdom and Ahom Society itself (you reap what you sow ig)

Rubbishing the other Theories of Kela

A lot of people say that kela comes from the Hindi word kela meaning banana and yet they can't explain what Hindi language was doing in Ahom Kingdom and why only in Assam the hindi word kela became derogatory slur or phallus while in Bengal and rest of Mainland India it remained as banana only. Morever the word for banana is not even kela, it is kol in Assamese. And the slur kela is never used in such a context to say tumar kela katidim or tur kela tu.

Basic Linguistics is classifying a word as per its use and context. And the word kela is always used or person (Ooi kela) and never or their body parts. Even in added expletives this basic definition of kela as a gali or slur is never changed. There are a lot of other words which have completely lost their original meanings. Such as geda gedi which originally meant the Bengali refugees but today is used as a friendly slang word among friends or couples. The same goes for the word kela

Sources/References

So if some non-assamese ask you the meaning of Kela just send them this article :D