Forgotten Legacies

(Blogger's Note: this is a copy of the article of same name by Arup Kumar Dutta, published in The english daily published from Assam,The Assam Tribune, on saturday October 9,2010. I donot claim any kind of ownership of the article. This is only to make the article available to the people, who may not have access to the article eg.people living outside NE region )

The Birla House in New Delhi, where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, has been converted into an interactive Gandhi museum. Upon the walls of the covered corridors are inscribed in sequential order memorable events of India's fight for freedom against colonial rule. As to be expected in any North Indian historic account, South and East India have been given short shrift, with hardly any mention of important events that occurred in those regions, or about regional leadership. Also quite naturally, there is no mention whatsoever of events in the North East, as

though this region had not participated in the freedom movement at all!!

Yet the North-East had embarked on a long and glorious fight against British rule, not merely under the leadership of the Congress from the early twentieth century, but almost since the white colonists annexed and asserted their domination upon this region. The insurrection of the hill tribes, in the particular of the Khamptis, Singphos, Garos and Khasis, against British attempts to subjugate them is a long drawn saga of bravery. Similarly the uprisings of Ahom royalty and martyrdom of individuals like Dhanjoy Pealia Borgohain, Peali Barphukan and Manram Dewan are stirring episodes in the anti-imperialist fight.

But take a peek at any comprehensive history of the freedom movement written at an all India level, the contribution of this region to the liberation struggle is at worst totally ignored or, at best, reduced to a footnote. This is in line with the general ignorance and indifference that Indian historians have betrayed toward the north-East. While such ignorance is nothing new, what is more galling is the ignorance of the people of this region themselves, particularly the new generation.

Sometimes back a delegation from Darrang District, comprising office bearers of the Organising Committee for the National Level Seminar on the Pothorughat Uprising, had met me to discuss the possibility of bringing out a book in English on that tragic yet Glorious episode. I was struck by the enthusiasm of the individuals comprising the delegation as also their pride at a historic legacy and nationalistic feelings and readily agreed to write the book, which was formally released at Mangaldoi last month.

My experience while writing the book was, to say the least, revealing. Mammoth tomes published at the national level had at most single line mentions of what indubitably was the most inspiring example of sacrifice in the pre-Jallianwala Bagh era. But more disconcerting was the lack of knowledge about this episode among the so-called intelligentia of Assam, as well as the young people whom I queried about the incident. The latter aspect is even more dangerous for, if the collective memory of the new generation does not keep these alive, episodes such as Pothorugat peasant uprisings are in danger of being totally erased from the general consciousness.

For those who are strangers to the Pothorughat episode, let me recapitulate. In the second half of the ineteenth century, due to rapacious taxation imposed by the British, peasant masses of the Brahmaputra Valley were reduced to dire straits. There were uprisings in many places, the first of these being “Phulaguri Dhawa” in Nowgong District. This uprising was suppressed through unimaginable atrocities on the local populace by the white-skinned rulers and led to the execution or exile of eight of the “perpetrators”.

However, greater horror was to come. On January 28, 1894 at Pothorughat in the Darrang district, thousands of unarmed farmers rose up in revolt against the might of the british empire to voice their protest at the injustices carried out by the colonialists. In the ensuing police bayonet-charge and firing at point blank range, around 140 farmers were believed to have been killed and hundreds wounded. Till the Jalianwala Bagh incident there is no corresponding mass-massacre in the history of India’s freedom fight.

An objective look at the Pothorughat episode shows it has path-breaking elements which not only distinguishes it from other peasant movements in pre-independent Assam, but also in India.The most important of these is the fact that the movement of the peasants of Pothorughat at the initial stages was thoroughly non-violent. This is borne out of the report of J.D. Anderson, the then Deputy Commissioner of Darrang: “ I informed them( protesting farmers) of the orders passed by the Government of India as to the rates of revenue, and them directed them to disperse, going among them freely and talking to them of the inevitable consequences of a refusal to disperse. They remained firm, however, and without in any way assaulting or abusing me, simply refused to budge.”

This is the first instance in entire India of passive ad non-violent resistance to acts of oppression, which was the quintessence of the Satyagraha philosophy propagated much later by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. If we look at pan-Indian incidents of ressistance against the british throughout the 19^th century, we discover that all of them, without exception, had been armed uprisings. But the brave people of the Darrang District gathered that day at Pothorughat, had defied the authority of the British, using the weapon that Gandhiji would many decades later wield as an instrument to bring freedom to the nation. The British, of course, themselves used brutal violence to break up the gathering, killing and injuring hundreds of innocent people.

Thus Pothorughat enlightened the people of the power wielded by the masses even if unarmed, a power that would be effectively used by national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi in future struggles. It marked the growth in nationalistic consciousness amongst the masses and increased awareness that loss of freedom empowers usurpers to act in an arbitrary, anti-people manner. This ghastly episode was a nail in the coffin of the myth that a compliant middle class of those days had strived to create—benevolence of British rule. Not even the staunchest supporter of British rule could justify the barbarity of the slaughter at Pothorughat, and the incident went a long way to drive the wedge between the rulers and the middle class that was to be seen from the turn of the century.

Pothorughat also embodied the ideal of religious harmony and co-operation, when Hindus and Muslims fought and died side by side for a common cause. This was in conformity with the age-old tradition of Hindu-Muslim unity that had prevailed in the region. That members of both the religious communities had fought shoulder to shoulder and suffered together further strengthened fraternal bonds, which prevail to this day and offer a shining example to the entire nation.

Momentous legacies like Pothorughat must not be forgotten, particularly by the young generation of Assam. History not only invests identity to a race, it also acts as a rudder defining the route it will traverse in future. The rest of India may not acknowledge such legacies, but these need to be etched with acid in the collective consciousness of our people.