Assam: The very idea of India is under threat- Part II

September 2, 2012, 6:06 pm IST in The Mainstream Maverick | India | TOI

War of independence in Assam

As a political-military force, the British entered Assam during the first Anglo-Burmese war—prior to that the Maomoria rebellion (see `Last Days of Ahom Monarchy’, written by SL Baruah, 1993, New Delhi, `A History of Assam’, written by Edward A Gait, 1906, Calcutta and `Medieval and Early Colonial Assam’, written by Amalendu Guha, 1991, Calcutta)—a fight between Ahom rulers and the Vaishnava sattras—in which the latter got the support of another Ahom court faction—severally weakened the Ahom polity. Taking advantage of the unsettled conditions, the Burmese invaded Assam committing numerous atrocities on the people.

Due to the mayhem caused by the Burmese, people and leaders of Assam, the Ahom Raja, and some North Eastern tribes, welcomed the British initially. But the real, imperial nature of the British became apparent soon after the treaty of Yandabo (1826) between the British and the Burmese.  For several years, British officials kept avoiding a settlement with Ahom rulers. After much delay and dithering, the British signed a treaty with Purandar Singha, the Ahom King, in 1833.

Maniram Dewan

Belonging to an old elite family of Kayastha administrators of north Indian (Kannauj) origin, Maniram Dewan (originally Maniram Barua), was a vital link between the British and the Ahom Kings. Working as part of the British bureaucracy in the 1820s, Maniram was also given the additional charge of borbhandar (Prime Minister), at Purandar Singha’s court in 1833.  

Maniram discovered the potential of tea plantation in Assam. He surprised Bessa Gam—a local Singpo chief—by turning up at his village one fine morning, in the 1820s—with Robert and Charles Alexander Bruce—of the legendary Bruce Brothers fame—credited with identifying tea in Assam—in tow. But BEIC Calcutta officials refused to acknowledge the genuineness of Maniram’s discovery. However, after 1833, when the BEIC lost its tea trade monopoly with China, BEIC officials were forced to eat their own words.   

On 1st February, 1834, Governor General William Bentinck established the Tea Committee.  Maniram met Dr. Wallich, the same man who had rejected his samples earlier, as a representative of Purandar Singha.  

Besides monopolising tea plantations and trade, the British had other evil designs in mind. A 26th February, 2009 Assam Tribune article, written by Dr. HK Goswami, observes that soon after Maniram’s meeting with Dr Wallich, “Jenkins, the North-East Agent of the Governor General, visited Purandar Singha’s territory on a fact-finding mission…one man who strongly defended the Raja was Maniram Dewan, Chief Counsellor of the Raja.  Purandar Singha was deposed in 1838 on the plea of bad governance and default in payment of the tribute and the British annexed his territories.”

All through the 1840s and 50s, the BEIC administration annexed several states in India on the trumped up charge of bad governance. But, despite Jenkins’ adverse comments, Maniram outflanked the Governor General’s Agent, becoming in 1839, the Dewan of the Assam Tea Company at Nazira, drawing a salary of 200 rupees per month.

But Maniram felt suffocated working under the British. A surprisingly well researched Wikipedia entry on Maniram Dewan notes that “in the mid-1840s, Maniram quit his job due to differences of opinion with company officers…he established his own tea garden at Chenimora in Jorhat, thus becoming the first Indian to grow tea commercially in Assam…Maniram established another tea plant in Sibsagar. Apart from the tea industry, Maniram also ventured into iron smelting, gold procuring and salt production. He was also involved in the manufacturing of goods like matchlocks, hoes and cutlery. His other business activities included handloom, boat making, brick making, bell-metal, dyeing, ivory work, ceramic, coal supply, elephant trade, construction of buildings for military headquarters and agricultural products. Some of the markets established by him include the Garohat in Kamrup, Nagahat near Sibasagar, Borhat in Dibrugarh, Sissihat in Dhemaji and Darangia Haat in Darrang”.   

Here we have—in the person of Maniram—much before Tatas and Birlas appeared on India’s business stage—the first example of a modern, Indian entrepreneur. Imagine an Indian in the 1840s and 50s, establishing not only tea plantations but extending activities to a whole range of goods and products, staggering by even today’s standards. In fact, Tatas began as British middlemen in the China opium trade in the 1850s and 60s. Birlas also started their businesses as middlemen in about the same period. 

But rather than becoming a comprador (intermediary) bourgeoisie subservient to Imperialism, Maniram chose Independence and the path of a nationalist bourgeoisie. Like Americans today—the British—then the foremost Imperialist world power—tolerated even encouraged, compradors. But they regarded Independent, nationalist entrepreneurs as an anathema. The Wikipedia entry further notes that, “Maniram faced numerous administrative obstacles in establishing private tea plantations, due to opposition from competing European tea planters. In 1851, an officer seized all the facilities provided to him due to a tea garden dispute. Maniram, whose family consisted of 185 people, had to face economic hardship.”

Another Assam Tribune article notes that “As a matter of fact, Maniram wanted to build up a self-dependent economy. Incidentally, former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in his Republic Day speech of 2005 stressed on making entrepreneurial course ‘compulsory’…it may be surmised that what Assam thought 143 years ago … the credit for this goes to the father of modern Assamese nationality—Maniram Dewan”.

Soon, Maniram’s “property was auctioned at a very nominal price to George Williamson”.

Misery of Assam and the North-East

Maniram’s disenchantment with the British occurred against the backdrop of widespread discontent in Assam and the northeast. After 1826, the BEIC had gone on to acquire territory after territory including Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur. Despite treaties and agreements with various tribes, the essential British policies of rack ranting the tribes and peasantry produced revolts.

The Singhpos and the Nagas were the first to rebel, the Anglo-Naga war extending from 1835 to 1852 AD.

Under British rule, peasants of Assam in particular had to pay three times the land revenue they delivered under the Ahoms. Minor delays in payments—overlooked in the Ahom-paik system of decentralized revenue—which favoured local factors and leniency—saw properties both of small peasants and distinguished upper/eastern Assamese service-military gentry—being attached. Erstwhile lords and labourers alike were reduced to penury. Plus, the British began importing Santhals from Bengal to work as indentured labour in the tea gardens, being set up by the British in both upper (eastern) and lower (western) Assam.  By the 1850s, economic hardship became so severe, that apart from Ahoms, several erstwhile Koch and Bodo men of influence were working as labourers in tea gardens.

British Impact on Local Culture

But the worst part of British rule was the interference in local culture. It was the British who began identity politics in Assam. Large sections of specific tribes—the Kukis and some Naga sub tribes to begin with—were converted to  Christianity. British administrators also began insisting on `pure bloodlines’; chieftains with mixed religious or tribal heritage were shunned.

Simultaneously, the impact of the Bengal renaissance and the Brahmo Samaj movement was felt in Assam.  Even though Assam lacked a Bengal style, pro-British, colonial middle class, Anandram Dhekial Phukan  began his pioneering work to revive Assamese literature and initiate social reforms.

However, Maniram refused to go over to the reformist-collaborationist, pro-British, Bengal-renaissance side, which distorted and confused reformist-modernist figures like Debendra Nath Tagore, the father of Rabnindra Nath Tagore. Instead, Maniram Dewan, the indigenous modernist, took the revolutionary path.

In a famous petition/manifesto presented before Moffat Mills, the British Sudder Judge, in 1853, Maniram clearly stated Assam’s main problem: the loss of political-social and economic power by indigenous forces of all classes under British rule. He denounced the setting up of unfamiliar, phirang Courts with alien laws, the emergence of the dalaal, the high British revenue, the desecration of royal tombs and temples (like Kamakhya), the loss of occupation, the introduction of opium, and the system of collecting rents through mouzdars (rent collectors—mostly Bengalis and Marwaris from outside Assam). In an almost stunning bid to achieve a pan-Assam-North East unity, Maniram further wrote that the “objectionable treatment” of Hill Tribes (such as the Nagas) was resulting in constant warfare leading to mutual loss of life and money.         

Freedom Movement in Assam

In 1857, Maniram Dewan formed an underground network of revolutionaries. His main hope lay in the Jorhat-Sibsagar based 1st Assam Light Infantry (ALI) and the Gauwahati based 2nd ALI. The Assam regiments were a mixed cauldron with Poorabias from western Bihar (Arrah)  rubbing shoulders with mainstream Assamese Muslim warriors, Nepalis, Manipuris, Jarrowas and Doaneas (the last two born out of mixed Assamese-Singhpo union).    

Especially after the revolt of Bengal Army Regiments at Danapur (near Patna), Bihar on 25th July 1857,  Poorabia elements of the Assam Infantry began talking about British overthrow and the installation of Bahadur Shah Zafar as India’s Emperor.

Dewan’s circle’s inimitability rested in its diverse nature: it included Mayaram and Krishna Chandra Mazumdar—two Golaghat based Assamese of Bengali origin—Madhu Malik—a Dibrugarh Bengali—Ganesh Chaudhary, Umakant and Khageshwar—of mixed Bengali-Assamese heritage—Piyali Barua, Ditiram Barua and Marangikhowa Gohain—three major Ahom figures—and Ramdas and Visnhudev Mahanta—two sattra Vaishnavite spiritual leaders. Thus 1857 bridged also, the fault-lines and political lacunae left by the Ahom-sattra struggle that was instrumental both, in the Burmese invasion and the military march of the British into Assam. 

The pan-Assam unity achieved by Maniram included Urbidhar Barua, Mayaram Barbora, Chitrasen Barbora, Kamala Charingia Barua, Mahidhar Sarma Muktear, Luki Senchowa Barua, and Deoram Dihingia Barua.

Bahadur Gaonburha and Sheikh Formud Ali—two leading Muslim personalities of Assam—helped Maniram—who was in Calcutta in May, 1857—establish direct linkages to Shiekh Bhikun and Noor Muhammad—two Muslim Subedars of Assamese origin—posted in the Nogore detachment—of the Sibsagar based 1st ALI unit.

Acting on Maniram’s advice—Kandarpeswar Singha—the grandson of Purandar Singha—the last Ahom King—met Sheikh Fomud Ali and Bahadur Gaonburha. Soon, Subedars Sheikh Bhikun and Noor Muhammad were corresponding with Kandarpeswar Singha (also called Charing Raja) secretly.

Promising to double the salaries of all ALI Sepoys, the Charing Raja gave his consent to lead the Assam revolution. In keeping with precedents set by Begum Hazrat Mahal—representing Nawabs of Awadh in the 1857 war—at Lucknow—and Peshwa Nana Sahib—at Kanpur—Kandarpeswar Singha agreed to rule Assam after expelling the British as a vassal of Bahadur Shah Zafar! Mughals were never able to capture upper Assam from Ahoms. But in a revolutionary, political moment of Indian history, Ahom and Mughal houses united in struggle against British rule!   

The Role of Bodos and Kochs in 1857

Maniram had also enrolled in the freedom movement personalities like Madhuram Koch—a Koch Rajbongshi figure who owned a tea plantation but was relegated by the British to the status of labourer; Rupahi and Lumbai Aideo—two Assamese women pensioners; and Usubar, Laochiklang and Maalu Sikhla—three Bodo warriors 

The inclusion of Bodo warriors in the anti-British, 1857 plot was a masterstroke. Imagine the Indian history in which Bodos fought for India’s freedom struggle under the leadership of Bahadur Shah Zafar, a Mughal King! Revealed in an obscure book written by a descendant of one of the Poorabia survivor of 1857 in Assam (San Sattavan ki Ankahee Kahani, written by Prem Dutt Pandey, 1957, Prayaga Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad), this aspect  presents a great challenge before Indian and Bodo historians. Even Bodos in general seem unaware of their heroes who fought against the British in 1857. This is just the beginning; more work—especially with regard to Bodo sources—needs to be done in this field.      

After losing completely, their Barak valley based kingdom to the British in 1832, Bodo-Kacharis had spread—by 1857—to nearly all parts of present-day Assam. Members of the Bodo-Kachari nobility migrated as far as Kashi (see Benaras ka Anootha Itihaas, written by Shiv Kumar Dwivedi, Hindi, 1962, Prayag Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad).

However, a large section of Bodos, settled in the Darrang area on the Bhutan border, were never part of the Barak valley kingdom. Darrang-Kokrajhar Bodos either survived as roving, Independent tribes—practicing jhum cultivation not bowing to any authority—or as nominal subjects of the western Assam, Koch kingdom.

Usubar, Laochiklang and Maalu Sikhla were all Darrang-Kokrajhar Bodos. They followed the martial traditions, codes of fierce Independence, and the religion—revolving around the worship of Bathou—of the roving tribes.

Folk songs—celebrating the struggle between Bodos and Bhutias of present-day Bhutan—survive to this day.  Famous Bodo warriors—men and women—of yore include Bachiram, Daoharam, Cheobar, Gambari Sikhla, and Birgahri Sikhla. The song recalling the heroism of Bachiram is legendary:

Goraya dabradw Bachiram Jwhwlao

 Gonggar chubaya phwilaygou

(Ride on horse Bachiram

Bhutiyas are coming in a body) 

Interestingly, in the `The Oral Poetry of the Bodos: Ethnic Voices and Discourses’, written by Anil Kumar Boro, Department of Folklore Research, Guwahati University, Assam, the author mentions the depiction of Lord Bathou as Lord Siva (or Sibrai).  The Anil Boro article goes on to mention Gibi Bithai, a traditional Bodo scripture that provides an astounding Bodo world view.

In this, Lord Siva is opposed to Lord Brahma, God of the white skinned people, and Lord Vishnu, God of the dark skinned people. It seems that Bodos carried their own interpretation of history that spoke of the coming of white skinned Aryans and dark skinned (Dravidians?) from the western parts of the Indian sub-continent to their lands. Of Tibeto-Burman stock, Bodos not only resembled the American Red Indians. Their religion, warrior folklore, and sense of peripatetic sovereignty, recalled the North American warrior tribes who put up a heroic fight against European settlers during the early history of the USA.

 (To be continued…)

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.
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