HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Sept 20: Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi said that Assam’s role in the freedom struggle of the country was an exposition of courage, valour and supreme sacrifice which started with Gomdhar Konwar who initiated Assam’s resistance against colonial rule in 1828, followed by a sequel of supreme sacrifices which culminated into the independence of the country in the year 1947.
Inaugurating a national seminar on ‘Participation of Poorvottar Bharat in the Bharatiya Swadhinata Sangram’ in IIT Guwahati, Governor Prof. Mukhi said, “Though the participation and contribution of Assam and other north-eastern states in the freedom struggle have been inadequately represented, now the people of the nation are getting the information and knowledge about Assam’s role in the independence movement in the right context.”
He thanked the organisers namely Special Centre for the Study of North East India, JNU, IIT-Guwahati and Centre for North East Studies for organising the seminar which according to him would enable the people across the country to get fair idea about Assam’s contribution to the freedom of the nation.
The Governor said that after Gomdhar Konwar showed the region the way to raise its voice against foreign rule, the peasants of the state took the centre stage to show their nationalistic feelings and their resistance against the British. The people in the hill states also put up a brave fight against colonial rule.
“The British expansion to the hills faced fierce resistance when the hill tribes namely the Khasis led by U Tirat Sing fought valiantly against the British from 1829 to 1833. Between the 1830s and 1860s, the hill tribes such as the Singphos, Khamtis, Nagas, Garos, etc., offered stiff challenges to the British expansionist policies,” the Governor said.
Talking about the resistance by mass people against the British, the Governor said that the peasants’ movement in Phulaguri and Patharughat would always remain as a glittering example of Assam’s fight against the British Raj.
Prof. Mukhi also said that when Mahatma Gandhi took the leadership of the freedom movement of the country, the people of Assam and other north-eastern states squarely took part in the Non-cooperation Movement, Civil Disobedience movement, Quit India Movement just to name a few to show how the people of Assam were intolerant towards foreign rule.
He, during his speech also remembered and paid tributes to Maniram Dewan, Piyali Phukan, Kanaklata Baruwa, Kushal Konwar, Bhogeshwari Phukonni, Naveen Chandra Bordoloi, Tarunram Phukan, Gopinath Bordoloi and host of others whose names he could not take for their unparalleled sacrifices for the cause of the motherland.
He said that in this backdrop, the initiative of the organisers for holding this national seminar on the role and contribution of the north-eastern states in the freedom movement of the country deserves special thanks. The two-day seminar he said would see the deliberations to unearth several facts to project Assam and other north-eastern states on the pan Indian landscape in the right context about NE’s role in India’s Independence Movement.
Vice Chancellor, NEHU, Shillong, Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla, head of Humanities and Social Sciences department IIT-G Dr. Sukanya Sharma, Professor Vinay Kumar Rao, organising secretary Dr. Gaurav Trivedi and others also spoke on the occasion.
