By: Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee
“Dexot koi kunubai Dangor Nohoi” (No one is more precious than my own country) said Ahom Army General Lachit Borphukan who is said to have beheaded his own maternal uncle for neglecting his duties in his battle preparation against the Mughals. In order to complete the job within one night, Borphukan assigned the task to his maternal uncle. The day before the battle, he erected a substantial boundary of sand and soil to block the roads. This was so the Mughals could be forced to march through the river Brahmaputra’s waterways. After this excellent naval combat capabilities and successful encounter against the Mughals Lachit became Assam’s national hero. Lachit Barphukan was recognized as a great military leader and an exemplary figure of Assamese society. He was granted a quasi mythic status for the last four silent centuries.
In recent years, Assam started celebrating Lachit Divas (which is also called Lachit Day) on 24th November in a grander way than before. There is a tremendous initiative on the part of the present Assam Government to celebrate the birthday of this legendary Lachit Borphukon. He is well-known across the country for displaying his military intelligence for leading the Ahom kingdom’s forces to victory against the invading Mughals in the Battle of Saraighat in 1671. There are tales of bravery in every state or community. In the history of Assam, the state also had a Brave Commander in Chief. But Lachit even on the 400th year birthday, still remains one of the many quasi-historical icons who were appropriated by Assamese elites towards different politico-cultural ends and his popularity till today remained below Joymoti Konwari and others. In postcolonial Assam, cultural heroes like Lachit were largely displaced by anti-colonial activists in Nehruvian nation-building; Jayeeta Sharma focused on the legend of Lachit to have “retired into the domain of knowledge, away from activism. There should be objective assessment of his role to silence the cynics who feel that Lachit helped the British by going against the Mughals. Another huge controversy in the contemporary Assamese society is related to the overmuch enthusiasm of the BJP government of Assam to celebrate Lachit Divas even beyond the state level though nothing as such is being done for Joymati whose position is higher in the mind of the Assamese people. But the pro-Hindu activists regard the Mughals as deadlier enemy than the British from their communal point of view. The Mughals are still looked in their political narrative as the invaders and founders of the Islamic dynasty in India. Those who fought over the Mughals are now being highlighted by them and both Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Modi are trying to rewrite history following a biased view about the Muslim rulers nay the whole Mughal dynasty. Whatever Akbar did with the Din-e-Ilahi and communal harmony BJP is never ready to spare the Mughals on any ground and that too was chiefly due to the hatred for Muslim .
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The Lachit Divas date was celebrated primarily in Assam to commemorate the heroism and bravery of Lachit Borphukan. In 1947, Surjya Kumar Bhuyan published Lachit’s biography against the backdrop of Ahom conflicts with the Mughal Empire; not only did the work grant a veneer of “academic respectability” to the legend but also “mythologized” his exploits in the Assamese psyche. But history is not mythology and there are elements of reality. Although the Mughal army was larger and more powerful than the Ahom army, Lachit saved Saraighat from the Mughal invasion of Guwahati by taking advantage of terrain, leadership skills, and guerrilla warfare. The Battle of Saraighat was fought in 1671 on the banks of the river Brahmaputra between the Ram Singh-led Mughal army and the Lachit Borphukan-led Ahom army. Chao Lachit was an army Borphukan (army general) of the Ahom army. Ram Singh, the eldest son of Mirza Raja Jai Singh, the ruler of Amber, was commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to invade the Kingdom of Ahom. This year the Lachit Divas has an extra significance as it marked the 400th Birth Anniversary of great warrior of Ahom Dynasty. The ‘Lachit Borphukan Gold Medal’ has been awarded to the highest cadets of the Defense Academy each year since 1999. This year Bir Lachit Borphukan Divas was held with grand programme with an exhibition on 600-year-old history of Ahom dynasty at Vigyan Bhawan on November 23. The Mahabir Lachit Award is presented to celebrities and honourable personalities by the Tai Ahom Yuva Parishad of Assam. This award is bestowed with a prize of 50,000 rupees and a sword. A book on Bir Lachit Borphukan was launched along with that a documentary based on the life of the great warrior was unveiled.
Lachit was born to Momai Tamuli, a commoner who rose to the ranks of Barbarua. A few Buranjis briefly describe the Lachit story of bravery. But the contemporaneous burgeoning of public interest in history meant that the legend of Barphukan had “attained an iconic status” by the first quarter of the century yet. However, the legend survived in the backwaters of Assamese sub-nationalism. In the 400th year of his birthday Lachit is being reinstituted as a real icon by removing the mythic aura from the earlier quasi historic saga of heroism.
Assam is need of an iconic hero for providing ideals to the youth of present times. Most of the young people are oblivious of Assamese heritage and culture. Most of them are engaged in selfish pursuit of materialistic aggrandizement. Heroes like Lachit can be source of inspiration for the new generations of Assamese. It is a great effort on the part of Assam Government to focus the heroism of Lachit on the national level as a fighter against the Mughals. Many are apprehensive of Hindi grammar in conceptualizing anti Mughal stance of Lachit. We need to be careful in reviving the Lachit saga with any such communal motif. Let Lachit be the true icon of ideal heroism for Assam nay India for his bravery and courage as well as a preserver of Assamese culture and heritage. He died of natural causes soon after Saraighat win and was buried at Teok in Jorhat in 1972. (The author is a Senior Academician and Trilingual writer; he can be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com)
