Assam: A burning question

215 Pages·1985·54.487 MB·English

by  Hiren Gohain

ASSAM: A BURNING QUESTION
ASSAM:
A Burning Question
HIRENDRA NATH GO]
1985
SPECTRUM PUBLICATIONS
GUWAHATT, INDIA
First Published 1985
© Author
Sole Distributors :
UNITED PUBLISHERS
Pan Bazar, Main Road, Guwahati-781 001, Assam
38-UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-110 007
Published by:
M/s. Spectrum Publications
Pan Bazar, Guwahati, Assam
Printed by :
Gee Ess Printers
7/218, Padam Nagar, Delhi-110 007
Printed at
J.N. Printers
251, Padam Nagar,
Delhi-110 000.
To
PARITOSH SANYAL
sensitive poet just man and
a good friend

CONTENTS
A Polemical Introduction ... ¡x
INTELLECTUAL PREDICAMENTS
1. Regimentation of the Intellect ... 3
2. The Secular Muddle ... 7
3. No Bigger Than a Hand : RSS Prospects ... 14
4. Discussion : Once More on the Assam Movement ... 23
5. Against a Prejudiced View of the Assam
Movement ... 30
6. Problems of Unity in Assam on the Eve of
Independence ... 43
THE MIRROR OF CULTURE
7. Origins of the Assamese Middle Class ... 69
8. Literary Movements in Assam ... 93
9. Social Realism in Modern Assamese Fiction ...105
10. The Baboo and the Brown Sahib : Enemies or
Partners? ...118
11. Twilight in Manipur ...127
viii ASSAM : A BURNING QUESTION
TERROR AND PITY
12. Assam : A Clash By Night ...139
13. Melting Pot or Witches’ Cauldron? ...144
14. A Plea for Depth : Viewpoints on Assam ...156
15. Reflections on an Holocaust ...163
16. Roots of Assamese Chauvinism ...173
17. Epilogue ...180
A POLEMICAL INTRODUCTION
i
As a native to the region where the stirring, bewildering
-and tragic events mentioned here took place not so long ago
I might claim some natural advantage over an outsider in
understanding them. The current craze for ‘investigative
journalism’—which doubtless has performed a useful service—
tends to obscure the fact that the meaning of ‘facts’ and
‘documents’ often lies far beneath and beyond the surface. The
historical roots and dimensions of serious social problems
are apt to be overlooked by observers from outside. Certain
reporters have even been content with policies handouts. The
background to the recent events in Assam is better known to
the Assamese, and therefore these make sense to him in a way'
that is inaccessible to the observer innocent of the manifold
arid complex network of economic, social and cultural events
behind them.
But this advantage is really a pretty small advantage. The
student of public affairs in Assam is hardly in possession of all
the immanent trends and relevant connections as the mind of
the average educated man in Assam is not washed by a continu­
ous and rich stream of historical research about his past and his
society. In fact the present author who started his career as a
literary critic felt compelled to cross the boundaries of his area
-and venture into obscure and dark corners of Assamese history
X ASSAM : A BURNING QUESTION
and society when familiar objects no longer seemed familiar
under a searching scrutiny. Despite the notable contributions
of dedicated scholars not all the major forces that have gone
into the making of the ‘anti-foreigner movement’ of Assam have
been properly understood or even identified. It is hoped that
the present collection of essays will induce some awareness of
the problems.
A further difficulty presents itself in the urgent need to
transcend the limitations of the native tradition in the very*
moment of coming to grips with it. Apart from the hostility
that such an attempt may generate among a section of natives
whose sense of piety at times borders of blindness, there is.
indeed a danger that this search for an objective vantage
may blur the edges of what is uniquely and genuinely regional
and tempt one into deceptive and misleading generalities.
The contemporary ruling-class in India is in its own interest
given to ignoring or suppressing the real basis of national
unity—the free association and co-operation of various races
and peoples of India, bound together by various cultural links,
forged in the past the common struggle against imperialism,
and the ordeal of the present enterprise of development, as
equal partners. In stead it is fostering a synthetic cult of
national integration which inevitably gets lost in bureaucratic
verbiage. The strength of the regional components of Indian
culture deserves more than a formal recognition. For most
Indians, except for a handful of affluent, priviledged and
parasitical people confined to the cities and immersed in
Western kitsch, the regional identity is fundamental. But this,
truism must at once be qualified with the statement that such
regional identities have been nourished throughout the cen­
turies by iptimate cultural exchanges with neighbouring and
distant forms of regional cultural in the country. Fanatical'
regional chauvinists and revivalists often ignore this vital
aspect of their own culture.
The Assamese themselves have frequently struck foreigni
observers as a people with markedly insular and renophobic:
A POLEMICAL INTRODUCTION XÍ
traits. Yet during ‘medieval’ times they freely adopted outside
modes of dress, musical instruments, and religious festivals,
and even assimilated the art of Moghul painting to create
vigorous native schools of painting. (Dr. Naren Kalita has
made interesting research into the development of the
Assamese schools). They also wrote coherent and detailed
accounts of the Moghul Badshahate out of hearsay and reports
of agents and ambassadors—a kind of curiosity that does not
appear to have been shared by other regional societies of
medieval India. The tradition of cultural exchange and
assimilation goes back centuries into the past, and it is only
when the people of Assam lost their political independence and
confidence to foreigners and began to be under some kind of
pressure from outsiders that this process of cultural assimilation
began to be resisted.
II
The other danger, that of the imposition of a synthetic and
colourless homogeneity replacing a spectrum of colours, is the,
more insidious because of the degree of self-deception educated
Indians are prone to on this point. For example, a Calcutta
newspaper rightly and naturally looks after the national inter­
ests of the Bengali people and also takes an interest in the
affairs of the country from the point of view of a constituent
state of the Indian union. But to pretend that one is ‘above*
such supposedly parochial attitudes simply because one happens
to write in English and addresses audiences outside Bengali
or has connection with all-India interest is at best a sad degree
of naivete and at worst a shameful hypocrisy. The most
refreshingly genuine human being in Delhi is the Punjabi with,
instinctive attachment-^ $h$ fhmjájii -way of life and culture,
who ha? acquired through education a certain degree of
disinterestedness and freedom from prejudice. But when he
suppresses that part of his personality as too narrow and
harángues one on what he supposes to be good for the whole
country, as befits a true patriot from the country’s capital, he
only manages to antagonise.