The Root of Secret Societies in Brahmaputra Valley

 

[11] UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN ASSAM FROM 1921 TO 1947: The Root of Secret Societies in Brahmaputra Valley

Introduction: The Swadeshi Movement was started in 1905 as an agitation against the partition of Bengal and it spread to other parts of the country including Assam. Like the Swadeshi Movement, the Underground Resistance Movement also started as the Swadeshi movement in Bengal and spread from Bengal to Assam along with other regions. The period from 1905 (Partition of Bengal) was known as the era of extremism in the Indian National Movement. The extremists or the aggressive nationalists believed that success could be achieved through terrorizations. Therefore the history of terrorism movement shows the very close connection between extremists of Bengal and extremist of Bengali parts of Assam(1). It’s found that there were already disturbing signs that pressure in Bengal had caused terrorists to turn their eyes to Assam primarily as a shelter from Bengal police and secondly as a suitable terrain in which to stage dacoities and other outrages to replenish their finances.(2) During the anti-partition movement in Bengal (1905-1911)  not less than five revolutionaries sprung up; of these Anushilan Samiti of Dacca and Suhrid Samiti of Maymansing extended their activities by establishing their branches in Assam(3).  Local newspapers published accounts in support of the Bengal Secret Committee and also about Bipin Chandra Pal, Surendra Nath Banerjee, and other secretly traveling agitators had gained a firm grasp on the mind of the Bengali youths. Samities were started all over the newly created province (Eastern Bengal and Assam) in 1907, with the exception of Sibsagar, Goalpara, and Garo Hills every district had its volunteer organization(4). The most significant among the youth organizations of both valleys was the Tarun Sangha. The other organisations of the valley were the Yubak Sangha, Sabuj Sangha, Chatra Sammilan, Bharati Balak Samiti, and branches of the Anushilan Smiti and Yugantar. Many of them had revolutionary affiliations and sympathies.

The Root of Secret Societies in Brahmaputra Valley-

Before 1905 There were no secret societies in Assam. According to a Government report “ In 1902 the organizers trained the youths as volunteers to assist in the general Movement(5). In Assam the first use mode of underground revolutionary society was formed, “ in connection with the boycott of foreign goods, preaching the Swadeshi cult and usurping of the duties of the police in maintaining law and order at fairs and festivals”(6). The Swadeshi and Boycott movement of Bengal and Sylhet did send its ripples to the Brahmaputra Valley. On 12 November 1905, a big meeting was held at Bogribari under the patronage of the local Zamindar , S. N. Singha Choudhury , the proprietor of Bengal Soap Factory to protest against the partition. The extremist challenge in the form of terrorism too found a few adherents in Lower Assam ”(7). 

In Assam, the volunteers as a regularly organized body first came into prominent notice in a disturbance at Sirajganj (Pabna District) on 15^th November 1905. A Society called “ Swadeshi Sevak Samiti” had been started and a volunteer corps was formed by the society consisting of students. The main weapon of offense was the lathi and volunteers received regular instruction in Lathi-Drill.“Many of the volunteers were students, schoolboys, and full-grown men of 23 or 24 who went from district to district with professional agitators during their tour. In the matter of acquiring arms, the volunteers did not make much pragmatic profession. They received a certain number of pistols and revolvers imported by post into Chandernagar.  This avenue had been closed to them by the French authorities. A Samiti at Faridpur had supplied them with arms of about 30 to 50. Their rules were modeled particularly on the rules of the Jesuits, and following the examples of Gokhle’s Society in Poona's “The Servant of India”.  In Chacher the number of volunteers was twenty (8).

During the anti-partition movement,  “terrorist organisations like the Anusilan Samiti of Bengal tried to organise the young men in Assam also for terrorist activities. Assam was at that time a newly created province. As such some Bengali officers were transferred to the towns of Assam. Some of their wards who came along with them were already a member of these organisations. (9) Under their efforts and the auspices (patronage) of P. Dhobi (Mymensing) Aswani Kr. Dutta (Barishal) & Ananda Roy (Dacca) branches of Samities were started in Assam(10). As police investigation increased in Bengal they found their way to Assam and tried to secure a hold there.  It was after such contact the voluntary organization Seva Sangh – under Ambika Giri Raichoudhury is said to have developed into a terrorist organization on the line of the Anusilan Samiti for which even personal contacts were made with some revolutionaries of Bengal(11)

Therefore in the field of the underground resistance movement in Brahmaputra Valley,  Ambika Giri Raichoudhury was the pioneer.  In 1904, Ambika Giri Raichoudhury, Pitamber Chakravarty, Balek Lahkar, Triguna Barua, Nidhiram Das, Bishnuram Medhi, Kumud Bora, Binanda Barua, Roktim Bora, Pushpa Uzir, Ganesh Brahma, Keshab Sen, Anukul Dasgupta, Dhiren Sen, and Dhireswar Battacharya have formed a voluntary organization  Seva Sangha to help the poor. In every Sunday they went to the steamer and railway station to carry the load for the passengers. What they earned from that work they deposited it to their cashier.  In the Seva Sangha Nidhiram Das was Captain-Secretary and Anand Lahiri, manager of Assam Trading Company was the Cashier, and Ambika Giri Raichoudhury the sole organizer of the Sangha(12).   When the Sangha developed into a secret society, “the member of the Sangha were used to have a regular drill and physical exercise including training in wrestling, jujutsu, lathi, sward, and dagger play besides swimming and riding.(13)In Bengal “ J.N. Banarji, an accused in the Alipur Case (little detail of Alipur conspiracy case) started the first school for the physical development of Bengal youths in Calcutta in the year 1902. Participant youths were thought riding & bicycling and Politics were discussed(14).  Later physical training became compulsory in all secret societies.  “The members of Seva Sangha were said to have collected arms and ammunitions to overawe the police and high officials of the Government including Bamfyld Fuller the lieutenant Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam”.(15)Their first step against the British Raj was the destruction of the British recreational club at  Digahali Pukhuri  (Guwahati) which was known as “Ananda Bungalow”. The main reason which led them to the heart against the Bungalow was that when the native people passed through the southern path attached to the boundary of the Club during recreational hours, they suffered various humiliations.  So they burnt the Bungalow on a pitch-black night in the month of  “Magh” (January ) just a few days after the Magh Bihu. After the destruction of the Bungalow, the members of the Sangha considered as a major step against the British Raj. The local police had no clue about the arson(16). But in suspicion’ AmbikaGiri was under police vigilance at Barpeta during the year 1907 –15(17).’  But the activities of the Seva Sangha carried out their network secretly by deceiving the police. (GUHA,172-page).

After the formation of the anarchist party, the members of the Seva Sangha learned all the requisite destructive techniques from Barindra Ghose, Ullaskar Dutta, and Khudiram Basu(18).”  Under the supervision of Ambika Giri Raichoudhury, they even accepted Arabinda Ghose (few lines of introduction) as their political pathfinder and became very active in underground activities(19).  The second important event of Seva Sangha was when Ambika Giri Raichoudhury and his comrade Surendra Dasgupta tried to kill Bamfyld Fuller, the Lieutenant Governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam in 1906. At that time Ambika Giri Raichoudhury was known as “Dighai Kalita. They planted dynamite on the road to Shillong about six kilometers away from Guwahati but the bomb was a blasted just after the passing of Fuller’s car on the spot.   After the incident, Dasgupta was caught and Raichoudhury managed to escape.  Though Dasgupta disclosed the names of the anarchist party before the police, but the police couldn’t trace out Ambika Giri Raichoudhury alias Dighai Kalita. A poor labour Dighai Kalita was arrested but later released.

 After the Seva Sangha the existence of Secret Society was founded in Goalpara where  Secret Society like Anushilan and Yugantar type was formed on the 5^th of May 1907, “15 boys of Dhubri High School, one of whom a Mohamedan and the rest Hindus are being tough “LathiKhel” for two hours from 4 to 5 p.m. in the premises of Dinanath Sarkar, a contractor. The teacher was Romoni Mohan Sen(20).

In Tezpur student and an Anushilan Samiti member, Shri Birendra Nath Mukherji son of late Sasanka Mohan Mukherji, Assistant Surgeon at Tezpur came after appearing at the Entrance Examination in 1909. He along with another boy who came from Rongpur organised a club for training Youngmen in the youth of lathi and sward. The training used to be given in a secluded spot outside the town(21).

 Like the branch of the AnusilanSamity formed at Tezpur, the Prabhat Samiti at Dibrugarh and Byayam Sangha in Kamrup district were seen engaging in training the underground workers in Bomb making and various forms of sabotage activities. At Dibrugarh, on 1^st June 1907, to attack  the British sentiment, British cemetery was desecrated and tombstones were broken and carried away(22).” Such kind of anti-British activities was carried on in all districts, where secret societies were present. Initially, these secret societies were formed like a youth club and ashramas like Arunachal Ashrama, Jagatshi Ashrama of Surma Valley. The most important ashramas of Brahmaputra valley was “ Shanti Ashrama of Sibsagar. It was not considered by the police as an important organization. Therefore the activities of its members were not watched by the police (23)”.

References:

1)        Home Poll, File No. 45/V/34-poll, K.W. 1935, NAI. 

2)        Home Poll, File No. 45/V/34-poll, K.W. 1935, NAI. 

3)        The comprehensive History of Assam, Vol.V, H.K.Barpujari,Guwahati 2004

4)       Home Poll, Deposit. 1909, 6^th November 1908

5)       Home Pol. Deposit, 1909, 6^th November 1908, From E.C. Ryland, Off.of D.I.G. Crime Rlys. & Rivers, E.B. & Assam, 6^th. November. 1908.  

6)      Home Pol. Deposit, 1909, 6^th November 1908, From E.C. Ryland, Off.of D.I.G. Crime Rlys. & Rivers, E.B. & Assam, 6^th. November. 1908.

7)       Amalendu Guha, Planter Raj to Swaraj, Page -79  

8)       Eastern Bengal and Assam Abstract of Intelligence (pp69) 15-12-06 to 15-0-07 , Home Pol. Deposit 1909.

9)     Year 1947., P.H.A.  File No. 142., Background of the History of Freedom Movement in Assam., Omeo Kumar Das, Education Minister dtd. 18/10/55.  

10)  Home Pol. Deposit, 1909, 6^th November 1908, From E.C. Ryland, Off.of D.I.G. Crime Rlys. & Rivers, E.B. & Assam, 6^th. November. 1908 ,

11)   Political History of Assam, Barpujari, H. K., Vol. I, Page 195

12)   Mor Jeevan Dhumuhar Esati, Ambika Giri Raichoudhury.Estate

13)  Political History of Assam, Barpujari, H,. K., page 195

14)  Home Pol. Deposit, 1909, 6^th November 1908, From E.C. Ryland, Off. of D.I.G. Crime Rlys. & Rivers, E.B. & Assam, 6^th. November. 1908

15)   Political History of Assam, Barpujari, H,. K., page 195

16)  Mor Jeevan Dhumuhar Esati, Ambika Giri Raichoudhury.

17)  Planters Raj to Swaraj , Guha, Poge -  80.

18)  Asom and Ambika Giri Raichoudhury, Asomiya Alusana Chakra, Assamese Department, Cotton College, April 1989, Guwahati, Name of Article) Ambika Giri Raichoudhurir JivanPanji, Md. Abubakkar Siddique”  page – 80).

19) Sananda Chaliha, “Raichoudhuriaru Teur Madhur Udmadana” Ambika Giriraichoudhury, Asom Prakashan Parishad, 1985, page 250-151) 

20)   Goalpara- 18/5/07 page- 53 (State Archive Assam)

21)  Year 1947., P.H.A.  File No. 142., Background of the History of Freedom Movement in Assam.,  Omeo Kumar Das, Education Minister dtd. 18/10/55)In May 1910 revolutionary party became wider in Sylhet. (Home political – A / No. 140-141 / May 1910

22)   Eastern Bengal and Assam Political Abstract of Intelligence (pp69) 15-12 06 to 15-0-07) Sylhet, Darrang, Lakhimpur, Eastern Bengal and Assam, Sibsagar, Kamrup and Cachar. 

23)  Government and politics in the North the East India, V.V. Rao. Page -20, 

Non-Cooperation Movement and Non-Plantation Labour Strike in Assam

 

[10] UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN ASSAM FROM 1921 TO 1947: Non-Cooperation Movement and Non-Plantation Labour Strike in Assam.

 Besides the tea garden workers of Assam in another field also a number of strikes took place. The Railway workers in the state struck work during 1920-21. But even before that, in 1918 an instance of a strike by the Assam Government Press Employees struck work.  The strike continued for 29 days and all the printing works of the Government came to a halt and all official publications had to be suspended. Important Government notifications like postings, transfers, and appointments of officials had to be communicated by wire as the State Gazatte could not be published¹.

The next strike was that of the workers of the Dibru-Sadia Railways. About 500 employees of the Dibru-Sadia Railway workshop at Dibrugarh struck work on the 21^st April 1922.²

The workers of the said railway struck work demanding a fifty percent increase of pay and also for entitlement of some allowances which the supervisors and the middle management cadre employees were.‘The strike continued until the 12^th May 1922’.³ The authorities were compelled to come to terms. The worker’s salary was increased by thirty to thirty-five percent; in the case of those receiving wages below rupees one hundred⁴. The workers of Assam- Bengal Railways and the Steamer Workers of East Bengal resorted to an indefinite strike to protest against the oppression of the British Government towards the plantation labourers of Chandpur in Assam in 1921. The railway workers had their grievances too. They unionized on 5^th May 1921, under the banner of “ The Assam Bengal Railway Workers’ Union” under the presidentship of Jatindra Mohan Sengupta. They tried to ventilate their grievances through this union to the authorities against inadequate pay, discrimination in leave rules, non-sanctioning for free passes, wrongful dismissal, and non-allotment of quarters to the Indian employees etc⁵. Hartal was observed in protest of  Gurkha outrage at Chandpur and in a number of places in East Bengal and Silchar and Sunamganj⁶. In Sylhet district, there was a strike at the Bhanga Saw Mills owing to the manager’s refusal to take back a dismissed man⁷.

Dibru-Sadia Railway Strike (1928) : The working of  Dibru-Sadia Railways’ who went on strike in 1920 and succeeded in getting their pay increased by thirty to thirty-five percent, again went on strike in 1928 demanding a wage increase About four hundred and thirty (430)  workers had been involved in the strike and the company had to concede to the worker's demands. The management ultimately declared a fifteen to twenty-five percent increase in the wages on different categories of labour and only then on the sixteenth day since its beginning, the workers called off the strikes⁸.

Assam Match Factory Workers’ Strike: The workers of the Assam Match Company- Dhubri went on strike in 1928. The Swedish-owned company had a working force of nearly five hundred heads⁹. The Company was making huge profits since its beginning but the workers were ill-paid. Not only that, as time rolled on wage reduction became a regular feature of the company's administration¹⁰. The worker of the factory had the support of local citizens. The Conference of the Goalpara Youth Association which was being held at Dhubri under the presidentship of Nripendra Chandra Banerjee at the same time, expressed its sympathy to the workers at the factory.¹¹  The case of match factory workers was also taken up by the local Congressmen and also the revolutionaries of Goalpara under the banner of social workers. The management of the factory was firmed in their stand and they did not yield to the workers’ pressure. The strike ultimately did not succeed. Fifteen men were discharged. Other workers were joined from 9 November evening¹². That fifteen discharged men were hired houses in the Dhubri Bazar and they shows their protest by hoisting a Swaraj flag and placards inscribed “Be men again” – “ Independence for India”. They were financially assisted by the daughter of Goalpara Zamindar¹³.

All the 350 workers of the match factory of Dhubry were again on a 57 days strike, in protest against retrenchment in 1935-36. The strike was led by Bipin Chandra Chakravarty of Bengal. The workers won this time almost all their demands¹⁴.

Again for the third time, Dhubri Match factory workers struck work on 14 December 1936. The strike was lasted for more than one year.  But the Swedish authority did not compromised with the worker's demands and the strike totally failed. A Board of Conciliation set up by the Government failed to achieve settlement¹⁵. Sayed Saadulla adopted one novel method of compromise to deal with the strike Committee was to make twenty of their activist special constables for maintaining peace.  Defected workers at the end of the year, December 1937,  drifted back to work¹⁶.  

Jorhat Police Strike: The Constable of Assam Police went on a strike at Jorhat in 1929. The strike attracted the serious attention of the British Government as never before had such a strike taken place in the police department in the province. The trouble started when some policemen numbering about twenty-two, physically assaulted some people in the Kengapatti area of Jorhat in the evening of 16^th August, 1929.¹⁷  A general strike was observed in Jorhat on 19^th August, protesting against the police action and demanding punishment for the constables involved in the incident. The Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police visited the place for on-the-spot enquiry.  Four constables were arrested and sent up for trial. This action led to discontent among the armed constables. They called a meeting on 22^nd August, where they decided for a strike against their authority.¹⁸   The Deputy Commissioner immediately called on the Assam Valley Light Horse for aid which took possession of the police line in the following morning ¹⁹. Ninety constables were dismissed from the service and other offenders were given departmental punishment.  The strike were dismissed and arrested.²⁰   Thus the first strike of armed police personnel in Assam came to an end.

 The period 1936 - 39 opened in an atmosphere of labour unrest in Assam. The Congress Socialist Party had been active in probing for grievances both among industrial labour in the oil fields collieries and tea gardens and among tenants of certain Zamindars. The idea of a no-rent campaign was abroad in connection with the local Board Elections, which returned a substantial number of Congressmen.²¹  The period also saw a way of strikes in the plantation, oil, match and other small industries as well as among the other wage-earning population of the state. These movements were clearly anti-imperialist orientation.²²   At the same Dibrugarh came into the limelight when a strike of the steamer ghat workers there was successfully led by Kedernath Goswami, Congressman at that time.²³  The labourers working in a Cotton Godown of a Marwari merchant at Dhubri, who had struck work demanding an increased rate of wages, resumed only when the merchant acceded to their demands.²⁴  

Strike and Lockout at Digboi.

The most  serious strike was organized by the 10,000 oil workers of Digboi in 1838-39.  They were mobilized byChowdhuryChowkha Singh of Jamsedpur, who came to Tinsukia( then in the Lakhimpur district) for the purpose of starting Labour Unions and foment strikes among the employees of the Assam Oil Company at Tinsukia and Digboi. A meeting was held on 25^th September 1929 at Tinsukia for the purpose.²⁵  The workers were also impressed by the speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru, delivered during the visit to labour areas of Upper Assam, including Digboi and Doom-Dooma in 1937, talk of capitalist exploitation with reference to the Assam Oil Company and the British Plantation Companies. Subhas Chandra Bush who was at that time with the strikers of  JamsedpurTinplat Company, Came to know the miserable condition of the labourers of Digboi Oil Company and sent Saw Karim and Swami Jitanada to Digboi to organize the Oil Company workers. The oil Company workers were agitated over the questions of law wages, the retrenchment and the non-recognition of Bunglow servants as company employees. On February 22, 1938, the workers held a general meeting and formed the AOC Labour Union, which was registered subsequently on August 7, 1938, under the Trade Union Act, of 1928. The workers under the leadership of Sudhindra Pramanik, a trade unionist from Bengal, formed a strike committee and submitted to the company a 14 days strike day along with a twelve-point charter of demands(Guha, pp 237-246). The heroic struggle that they launched against the company and the Government to get their demands fulfilled brought not only retrenchment or loss of jobs to many but even loss of lives of four workers Praneswar Choudhury, Saiten Chakraberty,  Chandi Ahir and Birbam Keot.²⁶

The struggle ended with triumph on the Government side, which in its prolonged and tireless endeavours to suppress the movement declared the Digboi – Tinsukia area a protected one under the Defense of India Rule, promulgated in Assam in 1939, and cancelled the registration of the Union on January 10, 1940, on technical grounds(Guha). The Digboi Oil workers  organization was so strong that it was only on 25^th May 1939,  that the company was able to resume production” .²⁷  

The Digboi Oil Company strike had a great impact all over Assam. Everywhere the workers, including the drivers and mechanics of Shillong and those serving under the Municipal Board, were forming their unions and striking workers for periods of varying lengths causing “a good deal of trouble” to the Authorities(Guha). The workers of Lidu tea garden came to Tinsukia with groups and protested against the stop of water supply by the Company. In these strikes, the brain persons were Kedar Nath Goswami, Binoy Chakravarty and Nilmani Borthakur.²⁸  

The outburst of the Second World War (1939) created some new problems for the labourers. The labourers became discontented with the hike in the price of the commodities and the increase in workload for the war. They also demanded extra payment for overtime work. Under the Indian Defense Act, many works leader were imprisoned. Many worker's leaders were punished for their participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement. The All India Trade Union also failed to accept a definite programme. During the period The Trade Union Congress played the same role as the Indian Communists.

This is how the people of Assam from both plantations and no plantation sectors rebelled or protested against the British in conjunction with the freedom struggle.

 

    References:

        

• 1     Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947,  New Delhi, 1977, p-107) .

• 2.      Confidential, Demi-official no. 807-c. dated Shilllong, the 1st May 1922, From A.W. Botham, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Assam. To TheHon’ble Mr. S.P.O’Donnel, CIE, I.C.S., Secretary to the Govt. of India, Home Department, Simla.

  3.      Confidential , Demi-official no. 807-c. dated Shilllong, the 1st May 1922, From A.W. Botham, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Assam. To The Hon’ble Mr. S.P.O’Donnel, CIE, I.C.S., Secretary to the Govt. of India, Home Department, Simla p-36.

  4.       Assam Labour Enquiry Committee Report No. 2, PP 7-8.

  5.      Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-32 op. cit.  The Statement,  5 June , 1921  .

  6.      P. Saha, History of Working  Class  Movement in Bengal, New Delhi, 1978, p-48. 

  7.      Home Poll. File No. 18, Confidential, 1922,  P-12

  8.      Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947, op. cit, p-188

  9.      Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-32 op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika ,  November 9, 1928  and  September 6, 1929. 

  10.   Assam Police Abstract Intelligence , File No – 106, February 1936.

  11.  Home Poll. File No-1,  Fortnightly Report for Second Half of November 1928.

  12.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-41 ,op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika, 14 November, 1928, p-6 .

  13.  Home Pol., File No-17, Poll.F.R.for the second half of November 1928.

  14.  Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947,  New Delhi, 1977, P-189 .

  15.  Administrative Reports 1925 - 1926, File No. – 81, Year 1937-38

  16.  Guha, Amalendu, Planter-Raj to Swaraj, Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947, op. cit, p-188

  17.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P- 42 op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika, 1stSeptember , 1929,

  18.  Assamiya, Saturday, 24th August and 31st August, 1929) . 

  19.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-43 op. cit.Amrit Bazar Patrika, 1stSeptember , 1929, p-6 .

  20.  Assamiya, Saturday, 7th September, 1929, p-5 .

  21.  Report on the Administration of Assam for the year 1938-39

  22.  Benerjee, Dipankar, Labour Movement in Assam, New Delhi, 2005, P-50 .

  23.  Sarma, Golak Chandra, ShramikAndolanarDhara, Dibrugarh, 1990,  PP. -73.

  24.  Abstract of Inteligence, Assam police, File No. 18, year 1935, 1936 and 1938, State Archive, Guwahti.

  25.  Home Pol., File No-17, Poll. F.R.for the second half of September 1929.

  26.  P.H.A. File No. 171, Labour Movement in Assam , State Archive, Guwahati.

  27.  P.H.A. File No. 171, Labour Movement in Assam , State Archive, Guwahati.

  28.  Sarma, Golak Chandra, ShramikAndolanarDhara, Dibrugarh, 1990,  PP. -79.

Revolt 1857 and reactions of Tea labourers in Assam

[9] UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN ASSAM FROM 1921 TO1947: Revolt 1857 and reactions of Tea labourers in Assam

Labour Planters Relations: The relationship between management and labour in the colonial plantations can aptly be described as that between masters and slaves in systems of production based on bonded labour. The plantation system was geared to exploit labourers to the maximum possible extent in order to maximize profits for the owners. Labourers were purchased by gardens from contractors and were kept under surveillance at all times to prevent their escape from the drudgery of the gardens. There was no scope for the labourers to bargain over their wages or to shift to a garden offering higher wages, as laws were made to prevent mobility of labour, making desertion of a garden by its workers a crime, and out to be ruthlessly exploitative and inhuman. In such oppressive conditions, it is not surprising that labour protests in the form of sporadic strikes and riots became. a feature of tea plantations in Assam since the 1840s. The Kacharis employed by the Assam Company held the monopoly of tea cultivation. Assam till 1850, went. on strike in 1848 and surrounded (gheraoed) the Company's office at Nazira demanding 3 months' arrears of pay1 .  The company was compelled to assure them of regular monthly payments and cleared up their arrears. The strike convinced the Company's Directors that local tribal workers could not be forced to accept harsh terms of work, because they could afford to desert the Company's work at any time and go back to their villages or find better employment in the PWD and elsewhere.2   The company's Superintendent at Nazira told the Board of Directors at Calcutta that the "Cachari coolies should not be depended on; and efforts must be directed to recruit Bengali coolies.'' 3 In 1857 the Sepoy Mutiny had its effect on the Assam plantations also. Believing that English rule was to end soon, ten ' thousand local workers of the Assam Company struck work and deserted the Gardens⁴. The government took strong action ·and deported the local contractor Madhu Koch in 1858 for seven years' rigorous imprisonment and he died in deportation.⁵ Others were given one to four years of imprisonment. From 1839 onwards the planters made elaborate arrangements for recruitment and transportation of labourers from Chotanagpur and neighbouring areas. The underlying assumption was that migrant workers brought under indenture from distant places could easily be worked at very cheap rates because ., they would not have much of a chance to escape: The British planters did not seem to be interested in creating a labour force based on a rational management of labour. They bought labour at a high cost but spent very little to maintain it. A cheap and subservient labour force with no desire of betterment in life was the planter's ideal⁶.  The impoverished and uprooted migrants were compelled to revolt when circumstances became unbearable for them. In 1859, the workers of Negheriting Estate near Jorhclt went on a mass strike under the ·leadership of a Brahmin migrant from the United Provinces, named Dube, demanding an increase in wages. The planters suppressed the strike with military help. The leader was sentenced to 3 months in prison and others were awarded 6 months' imprisonment⁷.

Sometimes the labourers would even approach the courts for redressal of their grievances, but often it proved to be futile and counterproductive. Even in the courts it was the planters' writ that ran, as Debicharan Barua said in 1886: because the majority on the jury is selected from a class of men strong in race prejudices and ignorant of the first principles of jurisprudence - I mean the class of planters ... and this very system is one of the reasons why our poor coolies are so oppressed in Assam⁸. Lord Curzon too had occasion to condemn the planters' abuses: On many plantations, harsh and cruel and abominable things go on and the coolies get nothing like the wage which is stipulated for by the law. It is also true that when cases of planters and coolies come before the District magistrates, or before the Sessions Judges, or even before the High Court, there is one scale of justice for the planter and another for the coolie⁹. The tea planter was no different from the indigo planter about whom it was said, The Planter is above the law: He laughs at it, he defies it.¹⁰ Evidence of labourers approaching the courts against the planters is to be clearly found in many of their folk songs that still survive¹¹. More than the low wages it was perhaps the brutality of planters in dealing with workers that provoked the workers to riot at times. Sir Henry Cotton observed, There is a growing tendency among the coolie class to resist a blow by striking a blow in return, and this soon leads to serious results ... but this very tendency.¹²  

 

 

References: 

1.       H.A. Antrobus, A History of the Assam Company: 1839-1953, Edinburgh, 1957, p. 389; Amalendu Guha, op. cit., p. 15-16

2.       H.A. Antrobus, op. cit., p. 484-85.)

3.       Prasenjit Choudhury, Asamar Chahbonua Aru Unoish Satikar Bidwat Samaj, (in Assamese), Guwahati, 1989, p. 20.) . 

4.       H.A. Antrobus, op. cit., p. 96. ) 

5.       .Amalendu Guha, op. cit., p. 5; Ganesh Chandra Kurmi, "chah Shramik aru swadhinatar gana andolan", (in Assamese), in Rajen Gogoi (ed~), Chah Janagosthir Cinta Cetana, Asam Sahitya Sabha, Jorhat, 2001, pp. 241-256 )

6.       R.K. Kar, "A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam", in Thomas PullopiiiH (ed.), Identity of Adivasis in Assam, New Delhi, 1999, p. 25.  

7.       Ganesh Chandra Kurmi, op. cit.  )

8.       Quoted in Amalendu Guha, op. cit., p. 56. ) 

9.       B.B. Mishra, The Indian Middle Classes: Their Growth in Modem Times, New Delhi, 1978, p. 379). 

10.    Prasenjit Choudhury, op. cit., p. 36.  .

11.    Ganesh Chandra Kurmi, op. cit) .

12.    http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/29105/9/09_chapter%202.pdf

The Peasant Revolt in Assam

 

[9] UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE

MOVEMENT IN ASSAM FROM 1921 TO 1947:  The Peasant Revolt in Assam

The British faced resistance at every step when they introduced colonial rule in Assam. The farmer in Assam had revolted from time to time against the increase in land revenue made by the British administration while the same administration gave the European tea planters thousands and thousands of acres of land free from any revenue [1] and in many cases evicting cultivators from their cultivable land[2].  Opium-selling shops were established in many places for earning more revenue for the British Raj[3]“The popular uprising, the ‘Assam riots’ as it was called by the official circle’’[4]of the British Government. But for the local people, it was Ron means ‘battle’ against the British Raj viz. battle of Phulaguri, battle of Patharughat etc. With the conception of battle the Raij, of Phulguri killed a British Assistance Commissioner of Police , Mr. Singer, and threw his body in the river Kallong and declared triumph against their enemy. The Raij Mel of that period played an important role in the resistance movement of the peasant against the British administration.

Police tortures continued in such places where meetings were held protesting against the increase of land revenue and taxes and as a result of such tortures causing fear, people gradually became quiet and many of them mortgaged their hands and houses to pay the land revenue. But the peasant rebellion in Assam assumed the character of an anti-British movement in which common people also participated. Suppression of such movement paved the way for those having a greater dimension in the future.

The notable farmer's revolts were – Phulaguri in Nagaon District (1861) where more than thirty people were killed, hundreds were injured and many were sent to jail for the long term and their properties were confiscated. Patharughat in Darrang District (1894) where more than one hundred and forty farmers were killed and hundreds were badly injured in police firing. Rangia in Kamrup District (1894) where about twenty persons were killed besides injuring many others in police firing on the protesting farmers. Gorkha Forces were let loose to terrorise the villagers at Nalbari, Bajali, Barpeta, and many more places in Kamrup District at close intervals during the period[5]. 

---

[1]   Barpujari, H.K. Vol. V, Chapter, Wasteland Grants, page – 38

[2]  Assam Secretariat, Revenue – A, 1898, November, Nos. 128-38

[3]. Kalita Benudhar, The Uprising of Phulguri, Nagaon, 2006, Chapter Six, Page 60.

[4]  Agrarian Revolts, Chaper six, H.K.Barpujari, Vol. 1; p-101”