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,