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Assam has been
remained a mystery in the North East India for a long time. It got statehood
around the independence of India, yet its geographical and cultural and social
boundaries clash with one another. Unlike any other Indian state, it is not
where a particular community’s portrait can be sketched. Reasons are aplenty.
Senior author Subir Deb endeavors to picture Assam through his personal
experiences and the immaculate research and data that he gathered from
primordial to mythological to modern history…highlighting each of the epoch
with an utmost honest narrative.
The book
classified into fifteen chapters, stretched over 600 pages – it is all set to recount
the other side of the story of Assam. Not only the book boasts of its brilliant
content but also accurate with its data layout, with quotes and references and
examples from a gamut of resources. A slow leisured pace will catch up with
absolute fine reading if one needs to grasp the hidden aspects that went into
the making of current Assam.
So far the
history of Assam is presented in a distorted way. There have been many books
that claimed Assam’s superiority and sovereignty over its immediate neighboring
state: West Bengal. Subir expresses that Assam’s history is turbulent, not as
smooth as any other state of India…plus the state ever since the dawn of the
civilization continuously brimmed with diversity. Thus, after centuries,
labeling it out as a state of just one community was wrong…and it will be the
same even in the future.
Subir’s book
opens up blind spots pertaining to this state, or a few in the North East. In
Assam there is commotion, chaos, and absolutely no unity. He suffered in the
state, in North East. As you read, you will come across the way his family and
he was ill-treated, threatened to expel from their homes, being assaulted for
life…discrimination kept him on tenterhooks…disturbed.
Assam’s
strategic location played glorious role before 1947 or 1905…divisions. For
Britishers and East India Company, it acted like a central location for trade
and administrative vigilance. Till 1874 Assam was a part of Bengal province,
however, as cultural and population of Hindus, Muslims, Bengalis, Assamese,
and other tribes accommodated in that region….when Assam was declared…all of
sudden languages began playing the critical role. Whosoever was speaking any other
language other than Assamese was ignored and looked upon as an outsider,
illegal immigrants.
The author
explored the multi-ethnicity of the state by going back in the roots of
history. How did opium trade affect the natives of Assam? During the British
and Burma rule, people from various parts of the country took up jobs and
business in the Assam region. However, when the political winds changed, even
the largest living population there – Bengalis –were declared immigrants –
surprisingly in their own country. No doubt that Assam being in border touch
with Bangladesh received scores of illegal immigrants but in that heat Bengalis
who were established there since centuries got uprooted by the locals,
governments, and acts like IMDT and NRC.
Subir’s
exploration of Bengalis in Assam is heartfelt, real, and honest. He explained
quite clearly as during the partition of 1947, Sylhet region gone to
East-Pakistan (now Bangladesh). And it became a bone of contention even today.
The author was Sylheti Bengali, owing to its pre-independence roots. However,
his college colleagues, classmates of her daughters in KV, his family friend in
Meghalaya didn’t consider anything before labeling them. Their only fault is
that they are Bengalis living outside mainstream West Bengal? Thus, they are
subjected to identity test of citizenship.
This book is
more than its facade; it not only studied Assam but Bengal also deeply. Many
people might think that it is a biased literature; however, you should consider
that Subir and his family was born and grew up in undivided Assam. When the
state got in the clutches of division, he was taken for granted.
Overall, the
content of the book is credible, good, and easy to read and assimilate. The
book can be utilized by both: laymen and scholars/students/teachers. The best
part is that the book chugs ahead with multi-faceted elements, not just focused
on political or demographic account of Assam through ancient history to British
to modern time. The book catches heavy momentum when it turns anecdotal, with
stories from the author’s life. Otherwise, the facts and figures in the book
are as justified as the author’s stance on the disturbed history of Assam.
The book is
available to buy on Amazon India.
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