[Reader-list] Imagination of a Assamese Identity in the Calcutta Cityscape

Sat Mar 26 19:40:59 IST 2005

The Imagination of a Linguistic Assamese Identity in the Calcutta Cityscape: Foundation of Ax1omia Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xabha2 and the Birth of Jonaki 

Dear Readers, in my last posting we saw the germination of print nationalism in the works of Missionaries and in the pages of Arunodoi. Now let us look at the contribution of the Calcuttas Assamese Mess in the construction of Assamese Print Nationalism. Till Cotton College was established in 1901 in Guwahati, Calcutta was the only centre for higher education for the Assamese students. They created their space in that port city among the bhadroloks by taking their houses on rent and forming messes. It is a global phenomenon, I think, for the students studying in an educational centre to rent a house and manage eating, studying and other day to day activities. But, what is important here is the creation of the otherness and the sense of exile in the midst of a dominant culture. The Assamese students in that cityscape always had their umbilical cord attached to their villages and in their search for the identity, they contributed immensely to the growth of an Assamese nationalism. The Assamese mess in Calcutta had a very important role in the narratives of Assamese nationalism. Instead of the colonial economic exploitation, the Bengali linguistic hegemony was perceived as the real threat to the burgeoning Assamese nationality. The Assamese students studying in Calcutta, who designed Assamese nationality in the late nineteenth century, took the language as the most important unifying factor for the formation of an Assamese nationality. Bhakhar bikax holehe jatir bikax hobo (To develop the language is to develop the nation) was the slogan of the early Assamese intelligentsia and they began the process of standardization of the language by standardizing orthography, writing grammars and dictionary, and most importantly by using the standardized version in the print. By the end of the nineteenth century the language spoken in Upper and Middle Assam became the accepted standard language of Assam as a direct intervention of this group of young men. Jonaki bears the testimony of their efforts. 

There were a substantial number of students in Calcutta in the eighth decade of the nineteenth century. Students used to form the messes. At the beginning, there were two messes for Hindu students and one for the Muslim students. The two Hindu messes were the 50 Sitaram Ghosh Street and 62 Sitaram Ghosh Street and the Muslim mess was the 33 Muslim Para Lane. It is important to mention some names of the students living in those messes to give a glimpse of the people who played a pivotal role in the early imagination of Assamese identity. Benudhar Rajkhowa, Dalimchanra Bora, Lakshiprasad Chaliha, Ramakanta Baruah, Krishnaprasad Duwara, Ramakanta Barkakoti, Gunindranath Baruah, Golapalchandra Baruah etc were some of the names associated with 50 Sitaram Ghosh Street mess. The important names associated with 62 Sitaram Gosh Street mess are Lakhyeswar Sarma, Tirthanath Kakoti, Hemchandra Goswami, Kanaklal Baruah, Krishna Kumar Baruah, Chandra Kamal Bezbaruah, Ghanashyam Baruah, Kamalchandra Sarma and Lakshinath Bezbaruah etc. With the increasing influx of the students the number of messes also increased. Some of the important messes were as following 67 Mirzapur Street, 107 Amherst Street, 14 Pratap Chandra Lane, Eden Hospital Street mess etc. The students used to have a lot of inter-mess activities and one such an activity was the Tea Party. Influenced by the western coffee-home culture, they had innovated this concept for social gathering. They used to gather over a cup of tea on every Wednesday and Saturday to discuss different topics and in one such a Tea Party, Axomia Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xabha was conceived on 25th August 1888 when the students had gathered at the 67 Mirzapur Street mess. We get this information in the pages of Jonaki (Vol 5 No. 7) under the title Axomia Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xabhar Karjya Biboroni3. The first secretary of the Xabha was Shivaram Sarma. In the same article the goal of the organization was discussed:

The development of Assamese language and literature is the primary aim of the organization. For that purpose it strives to preserve the old Assamese texts available, to translate different important books from Sanskrit and other languages into Assamese which are not available in the mother tongue, to develop reading habit among the masses to introduce pure grammar and orthography instead of the impure orthography and grammar, and to create one written language for all the areas of Assam. (Translation: mine)

The last two objectives were rather important and had a far reaching effect upon the growth of a composite Assamese identity based on language. 

The Xabha had taken many important decisions among which the most important was to publish a new magazine. But they did not have the financial strength to come up with a magazine. But to their rescue came Chandra Kumar Agarwala, a second year FA student in the Presidency College. He belonged to a rich business family. He came forward to publish a magazine and named it Jonaki. Benudhar Sarma writes that on two conditions Chandra Kumar came forward to publish and edit the magazine: first, every member must take care of Jonaki; second, every member must write an article for Jonaki. If anybody violates any of these two conditions, he will have to pay a fine of 15 rupees. Axomia Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xabha accepted these terms of Chandrakumar. The date of the first publication of the magazine is not mentioned in it. Only the Assamese month Magho and the year of publication 1889 are mentioned. It is surmised that on 9th February 1989 the first edition appeared. We get conflicting pictures on how many copies of Jonaki were published and till which year it was published. Dr. Nagen Saikia mentions that Jonaki was printed till 1998. According to him 11 issues in the first year, 12 issues in the second year, 10 issues in the third year, 11 issues in the fourth year, 7 issues in the fifth year, 11 issues in the sixth year, 6 issues in the seventh year, 1 issue in the eighth year, with the total number of 69 issues of Jonaki were published. 

The aims and objective of Axomia Bhaxa Unnati X?dhini Xabha were expressed in the pages of Jonaki. It did not have an editorial. What it had was a column called Atmokatha4. The ideology of Jonaki and Axomia Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xabha can be comprehended by a serious reading of the texts of this regular column. In the very first edition of its publication, the aim and objective of this magazine is expressed in the following manner: 

Politics is outside our state of affairs. We should concentrate only on the welfare of the subjects of our servile nationhood. Our subject matters will be literature, science or society- we would strive to comprehend these topics and publish materials in them. We would give space to criticism and protests. But no personal slander would be entertained. Special attention would be given to language. Our endeavour would be to get love and affection from all sections of the Assamese society... We have waged our war against darkness: Objective: development of the nation, and Jonak (moonlight)5
Works are going on everywhere at a crashing speed, will the Assamese sit down idle at this hour? (Translation: mine)

The complaint of sitting down idle at the moment when others are engaged in the process of nation building is invoked again and again in the pages of Jonaki. The political neutrality is another expressed objective of this group of students whose unfaltering loyalty to the British is manifested in the different writings of the magazine. So the moonlight that Jonaki talks of bringing is the moonlight of language standardization and the construction of an Assamese nationhood based on language.      

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