[Reader-list] The Colonial Politics of Social Responsibility

[uddipan dutta]

The Colonial Politics of Social Responsibility and the Response of the Arunodoi to the Socio-Political and Economic Situation in Assam 

Dear Readers, no doubt Arunodoi set the tone for the growth of Assamese Print Nationalism although quite indirectly and unconsciously and for this reason pages of panegyrics were already written in the Assamese literary history. Another thing that the Missionaries are credited with is the ushering in of modernity to the Assamese social sphere. Without refuting these two claims completely, we need to see its role in the context of colonialism, mode of colonial exploitation, popular mass revolts against it and the mention(and non-mention as well) of these changes in the pages of Arunodoi. We should also remember that colonialism not only involves the colonization and exploitation of the material resources but also engages in the colonization of mind. When the British came to Assam they brought with them a different knowledge and belief system. And we should not forget that religious belief is a strong component of their thought structure. We would first throw light on the politico- social and economic changes in Assam in the context of colonialism and later see their representations in the pages of Arunodoi.    

The Company Raj appeared on the scene of the Brahmaputra valley as a savior of the people suffering from a situation of chaos and lawlessness prevailing in the region since 1770 starting with the Mayamoria uprising. But it was the successive Burmese aggression which completely destabilized the Ahom kingdom. The tales of suffering and torture at the hands of the Burmese army is still fresh in the folk memory of the people of Assam. So, the peace and order brought by the British with the Treaty of Yandaboo was welcomed by the people in the valley at first. But soon they realized how difficult the life would be in the face of the economic exploitation at the hands of the colonial masters. Exorbitant land revenues on the cultivable land, establishment of the tea gardens and opium trade were the three major modes of earning a huge profit from Assam by the British traders. Traditional systems of land rights, economic exchanges, practices and beliefs had all to be transformed completely to suit the colonial masters’ economic needs. 

At this juncture we should emphasize once again on the belief system these traders cum rulers brought with them to this newly discovered land of economic opportunities. Many of their acts can also be interpreted as the compulsion to spread their belief system and to colonize the minds of the people they discovered recently. Christianity being a part of their belief system can not be seen apart from colonialism. Arunodoi as I have already stated was the magazine brought out by the Baptist missionaries to spread Christianity. So what was written in the title page of the magazine is very significant at this context ‘Arunodoi: Giyan Bhandar : a monthly magazine devoted to religion, science and general intelligence’. Many critics and literary historians try to see the last two commitments ignoring the first commitment to religion. The general message was that the scientific developments of the western countries were due to the Christianity and the ‘general intelligence’ of their people. ‘Anek Dexar Sangbad’ was the regular heading under which news from all across the globe was dished out to the readers. A probe into the news items of Arunodoi would reveal that it was not only the mouthpiece of the Christian Missionaries but also the mouthpiece of the colonial masters. Some of the important events related to opium and opium-trade and their representations in Arunodoi would endorse my understanding as the consumption of opium was quite wide spread in Assam at that time   

The opium cultivation was quite important for the Assamese farmers as it used to yield cash money. The cash was important to the farmers because the revenue was accepted only in the form of cash. Revenue in the form of cash was quite new to the Assamese cultivators which had a self sufficient economy before the advent the British. 
The British had started the trade of importing opium from the North India into Assam by the year 1851. To augment their profit, the British put a ban on the local cultivation of opium in the year 1960 and they did it under the guise of eradicating a social evil. It should be remembered in this regard that they put the ban only on the cultivation of opium not on the trade of it. This ban took a heavy toll on the farmers of Nowgong district as it was the largest opium producing district of Assam at that time. The resentment was quite widespread and at that juncture, the Bengal Government called upon its officers in Assam to report on the feasibility of a tax on betel-nut and pan cultivation. This led to an agitation in Nowgong, mainly in Phulguri area inhabited by Tiwa people. 

In September 1861, some 1500 peasants marched to the district town. They demonstrated peacefully before the magistrate and presented a petition to him. It referred to the harm that had already been done to them by banning poppy cultivation. It was prayed that no further taxes be levied on the betel- nut and pan gardens. The district magistrate acted very haughtily and in a high handed manner. It was established from a later inquiry that he had provoked/alienated the ryots enough by putting heavy fine on them even in the pretext of making noises in the court rooms.  

A raij mel or people’s assembly was organized in Phulguri and for five days people discussed heir plight and the measures to be taken to ameliorate their conditions. Around one thousand people had assembled in that raij mel and five o six hundred of them were armed with lathis. A police party that had come to disperse was driven out by the people save one taken into custody by the people. By 17 October, three to four thousand people assembled there. The police made yet another attempt to disperse the crowd and arrested some of the agitating crowd. But the agitated crowd forcibly rescued all of them and the police had to flee the place sensing danger. The next day a British officer Lieutenant Singer came with the police party and met the leaders. They explained to him how the ban on poppy cultivation was affecting their lives and about their fear of having to pay taxes on betel nut and paan cultivation. They also conveyed to him their grievances against the district magistrate and explained to him their purpose of assembling in that raij mel was just to put across their demands to the higher authorities. Singer ordered them to disperse and tried to snatch their lathis. He got himself killed unintentionally in the ensuing fracas. The police force accompanying him left the place in panic. The news of Singer’s death reached the headquarter in Nowgong accompanied by the rumour of an impending attack on the town. A small troupe of armed force was sent to the troubled area. Their firing on the crowd led to several deaths. Fresh arrival of forces from Tezpur and Guwahati brought quiet and silence in the entire district to be followed by the measures of repression by the British Authority. Narasingh Lalung and eight other peasant leaders were punished with long-term imprisonment and deportation. This saga of popular resistance of the peasants against taxation policy of the government is still fresh in the collective memory of the people of Assam as the Phulguri Dhawa. The colonial regime tried its best to vilify this heroic resistance against the exorbitant taxation policy as the discontentment of the peasants against the ban on opium cultivation. Very shrewdly they took the line of argumentation that as the consumption of opium was a social evil and the ban on its cultivation was an act of benevolence on the part of the government, a revolt against such an act of benevolence was nothing but foolishness of the peasants.   

Let us now see how this uprising was reported in Arunodoi to realize its political characteristics. In the November issue of 1861’s Arunodoi under the heading of Anek Dexor Sangbad we get the news of Phulguri Uprising. I am translating the text. Hope it catches the essence.
    
“The cause intrepidity on the part of the Nowgong residents is the ban on opium cultivation and income tax. But nowhere in the country is the tax as low as Assam. 
.the Assamese people don’t know what to do with the little money they get and start buying opium with it. This ostentatious bad habit was highly prevailing among the people of Nowgong. The ban on opium must have made them angry. But everybody knows that such a ban was harbinger of their development. The ban on the opium cultivation is the only measure of rescue, as the people of this country have put themselves in this strong current of catastrophe due to opium.”

Nidhi Levi Farwell, one of the first converts wrote in a satirical manner in the same issue under the heading of “Nogyna Druhilokor Charitra Barnon” (The Character Sketch of the Nowgong Mutineers) in the following words 

“
The people of Nowgong of our country without arms and a commander revolt against those who have the ownership of the entire Jambudwip (India) and who are ahead of all the nations in terms of power and domination, intelligence and wisdom and who are all-powerful and invincible!”

I think I should stop it here and the readers see the political character of Arunodoi themselves.

 
 

       


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