Assamese Prison Writing Based on Assam Movement

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Assamese Prison Writing Based on Assam

Movement

Bharati Dhadumia

Research Scholer,

Dibrugarh University.

Abstract:

Prison Writing or Prison Literature is newly introduced genre in Indian Literature. The relation

between jail and literature were created in India at the time of freedom movement against British rule. But

all the writings of the prisoners were not included in Prison Writing at that time.

When a writer writes something based on his jail experience in jail, focusing on the internal and

external subject and when these things reflects in the authors writing, then it is called prison writing. In this

paper I want to study the Assamese Prison Writing, which was written based on Assam Movement (1979-

1985).

Keywords: Assam Movement, Prison Writing, jail, illegal migration

0.0 Preface

0.1 Introduction:

The Prison Writing includes the term prison and literature or the writing. When a writer writes

something based on in his experiences in Jail, focusing on the internal and external subjects and when these

things reflects in the Authors writing, then it is called as Prison Writing. In the book, Sahitya O Sanskritir

Tirthasangame, Srikumar Bandupadhyai mentioned that when the sources of the Prison Writing are the jail

experiences, then that is called as Prison Writing. If an author or a poet writes any literature or a poem after

retirement or jail time, which does not involves his experiences in jail - whose relation with jail only depicts

spatial involvement rather than intimacy, where his life in jail has not been reflected, those literatures cannot

be included in Prison Writing. Moreover literature related to terrorist, which is otherwise independent, but

are indefinite and revolves around anxiousness and thorny life are also not included in Prison Writing.

Prison Writing is newly introduced trends in Indian literature. The relation between jail and literature

were created in India at the time of freedom movement against the British rule. But all the writings of the

prisoners were not included in Prison Writing at that time. In the book Prison Writing in India K.

Satchidanandan mentioned four major events of prison experiences. The first was pre-1947 anti-colonial

struggle, the second was the communist uprising chiefly during the fifties of the last century, the third the

period of emergency in 1975-1977 and the fourth, the Maoist uprising of the late sixties and early seventies.

He accepted those events as the trends of the Indian prison writings. Notable point is that the series of the

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Indian writing of above mentioned trends were something different from Assamese Prison Writing. Based on

his opinion, we can divide the trends of Assamese Prison Writings as mentioned below-

(a) The prison writing of the Pre-Independence or the freedom movement period.

(b) The prison writing during the period of emergency.

(d) The prison writing based on ULFA and

(e) Others: Include people arrested for personal reasons, prison writing which were written by jail related

persons.

In the proposed seminar paper, I would like to give a simple introduction of 4

trend of above mentioned

prison writing, which was written based on Assam movement.

0.2 Objective and Significance

The main objective of the paper is-

 To introduce the prison writing which was written at the time of Assam movement.

0.3 Methodology

For the study of the seminar paper, I am using descriptive method. Moreover for description, I am

using analytic method also.

1.0 Main Discussion

Three prison writings were written during the Assam movement period. These were Louha Pinjor by

Kesavananda Dev Goswami (October, 1980), Dustor Karagar by Lakshminandan Borah (1981) and

Kararuddha Jiwanar Bakruddha Kahini by Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya (1984). If we look at the time

when these books were published, we will come to know that, these books were written at the time of Assam

Movement. Therefore, by studying these books one can get a clear idea about the earlier times of the

movement. Hence the introduction of these books have been put forward by sorting it according to the time

of its publication.

1.1 Louha Pinjor:

This book was written based on forty(40) days of prisoner’s life, i.e. from 20

April to 30

May,

1980. It can be seen that the book was written at the early stage of the movement. In this book, writer

described the situation of Assam movement or the expulsion of alien movement and various incidents of the

movement in a sequential manner. The writer was also jailed by National Security Act.

The writer Kesavananda Dev Goswami described the stories serially from Dibrugarh jail and Jorhat

jail to Bhagalpur jail of Bihar. He also introduced about the Bihar’s social system parallel to social lives of

Assamese people.

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In the book Louha Pinjor, the writer has described thirteen chapters each with different titles.

Starting from the first chapter in a sequential manner, they are Pristhobhumi, Somar Tinisir, Udgiron, Duwar

Dhora, Anussed Putashal, Agyatbash, Par Kora Raghunath, Bichirtra Birjyo, Bhogadhul, Dahar Dahmat,

Pratyaworton and Bhagil Nihol. From the title of different chapters, the writers statements can be predicted

which are expressed in different parts/ chapters of the published book. Notable point is that, like different

other prison writings, by putting forward the description of book in the form of a diary, presentation of a

particular subject with a specific title was observed. Moreover the 'epilogue' and letters sent by Dulal Mipun

from Dibrugarh to the writer contained information about the movement and the additional part of the letter

also mentioned about the introduction of some other people who were jailed as a result of movement.

The writer gave some opinion about the circumstances of Assam movement and the problems of the

migration in the beginning of the Book Louha Pinjor. Notably, before describing his jail stories which

started from 20

April, 1980, he discussed about the various issues of the Assam movement. He discussed

about how a large number of Moimonshingia Muslim people from Bangladesh migrated to Assam. The

‘Grow more food scheme’, adopted by Moulana Sayed Sir Md. Saddulah Ministry, announced allotment of

lands to Muslim immigrants and it cleared another way to bring them to Assam. The author noted that,

except Gopinath Bordoloi, every other Chief Ministers supported this activity. Moreover due to the support

from local Assamese officials and Land munsif, these activities became easy.

In the book Louha Pinjor the author discussed about the migration of Bengalis and the linguistic and

communal problems of both Assamese speakers and Bengali speakers as a result of this migration. He also

criticized the Bengali speaking peoples, who strongly loved their language and decided to keep themselves

going only with their own language.

The author discussed various conflicts between the Assamese speaking people and Bengali speaking

people of Nahorkatia, Duliajan areas. At first the author wasn’t involved in the movement, but later he

became the president of ‘Thaluwa Swartharakhya Samitee’, and was involved in the movement. The author

has made an attempt to explore the character of communal conflict by explaining various instances such as

burning down the houses of bengali community by their own people and defaming the Assamese people, the

newspapers published from erstwhile Calcutta describing the purpose of the alien expulsion movement in a

wrong way, imposing wrong notion about the character of this movement by stating that many people

associated with it were practicing foul means and harm caused by the secret agents etc.

The author started to describe his jail life’s experiences from fifth chapter, ‘Anussed Putashal’. He

mentioned six reasons for being jailed. The first reason was that as a president of ‘Thaluwa Swartharakhya

Samitee’, he took the decision not to give the land patta in Dibrugarh area to Non-Assamese people,

secondly with the secretary of ‘Thaluwa Swartharakhya Samitee’, Dhiren Borthakur, stopped bringing

newspapers, thirdly he criticized the torture by police and Military and accused the government officers. The

forth reason was that he helped to create communal violence by his lecture in the public gathering at

Kehang Tea Estate , fifthly he and vice-president of ‘Thaluwa Swartharakhya Samitee’, were involving in

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public picketing held in Dibrugarh. The sixth reason was his involvement in public strike which spread in

whole of Assam from 3

April to 10

April.

Notably the author also described how the actual explanation

for the six reasons can be done.

The author was jailed in Dibrugarh and Jorhat and in the last session he has also described his

experiences in the Bhagalpur jail. He introduced with simple description of his day to day life, and described

how the jail life led to development of his narrow mentality.

1.2 Dustor Karagar

It may be said that the book, Dustor Karagar (1981) by Lakshminandan Borah is a part of his

autobiography. Mentionable that the story of this book is included in his autobiography Kal Balukat Khuj.

But before publishing the autobiography, the book Dustor Karagar was published. In this book the author

serially explains his day to day experiences which he got in the jail system. The book was written at the early

stage of the movement, where he tried to express the internal and external circumstances of the jail and the

real picture of the jailor, prisoners, which were associated with the jail system.

The main subjects that were included in the book, Dustor Karagar were the pictures of corruptions in

the jail system, the scenario of current social system, the description of the character interested in jail, the

impressions of the prisoners’ mentality, pictures of colonial and post-colonial jail environment, reflection of

education systems etc.

The author described the experiences of his forty days jail period from 25

January to 5

March. In

the beginning of the book, he expressed grief because he didn’t know the reason, why he was arrested in

National Security Act, and said-

I don’t know why I have been arrested! What kind of deception is this? We really live in a country, where the pot doesn’t

have a cap and cows don’t have cowboys.

As a result of alien expulsion demands and movement of 1979, the Government announced the order

to arrest many people for the purpose of security in the country. That is why many innocent people also got

punished. According to the author, there are some doubts in the law of a country if someone gets arrested

without any specific reasons being stated. In fact, through this book, few impressions of current anarchic

conditions of Assam as well as Indian Political fields can be observed.

In this book the author also wrote about the good facilities for the security prisoners of both

Dibrugarh and Jorhat jail. About the Jorhat jail he wrote:

There are good facilities to keep the prisoners here. Within the walls, there is a small house of few yards in the east.

Within a small distance, there are two long houses in the west.

In this book, the author described about prisoners and the socio-economic reasons behind their

description. He also expressed the stories about the tea garden labors, small cutpurse boys very elegantly. He

also described the tendency of small cutpurse boys towards. According to the author, being homeless,

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absence of relatives, living in slum areas or on railway platforms etc. were much tougher for the small boys

then to work inside the jail. Hence it is seen they get more attracted towards the jail. He mentioned that-

They feel like to coming to jail more often during the winters, because they find it very difficult sleeping in the platforms,

verandas or the slum areas in the shivering cold. So, they come to jail after doing small crimes because while sleeping

they get three blankets and get free food. They don’t have to struggle.

This book was written just in forty days jail period. Even though the book was written in a few days,

but he could clearly reflect the evident concepts related to the jail. He also presented every subjects related to

the jail system in a very generalized and easy way.

1.3 Kararuddha Jiwanar Bakruddha Kahini

In this book, the author Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya expresses the jail experiences. Additionally

the book includes the national as well as regional thoughts, communal problems and clashes, current

scenarios of political and socio-economic systems of India and Assam, the reality of Assam movement, the

works of the Assam police administration, the prison system of Assam and India and lots of subjects. This

book was published in 1984 and he mentioned that it was a jail dairy. Regarding the overall concept included

in this book, the author said that-

I hope that the reader will surmise how numerous small Hitler in every stage of our social systems, political and

administrative systems are making our social lives and democratic lifestyle poisonous.

So from the above comment, we can guess an insight into the contents of the book. From 29

January, 1981 to 28

January, 1982, for a period of seven months in a year, the author spent his entire time

being alone and has included the conversations that he had with himself in this book.

In the preamble of this book, Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya said-

Until and unless someone is proved guilty and offender in front of the law, it is wrong to give him punishment, this is the

theory of Justice. But when we read or listen about these stories, then we see that many prisoners have to suffer and live

unlawfully and many of innocents get justice very lately.

The characters of the prisoner or the physical and social circumstances are found in these stories. In

this way we also find the real current scenarios of the jail system. Moreover Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya

mentioned in the preamble again-

Every arrest stories are not only related to the law, politics also play a major role in these things. By reading this book,

the politics associated with arresting become very much clear.

In this way stories behind the involvement of politics and administration in arresting the author and

being a scapegoat of personal dissimulation with political circumstances behind the arresting of the author,

has been covered in various parts of the book.

In this book the writer described very minutely about the current political systems and also presented

some internal matters of Assam police administration directly or indirectly. The author was arrested under

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National Security Act and was brought to Ranchi without any notice. Notable point was that, at that time

physically he was not in a good condition.

Even though the author was doing the constitutional duties ordered by government in regards to alien

expulsion, who were illegally trying to settle in Assam, the author became a scapegoat of incitement of the

Home department along with some of his police colleagues and 3 to 4 ministers of the current government

and got arrested. The author mentioned that-

“… today I became scapegoat of the sectional communal politics for protesting for many years against the hedonist

deceitful rules of the government.

Notable point is that the prisoners under the National Security Act, got good facilities to live, but the

author was deprived from these facilities and he had to live in a very lower class lifestyle in comparison to

the other prisoners. He said that Government of Assam had permitted for expense of eight rupees in a day

for the author, but Government of Bihar expensed eleven rupees in a day for one general prisoner.

The author faced many troubles regarding food inside the jail. He wrote-

After having lunch, there is no option other than taking salt along with the food while having dinner. So I was compelled

to avoid having dinner. Sometimes I feel very hungry at night, and in order to make both my ends meet, I started having

lunch at 4 P.M. since 7

February, 1981.

Moreover, as mentioned by the author above, besides the miserable lifestyle that he had inside the

jail, he also suffered from high pressure, but he was deprived from having the minimal treatment that was

required. Apart from describing the experiences of mental and physical suffering that the author faced during

his time being in jail and the book also describes about the contemporary furore political circumstances in

authors own point of view. Not only the author’s life became extensive in this book, but it also reflected the

ruthless jail life experiences and many issues of the past-present-future of the prisoners.

2.0 Conclusion

After doing a thorough study of titled topic titled as, “Assamese Prison Writing based on Assam

movement,” we got the following findings:

 Three books were written based on Assam movement, and these are Louha Pinjar (1980) by

Kesavananda Dev Goswami, Dustor Karagar (1981) by Lakshminandan Borah and Kararuddha

Jiwanar Bakruddha Kahini (1984) by Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya. If we look into the time at

which these books were written, then we can see that, the books being mentioned above were written

at the early stages of the movement. So it can be said that in these books the early situations of the

movement were published.

 In the books, Louha Pinjar by Kesavananda Dev Goswami and Kararuddha Jibanar Bakruddha

Kahini by Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya, the circumstances of the Assam movement were reflected,

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while in the other book, Dustor Karagar by Lakshminandan Borah, expression of various unusual

circumstances of the jail can be observed.

 Kesavananda Dev Goswami and Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya tried to show various movement

centric thoughts. Explanation about various subjects of the problem, created as a result of alien

migration has been clearly reflected in the book.

 Apart from expression of movement centric discussion in the above mentioned prison writing,

experiences inside the jail and various systems of the jail has also been reflected through these

books. Therefore, it can be said that, the books published under the circumstances of Assam

Movement, apart from containing the characteristics of prison writings, it also includes contemporary

situations or circumstances which has been clearly expressed.

References:

1. Srikumar Bondupadhyai, Sahitya o Sanskritir Tirthosangame, Modern Book Agencymon Lal, National

Book Agency Privet Limited, p.272 Boisakh, 1359

2. K. Satchidanandan, ‘Welcome Speech’ C. N. Srinath(ed.) Prison Writing in India, 2014, p.5

3. Kesavananda Dev Goswami, Louha Pinjar, 1980, p.1

4. ibid, p.6

5. ibid, p.62-65

6. Laxminandan Bora, Dustar Karagar, 1981, p.4

7. ibid, p.2

8. ibid, p.22

9. Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya, ‘Lekhokor Duakhar’ ibid.

10. ibid, p.5

11. ibid, p.6

12. ibid, p.7

13. ibid, p.52

14. ibid, p.161