[Assam] A short and strong "Petition" --- like a lancer charge

Rajib Das rajibdas at yahoo.com
Fri Dec 29 12:32:51 PST 2006


Does anyone on the ground really care - Assam / Asom /
Oxom? And if they don't, does a lancer charge or a
rhino charge really matter?

Also wasn't Asom (as opposed to Assam or Oxom) there
in the A of ULFA?

--- Dilip/Dil Deka <dilipdeka at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I agree with Himen Barthakur. The idea is to stop
> the attempt by the ruling party to change the name,
> simply on the basis of the undemocratic process used
> in Dispur. The longer the petition is, less likely
> it is to be effective on the petitionee. You may
> want to make a brief reference to the historical
> material you are using. A long dissertation is not
> necessary.
>    
>   PLEASE ADD MY NAME AS A SIGNATORY WHEN YOU SEND
> OUT THE PETITION IN ITS FINAL FORM. 
>   I leave it to you to come up with an effective
> petition.
>   Dilip Deka
>  
>
=========================================================
>    
>   
> 
> Himendra Thakur <hthakur at comcast.net> wrote:
>       v\:* {   BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)  }  o\:*
> {   BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)  }  w\:* {  
> BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML)  }  shape {   BEHAVIOR:
> url(#default#VML)  }       
> st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }              
>  Subject: A short and strong "Petition" --- like a
> lancer charge. 
>    
>   Dear Barua,
>    
>   I am disappointed by your efforts to keep
> “Mirjumala as “Grooten Mogol in Assam” in your
> proposed revised draft. Additionally, your repeated
> reference to other people’s "ignorance” have already
> alienated many.
>    
>   However, let us not get into a debate at this
> critical hour. 
>    
>   I positively agree with you that “Again the
> purpose of the petition is simply to stop the GOA to
> change the name so that we have a discussion in a
> democratic process if we want to change the name at
> all.”
>    
>   The “Petition” must be rewritten to reflect the
> above “purpose of the petition” ---- by deleting the
> Dutch connection and other controversial points like
> the X sound, etc. --- and by emphasizing 
> discussionn in a democratic process . That will make
> the “Petition” short and strong, like a lancer
> charge. 
>    
>   I request everybody to come forward and support
> the “purpose of the petition” .
>    
>   With the best wishes for a Happy New Year to
> everybody,
>   Himendra
> 
>     ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Barua25 
>   To: Himendra Thakur 
>   Cc: shantikam hazarika ; Ankur Bora ; Manoj Das ;
> assam at assamnet.org ; W.Saleh 
>   Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 11:19 PM
>   Subject: Re: Petition to the Supreme Court of
> India to invalidate the December 15 Resolution of
> the State Legislature
>   
> 
>   Himenda & Dilip Deka:
>   Thanks for your positive support and criticism.
>    
>   The reference para:
>    
>     We attach herewith a copy of a map of the
> Kingdom of Bengale (Kingdom of Bengal) which was
> published around 1662. The map was drawn by a
> Dutchman, John van Leenen, who was in “Bengale” in
> 1661. The document is presently in the Maritime
> Museum, Rotterdam. As can be seen, the name Assam
> appears on the map. A letter sent by Joan
> Maertsuyker, Governor-General of Dutch Batavia who
> congratulated Mirjumala on 29-08-1663 and addressed
> Mirjumala as “Grooten Mogol in Assam”. The diary of
> a Dutchman published in 1675, mentions the name of
> Assam and  the people of Assam as Assamer. The
> Dutchman was forced to fight alongside the army of
> Mirjumla in 1662. 
>    
>   I think you are objecting to the phrases marked in
> red.  I think these words in red may be easily
> omitted if you find these objectionable or
> misleading (although from historical point of view
> we don't find any). These words actually are not
> adding anything to our main message which is the
> spelling of the name 'Assam'. We will omit these
> words.
>    
>   This brings us to the point raised by Dilip Deka
> as to why we had to bring the Dutch references and
> why the Ahom Buronjis reference is not sufficient.
> The answer is very simple. The Ahom Buronjis have
> references which point to the fact that our state
> was called Ashyam or Acham even during the Moghol
> days. However, please note that these spellings were
> in either Assamese (with prothom so or talobyo xo
> jyo kar etc), or in Hindi, Persi or Sanskrit (dontyo
> xo or talobyo xo). You may find some briefs of these
> reference in my Assamese article posted in the
> website. However, this does not tell what was the
> Roman script spelling of our state before the advent
> of the British. This important reference is now for
> the first time furnished by the Dutch records of the
> Map, the letter and the Diary of the Dutchman. These
> references clearly shows that our state was known to
> the outside world as 'Assam' as early as 1660s.
> These two references clearly shows that the word
> 'Assam' was not
>  introduced by the British. On the other hand the
> British used that spelling in the Treaty of Yandabu
> in 1826 from old reference. (One may note that the
> English /ss/ phoneme has the pronounciation of /sh/
> leading us to believe that the foreigners used the
> spelling Assam to pronounce the local Ashyam (which
> is derived from the Sanskrit word Shyam) correctly.
>    
>   Now this is a very valid and important piece of
> information as researched by Wahid Saley of The
> Netherlands. If this piece of information were known
> to educated literary people like Chandra Prasad
> Saikia, (ex AXX President and ex Editor etc) he
> would not have considered 'Assam' as a 'mlessa' word
> and we would not have been in this mess today. It is
> a pity that educated Assamese are ignorant of their
> own history and heritage. Now we are ready to throw
> away the Tai-Ahom heritage with the word Assam just
> like that simply because educated Assamese are
> spreading mis information that the name Assam is a
> British introduction. How sad!!!!
>    
>   Anyhow, hope this clarifies your questions.
>    
>   Himenda:
>   You referred to the statement on X sound and
> commented that it will enfeeble the petition since
> there is no reference to such international
> recognition of the X.
>   If you don't mind, let me educate you on this
> without going into much argument.
>    
>   (1) Assamese has this guttural kh sound which is
> recognised by the Roman letter X by all scholars
> from the Baptist Missionaries to Banikanta Kakoty on
> one hand and from Suniti Kumar Chayyerjee to Upendra
> Sarma to Golok Ch Goswami.
>   This X sound has a history and heritage in
> Assamese. Like the Bihu and the Gamwsa, this X sound
> is our Bapoti Xahwn. 
>    In this reagrds, I would like you to read my
> short article :"The X In Assamese" published in the
> Assam Tribune and which is included in the
> referenced website. After reading this, I would like
> to discuss with you more on this if you still have
> questions.
>    
>   We Assamese may not like it the X representation
> for various reasons. Ignorance is one. But that is
> another matter.
>    
>   However trying to represent the kh sound with S is
> like Assamese burying their  heads in the sand. 
>    
>   The bottomline is we are not trying to impose the
> X representation like to GOA is trying to impose the
> S representation without any discussion.
>    
>   Again the purpose of the petition is simply to
> stop the GOA to change the name so that we have a
> discussion in a democratic process if we want to
> change the name at all.
>    
>   Hope this will clarify the matter.
>    
>   Satyam Shivam Sundaram. 
>   The moment we deviate from this, Assamese will
> have to bury their heads in snad.
>   Let us not do that, Let us stand up as a
> courgaeous people.
>    
>    
>   Now may we have Dilip's signature please. We are
> fast approaching the 100 marks, and we request
> everybody to sign the petition to be included in the
> first 100 signatures.
>   Rajen 
>    
> 
>    
>     ----- Original Message ----- 
> 
=== message truncated ===>
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