[Assam] Rhino Charge stories !
Himendra Thakur
hthakur at comcast.net
Sat Dec 30 10:38:49 PST 2006
Dear Rajib,
Thank you for mentioning the "rhino charge" ! Let us break away from serious discussion for a while and get into experience sharing !!
The first "rhino charge" cartoon that I saw as a schoolboy in Tezpur was in 1946 (long before you were born, maybe before your parents were born!) when Assam blasted the "Grouping Proposal" brought from London by a high-powered Cabinet Mission from the British Parliament. "Grouping" was supported by Nehru as a quick alternative to his power, who rebuked Assam with his infamous statement: "Assam must sacrifice for the greater cause of India."
The Calcutta Press wholeheartedly supported Assam during our struggle for survival from the "Grouping" trap in May 1946. That was where I saw the cartoon of "rhino charge" for the first time --- a rhino (marked Assam) charging with its head down towards a bunch of British Parliamentarians who were running helter-skelter with "Grouping Proposal" papers flying all over --- will one of our young artists redraw that cartoon just for fun today? That will be very exciting !
Gaining international and national admiration for stubbornness, Assam was very soon promoted to the image of a lion: In the terrible "Direct Action" in Calcutta by Pakistan-supporters on August 16, 17 & 18, 1946, an Assamese student, Poet Amulya Barua was killed by the Muslim rioters. In a prompt telegraph to Surhawardy, the Pakistan-supporter Prime Minister of Bengal (a Chief Minister was called "Prime Minister" in those days), Gopinath Bardoloi, the Prime Minister of Assam asked whether he should dispatch a few battalions of Assam Rifles to Calcutta if Surhawardy did not have enough policemen to control the rioters.
This was headlined in the Calcutta newspapers as "Assam Lion Roars ."
We must revive our self-confidence that we inherited from the historical days of Chakradhwaj Singha, Atan Buragohain, Lachit Barphukan, to mention just a few. Your opinion "Does anyone on the ground really care ? " carries an undercurrent note of despondency. We must wake up from despair, stand on our own feet and claim our rights: Assam Assembly does not have the rights to change the name of the State without public endorsement ---- that is the crux of the "Petition" which should be rewritten in a brief format without the Dutch connection and without the controversial issues like X sound, etc.
With love to everybody,
Himendra
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rajib Das" <rajibdas at yahoo.com>
To: <assam at assamnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] A short and strong "Petition" --- like a lancer charge
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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