[Assam] Prisoners of the Past - Sentinel Letter

[Chan Mahanta]

Wow! What a brilliant piece !! Thanks for sharing Ram.

But I did not get it. Bhongai dibo paaribaane' baaru :-)?











At 8:43 AM -0500 10/10/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>This is interesting. Highlights mine.
>
>Being 'Prisoners of the Past' is a favorite pasttime for many 
>Indians (and obviously Assamese). Though remembering our history is 
>great and often necessary, just gloating over the past does nothing 
>to ensure our future, if we don't put efforts into it.
>
>--Ram
>
>Prisoners of the Past
>Like every other ethnic community, the Asomiyas too have a glorious 
>past and are proud of it. Ever since Laxminath Bezbarua wrote the 
>famous poem extolling the obvious that we Asomiyas were never poor 
>and had a great heritage, generations of our people have been 
>harping on the same theme. Three decades ago, Dr Bhupen Hazarika had 
>warned through one of his famous songs of the imminent dangers of 
>resting on our oars out of such complacency, but without much 
>success in changing the Asomiya mindset.
>And due to the complacency born out of such a bloated ego, 
>outsiders, both legal and illegal, have cornered almost every 
>lucrative aspect of trade and commerce in Asom. Except for some 
>corrupt officials, fleecing professionals and some goons 
>masquerading as first-generation businessmen, the average Asomiya 
>has become poorer by the day. While a large number of Asomiya youths 
>have migrated outside the State to face the tough competition for 
>earning a living, a sizable section of them continues to be 
>motivated to go underground and involve itself in extortion and 
>fratricidal killings in order to liberate and take back their 
>motherland to its glorious past!
>At a time when the world is termed ''flat'', in the bargain for 
>peace in Asom, we are being asked to go back to a period beyond 1828 
>when it was a sovereign monarchy, which incidentally had much larger 
>territorial limits than what it is today, and which the British had 
>annexed taking advantage of the events following an act of treachery 
>by a member of the then royal family.
>Asomiya think tanks, barring a few, are maintaining safe distance by 
>being ambiguous on this controversial issue involving the future of 
>the Asomiya community, and seem to be waiting for another proverbial 
>sentiment wave to surge. It is high time they made their stand 
>clear: whether they are for or against the call for sovereignty in 
>exchange of durable peace in Asom. Remember, we must move with the 
>changing times.
>HK Borah,
>Guwahati-6.
>
>
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