Bardoloi & Assam

On Sunday, Assam rather silently observed the 131st birth anniversary of Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi, the greatest leader of this region in modern times, who had, among other things, saved Assam from being included in East Pakistan. While the government issued advertisements in the print media to pay tributes to the Lokapriya, it has also described him as the source of all inspirations for building a strong and prosperous Assam. Bardoloi, who had become the Premier of Assam at the crucial time when the Cabinet Mission of the British government came to India with a set of proposals which included placing Assam in the Muslim League's Grouping Plan so that it can become part of Jinnah's proposed Pakistan. While Nehru, Maulana Azad and others had, by and large, agreed to Jinnah's proposal by way of ignoring Bardoloi's stand, it was Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who threw their weight behind the Lokapriya in saving AsOn Sunday, Assam rather silently observed the 131st birth anniversary of Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi, the greatest leader of this region in modern times, who had, among other things, saved Assam from being included in East Pakistan. While the government issued advertisements in the print media to pay tributes to the Lokapriya,am from that sinister design. One must recall that while Lord Curzon had opened the floodgates for migration of land-hungry Muslim peasants from Sylhet and Mymensingh by clubbing Assam with the newly-created Eastern Bengal in 1905, the Muslim League – to which some members of Syed Md Saadullah's first elected government in Assam in 1937 belonged – made a determined move to include Assam in their proposed East Pakistan. And, as the Cabinet Mission arrived, Jinnah's Muslim League worked overtime with the help of several prominent Muslim leaders of Assam (including several from the Brahmaputra Valley) to get their dream fulfilled. The objective of the Muslim League at that time became so pronounced that HS Suhrawardy, secretary of the Muslim League Parliamentary Board, made a public statement in 1946 thus: "The Muslims of Bengal have awakened from their slumber and are determined to achieve Pakistan in alliance with our brothers in Assam." Appearing before the Cabinet Mission on April 1, 1946, Bardoloi vehemently opposed the Muslim League demand and pointed out that Assam was a province formed on a linguistic and cultural basis and that there was no question of clubbing Assam with a Muslim state. Nehru and Azad were initially hesitant; it was only after Bardoloi earned the blessings of Gandhiji and Patel that the Congress Working Committee extended support to him. But then, though Bardoloi saved Assam, Jinnah's progenies are still at work to realize that dream of converting Assam into what the Muslim League had envisaged way back in the 1930s and 1940s. Given this backdrop, Bardoloi should be remembered by the people of Assam every day.