Chandraprabha: Birth of an Icon

Hiranya Borah, ISS

Chandraprabha Saikiani was the epitome of an excellent human being, blended with the mind of a social reformer, a fighter, a writer, a poet, a freedom fighter, a teacher, an excellent mother and, above all, someone having an outlook much ahead of her time. Chandraprabha was born to Gangapriya Majumdar, wife of Ratiram Majumdar, on 16 March, 1901, in a small sleepy village, Doisingri, in the Bajali area.

Every successful woman has a man behind her. In the case of Chandraprabha, it was her father, Ratiram Majumdar. Her mother, Gangapriya, also contributed a lot in making Chandraprabha an icon of Assam in due course of time.

Ratiram Majumdar, the village headman of Doisingri, was a man with a vision much ahead of his time. The Bajali area has been fertile ground for cultural and educational excellence for a long time. He might be a well-educated person in contemporary Assam, as during those days the literacy percentage in Assam was less than two per cent, out of which more than ninety per cent belonged to the upper castes. Being from the ‘Sut’ caste, a great deal of credit goes to Ratiram Majumdar himself, his family and the Bajali area for the congenial atmosphere for education. From his early days, he understood the importance of modern education, not only for men but also for women. The same is the case for Gangapriya. She sent her three children to attain education at her maternal village, Bhaluki Gaon, near Tihu. Even though Gangapriya herself never received any formal education, her younger sister, Chenipriya, was the head teacher of a school in Bhaluki Gaon; the school was purportedly established by their father.

If Chandraprabha became an icon of Assam, much credit goes to her parents and grandparents for her education and afterwards to her parents for emotional support during her struggle for independence against the social evils to keep her dignity in a hawkish society that always liked to criticise only women for social crimes in which men were also equally liable. Perhaps, without their rock-solid support, Chandraprabha could not have overcome the onslaught of criticism from the common people for being a single mother of Atul Saikia, a renowned face of modern Assam in his own right. Another lady deserves credit for Chandraprabha becoming an icon of Assam: Aunt Chenipriya. Because of her contributions, one of her nieces became an icon of Assam, and the other one became the first lady MB doctor of Assam.

Unfortunately, unlike the two daughters, the son of the couple came out to be a hopeless person who mortgaged entire immovable properties without the knowledge of other members of the family. Chandraprabha played the role of a son to her parents by fighting a long legal battle for clearing the mortgage of the immovable properties. Later on, she bought a bus to make ends meet for her family. Incidentally, she was the first female entrepreneur in Assam to run a bus on a regular route.

When Chandraprabha started primary education at Bhaluki Gaon, she was the only girl student in her class. She completed her primary school in 1911 by winning a silver medal.

However, there was no school in the vicinity of her or her maternal grandfather’s village for girls to pursue post-primary courses. Given such difficulties, an ordinary father could have stopped her from pursuing further schooling at that time itself. But her father was no ordinary man. Chandraprabha was admitted to the nearest Koithamari Boys’ MV School, situated a few miles away from her home, for her middle-level studies against the will of the other villagers. However, probably, Chandraprabha could not complete her middle education at Koithamari Boys’ MV School, as the road leading to that school was submerged in floodwater during summer. During the same time in 1913-14, she was credited with opening a school at Akaya.

There is a saying, ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.’ A long to-and-fro journey on foot to Koithamari Boys’ MV School and subsequently to Akaya village gave young Chandrapriya ample time to understand the gender inequality, the caste system and its exploitation prevailing in the rural areas of Assam, the drawbacks of being a citizen of a dependent country, poverty, etc., from a very close range. These were the years that helped the young Chandraprabha to grow into a mature person with a vision beyond her time.

During this period of time, a miracle had happened.

Nilakanta Barua, an Assistant Inspector of Schools, inspected the Akaya School in 1914 and was very impressed with the sincerity and devotion of Chandrapriya. He not only advised her to continue her further studies at Nagaon Missionary School but also arranged two seats for both the sisters, Chandrapriya and Rameshwari, along with hostel accommodation and a scholarship.

Accordingly, in 1915, both Chandrapriya and Rameswari were admitted to Nagaon Mission School with two new names: Chandraprabha (Chandrapriya) and Rajaniprabha (Rameswari).

Within a short time, Chandraprabha turned unhappy to see that the Christian girls were allotted proper hostel seats, whereas Hindu girls were accommodated in the dingy adjacent rooms of the church. However, the flashpoint came in 1916 when a Hindu girl was forced to stay in a storeroom on the pretext of not having any accommodation for the girl, though accommodation was very much available in the hostel for the Christian girls. Chandraprabha and a few other girls confronted the warden for the discrimination against the Hindu girl. To their utter disgust, the hostel warden curtly said that Indians were habituated to staying in worse conditions than the allotted storeroom.

Then, with a lot of courage and determination, Chandraprabha painstakingly united the girls from all religions, including the Christian ones, and staged a strong protest against the discriminatory attitude of the management of the school towards the non-Christian girls. Finally, it is said that all the bigoted customs had to be abandoned by the missionary school forever. That was the birth of a revolutionary leader.

After three years in the missionary school, in 1917, she joined the teachers’ training in Normal School for one year. After successful completion of the teachers’ training course, she joined the Normal Practicing School as a teacher. After serving in that school for some time, she became the head teacher of a girls’ M.E. school in Tezpur in 1918. During 2017-18, she purportedly established a Mahila Samiti at Nagaon.

At Tezpur she came in contact with some of the stalwarts of Assam, like Omeo Kumar Das, Chandranath Sarma, Lakhidhar Sarma and Jyoti Prasad Agarwala.

In the plenary session of Axam Xahitya Xanmilon (Xabha), 1918, at Tezpur, Chandraprabha was the only woman to get an opportunity to address the public. Her lecture on banning opium consumption was a historical event, as for the first time, a lady was addressing a public meeting in Assam. She was able to deliver one of the most memorable lectures, where she had raised the menace of widespread use of opium among the local poor people. She was able to elaborate in simple language on the fallout in a family even if a single member of the family consumed opium on a regular basis. She urged all the young educated people to impress upon the common people the ill effects of the consumption of opium. Her impressive lecture was the beginning of her career as a public speaker and a social reformer.

In 1919, Tezpur Mahila Samiti was established, and Chandraprabha became the first General Secretary of the committee under the presidentship of Kironmoyee Agarwala, mother of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala.

Gandhiji, on his visit to Assam in 1921, visited Tezpur also. At the request of the members of the Samiti, spearheaded by Chandraprabha and Kironmoyee Agarwala, Gandhiji inaugurated the Mahila Samiti at Tezpur along with the ‘Sipini Bhoral’, where khadi and pat-muga fabric would be woven on handlooms by women. On the following day, a meeting was arranged by Mahila Samiti at the Bengali theatre where Gandhiji, along with Kasturba Gandhi and Shaukat Ali, had addressed the gathering. Young Chandraprabha shared the dais with Mahatma Gandhi on that day.

During that visit, an event of ‘burning of imported clothes’ was also organized. Taking part in the event, Chandraprabha burnt her Mekhala Chadar, woven locally with imported yarn. She vowed to use only Khadi dresses in her entire life, which she maintained until her death in 1972.

In 1921, a story, ‘Debee’ (May), and an article on ‘Mulagabharu’ (December), written by her, were published in the Assamese periodical, Banhee. That marked the beginning of Chandraprabha as a writer in Assamese literature.

In 1923, during the felicitation ceremony after their release from jail (for the Non-Cooperation Movement, 1921) at Curzon Hall in Guwahati, she met Nabin Chandra Bordoloi, Tarun Ram Phukan and other top leaders of the Assam Congress Committee. Her meeting with these leaders was a master stroke on her part, as their acceptance of Chandraprabha in a huge public gathering as a Congress worker and social reformer became a watershed moment for Assam, considering her single-mother status. This was perhaps one of the glorious moments of women’s empowerment in Assamese history.

For the record, only a few months ago, she had become a single mother after the birth of her son, Atul, in 1923 at Doisingri. She gave birth to Atul by rejecting the advice of her consort for abortion. To protect his dignity and job, she sacrificed her position as a government head teacherforever. When she returned to Doisingri without a job at hand or sufficient money, she had to start a life full of uncertainty.

Therefore, by taking Chandraprabha into their fold, the stalwarts of Assam sent a message to the masses that despite her single-mother status, she was very important to the society and for the freedom struggle of India. Although this episode was mentioned as a passing comment in most of the books and articles on the icon, in my opinion, this was the most important turning point for Chandraprabha, as a leader and as a social reformer.

After she was accepted by the top Congress leaders as one of them, she did not look back, as a revolutionary leader of Assam in her association with the freedom struggle of India, or in social reforms against the social evils prevailing in Assam, or in the literary world. During the next year, she consolidated her position as a social reformer and freedom fighter by visiting several villages and meeting thousands of women in general, and women in distress in particular. During this period, she addressed many public meetings, urging people to join in the freedom struggle and shun the social evils from the society. Through her active participation in a number of social activities, her status grew by leaps and bounds during this period.

Thus, the Iron Lady of Assam was born.

Her Achievements in a Nutshell

1. When she was just 12-13 years old, she established a primary school for girls.

2. She, at the age of 15, became the first young woman of Assam to have raised her voice against the discriminatory treatment against the Hindu girl students in the Nowgong Mission School.

3. She was the first convener of the Girls’ Volunteer Force of the Assam Chatra Sanmilan at Tezpur in 1919.

4. In 1920-21, she established the Tezpur Mahila Samiti as the General Secretary of the Mahila Samiti.

5. She shared a dais with the Father of the Nation at the age of 20.

6. In 1925, at 24, her fiery speech at the Axam Xahitya Xabha influenced hundreds of women to discard the purdah system prevalent in Assam for the first time.

7. At the age of 25, in 1926, she established the Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti (APMS) that scaled a new height in the Indian struggle for independence and the women’s empowerment movement in Assam.

8. She was perhaps the first woman entrepreneur in Assam to have run a bus from Dhupdhara to Barpeta in the early 1960s and a city bus in Guwahati in the late 1960s. She was also the first lady of Assam who used to ride a bicycle (1926).

9. In her early 20s, she became a proud single mother outside formal wedlock, which was unimaginable in the early 1920s. She was bold enough to provide a quality education to her son, Atul Chandra Saikia, who was also a noted freedom fighter and a famous trade union leader who went on to become an MLA from the East Guwahati constituency.

10. She was a reasonably good writer and poet. She published her first novel in 1937 (Pitri Vitha). She had been a regular contributor to almost all the Assamese periodicals since 1920.

11. She fought the election for the Assam assembly on a Congress ticket in 1957. Though she lost the election, it opened the floodgates for women politicians to fight subsequent elections and become members of the Parliament and Assam Assembly.

12. She became a jail visitor and submitted a report where she suggested many reforms for the jails in Assam (1960).

13. She was the Founder President of Assam Krishak Sabha (1969) to help the farmers of Assam to raise their united voices.

14. When she was the president of Assam Pradeshik Mahila Samiti, the construction of the permanent office building in the Guwahati Club area was started, and Mahila Samiti was able to establish an orphanage and a weaving school in and around Guwahati.

15. She was one of the few mothers of India who went to jail along with her own son during the Quit India Movement, 1942.

16. She was instrumental in conducting the first census for girls’ education in 4 districts of Assam.

17. She was a face of the saviours in many natural and man-made disasters in Assam, including for the 1950 earthquakes’ victims and refugees from East Pakistan, 1947-51.

And so on

(The article is an excerpt from my book, Chandraprabha: The Iron Lady of Assam.)