In remembrance of Harendra Nath Barua

Dr Ankita Dutta

Not everyone’s name is forever etched in history. It is the impact of their lives and works that establishes a long-lasting legacy which continues to guide us, even in their absence. One such immortal name in the socio-political landscape of Assam is Asompran Harendra Nath Barua, a nationalist and freedom fighter who always strove for Assam’s cultural integrity with Bharat. Harendra Nath Barua’s legacy as a brilliant intellectual and journalist of principles immediately evokes a sense of utmost respect in the hearts and minds of the Assamese.

Born in 1908 to Ramakanta Barua and Sabitri Barua in the small village of Mohima, 12 kilometres away from Golaghat town, Harendra Nath Barua was inspired by Karamveer Nabin Chandra Bordoloi. He went to Gauhati in 1925 after passing his matriculation examination from Golaghat Bezbarua High School. He passed the Intermediate Arts (IA) examination in 1928 as a non-collegiate candidate from Victoria College in Cooch Behar under Calcutta University after being debarred from appearing from Cotton College for his political activities against the British Government. He passed the BA examination from Cotton College and later graduated in law. However, he could not complete his MA in English due to his political activism.

Harendra Nath Barua was a friend and contemporary of Mahendra Mohan Choudhury, both being born in the same year. Barua began his journalistic career in 1933 as assistant editor to the then editor Padmadhar Chaliha of the Chandra Kumar Agarwala-founded bi-weekly newspaper Asomiya. When he later took over the editorship of the said newspaper on March 13, 1934, after completing his graduation, he fought a fierce war against the government’s policies concerning the unchecked infiltration of Muslims from East Bengal. A conspiracy was already going on for the transfer of the erstwhile Goalpara district to West Bengal. In this regard, Harendra Nath Barua’s counterargument, addressed in his letterhead dt. 19.12.1935, to the then Secretary of the Goalpara Branch of the Assam Domiciled People’s and Settlers’ Association, Kshirode Mohan Sen, is an example of his work going beyond his assigned official duty.

When the Muslim League Ministry in Assam, led by Sadullah, tried conjuring up blatant falsehoods to prove that Assam was a Muslim-majority province to be rightfully included in the proposed East Pakistan, Harendra Nath Barua, along with Gopinath Bordoloi and others, was at the forefront of exposing their false claims. Sadullah’s ‘Grow More Food’ scheme, the Line System, allowing the occupation of fertile lands by Bengali Muslims, the British Government’s increase of land revenue (khajona) for the native Assamese, etc., were continuously discussed by him in different editorials published in the Asomiya. Especially his editorials pertaining to the British Government’s land revenue regulations and demand for its reduction at the rate of eight annas per rupee garnered widespread attention.

Harendra Nath Barua made scathing attacks on all those people harbouring secessionist tendencies, while also questioning the diabolical role of the Tribal League leaders in supporting the Sadullah Ministry. It was none other than Barua who first detected the sinister agenda behind the disastrous Grouping Proposal of the British Government once it was made public on May 16, 1946. As per this proposal, Assam was to be included in a Muslim-dominated and linguistically Bengali-majority state with the support of the Central Congress leaders. Immediately, he wrote a detailed article in the Asomiya against it, cautioning the Central Congress Party for its near-complete acceptance of the same. Barua was a member of the Congress Party at that time, and his views drew sharp reactions from top Congress leaders such as Md. Tayebullah, who supported the proposal.

It was a difficult task to extricate Assam out of it in the face of the Central Congress leaders’ desperation to gain independence by any means. Under such circumstances, Barua led a delegation of the Assam Congress Working Committee comprising Devakanta Barooah, Hareswar Goswami, Kamakhya Prasad Tripathi, and Pushpalata Das to present Assam’s case to the members of the Central Congress Working Committee in Delhi. As the seniormost member of the delegation, the memorandum was prepared by Barua himself.

Harendra Nath Barua continued to serve as the editor of Asomiya till a little after Independence. Because of his active involvement in the freedom struggle, his career as a journalist saw numerous gaps. Till at least 1949, Barua was a staunch Congressman, but, whenever required, he never shied away from criticising the party. In 1949, Asomiya closed down permanently due to financial reasons. Barua resigned from the Congress after Independence during the early 1950s and thus retired from active party politics. After severing all ties with the Congress, he decided to pursue journalism independently as a full-time profession. Back then, journalism was a career fraught with many risks. He preferred to be non-political while pursuing journalism, although his former colleagues in the Congress Party continued to consider him as a congressman.

In 1950, along with former Congress MLA Beliram Das, Harendra Nath Barua founded the bi-weekly newspaper Tinidiniya Raij that he himself edited. In many of his editorials, he had vividly brought to light the lawlessness perpetrated by the Communists in Assam. But, after about two years of its publication, Barua fell seriously ill and had to undergo an emergency operation. Since he had to be bedridden for long, he indulged himself in freelance journalism by writing articles for the Calcutta-based Statesman and Amrita Bazar Patrika.

When the States Reorganisation Commission, appointed by the Government of India to constitute states on the basis of language, visited Assam in 1954, many organisations submitted their memorandums. One such memorandum was submitted on May 14, 1954, under the banner of the All Assam States Reorganisation Conference. The memorandum was prepared by Harendra Nath Barua in his capacity as the General Secretary of the organisation. It presented a detailed survey of the Assamese language and denounced all claims of vested interest groups to include the old Goalpara district in West Bengal. It had rather argued for the inclusion of Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri into Assam, based on the history, culture, and languages spoken in these regions. Harendra Nath Barua ensured in every way possible that the memorandum reached the Congress headquarters in New Delhi. He also ensured that leading citizens from the so-called disputed district of Goalpara appeared before the Commission to submit supplementary memorandums opposing the transfer of Goalpara to West Bengal. In this connection, the letter of Shri Pramoth Nath Chakraborty dt. 02.05.1955 and addressed to Harendra Nath Barua may be referred to.

It was in 1956 that Harendra Nath Barua took over the editorship of Natun Asomiya, the only local Assamese-language daily of that time. During the turbulent times of the language disturbances, Natun Asomiya actively fought against the propaganda of the politically influential Calcutta-based anti-Assamese lobby. These events have been described in detail by Barua in his brochure titled A Glimpse of Assam Disturbances, where he had also put forth the demand for making Assamese the state language. Although he was not directly associated with the Assam Sahitya Sabha, upon its request, he accompanied one of its delegations to New Delhi for explaining Assam’s case and the disturbances that ensued because of the agitation for declaring Assamese as the state language. 

In many of his editorials published in Natun Asomiya, Harendra Nath Barua forcefully refuted the claims of the Assam Domiciled People’s and Settlers’ Association to make Assam a multilingual state. Besides this, he also earnestly took up the causes for sanctioning a bridge over the Brahmaputra, establishinganother refinery in the state, declaringAssamese as the state language, etc. For his fearless attitude, Barua earned the wrath of many powerful political leaders, including Moinul Haque Choudhury, who was the most vocal minister against him in the ministry of Bimala Prasad Chaliha (1957-1970).

Harendra Nath Barua was also one of the first to have brought to the public notice the unusually high increase in the number of voters in the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency, which eventually became the focal point of the Assam Movement (1979-1985). One of his articles published sometime in November, 1978, in the editorial page of The Assam Tribune had quoted the then Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India S.L. Sakhdher’s speech in this regard that was delivered in the meeting of the Chief Electoral Officers of the States and Union Territories held in Ooty in October, 1978. However, the CEC later somersaulted from his statement under political pressure. Thus, Barua had enlightened the common masses about the core problem well ahead of time. He finally retired from active journalism in 1976 after serving as the editor of Natun Asomiya for a long 20-year period. When not editing newspapers, Barua briefly practised law in the 1940s. He always took the lead in explaining to the people of Assam about the imminent dangers of demographic change. He was not happy at the final outcome of the Assam Movement and the agreement reached by the AASU with the government on the cut-off date for the determination of illegal immigrants.

Till his death on August 31, 1987, Harendra Nath Barua protested against every such action of the government which he perceived as unjust. He was truly a living legend of Bharat who never succumbed to any political pressure. Any honest political commentator of the present times cannot ignore Barua’s approach to the burning problem of infiltration from erstwhile East Bengal (later East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) facing Assam and the probable solutions that he had come up with. Politicians and intellectuals across a diverse spectrum of the society, including Dr Rajendra Prasad, Gopinath Bordoloi, Gauri Shankar Bhattacharyya and even Dr Hiren Gohain, have, on record, acknowledged his role in Assam’s fight against Grouping. The Govt. of Assam had awarded him a literary pension of Rs. 400/- per month in the first batch itself without him asking for it. Also, another Rs. 400/- per month was awarded by the Central Government for only about five years before his death. That was all he owned.

(In the memory of Harendra Nath Barua on his 38th death anniversary)