Tribute paid to freedom fighter Pani Ram Das in Darrang district

Pothoru Samanwaya Gosthi of Pothorughat in Darrang on Wednesday offered floral homage in memory of eminent freedom fighter Pani Ram Das
Tribute paid to freedom fighter Pani Ram Das in Darrang district

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MANGALDAI: Pothoru Samanwaya Gosthi of Pothorughat in Darrang on Wednesday offered floral homage in memory of eminent freedom fighter Pani Ram Das, who is also the first recognized journalist of Darrang district, on his 12th death anniversary.

In the function organized in the PWD Inspection Bungalow at Pothorughat, octogenarian social activist Kali Charan Sarma lit a traditional earthen lamp and offered floral tribute. He also recalled his close association with freedom fighter.

Earlier, secretary of Pothoru Samanwaya Gosthi, Mostak Hussain, while speaking on the life and works of Pani Ram Das, said that the freedom fighter, known for his patriotism and eloquence since his student days, was a student of Pothorughat Minor School from 1929 to 1933. Though he came out with flying colours in Matriculation examination under Calcutta University in 1937, he joined the freedom struggle as a volunteer and in 1938 he joined Assamese daily 'Natun Asomiya' in 1938 as its correspondent at Mangaldai and became the first journalist of the district who reported his first news matter on celebration of Sri Krishna Janmastomi at Poghorughat.

During the freedom struggle he was awarded two years rigorous imprisonment in different jails of Assam. In 1946, he organized a year-long volunteer camp to thwart the pre-planned evil design of pro-Pakistani encroachers who grabbed the agricultural land of indigenous farmers near Mangaldai.

Pani Ram Das was also deeply involved in the six-year long Assam Agitation and on May 30 of 1975, he individually organized a public meeting at Kalaigaon to discuss the gravity of the large-scale immigration of infiltrators to Assam. Besides being arrested and imprisoned under National Security Acts and other fabricated criminal cases several times for his involvement in the Assam Agitation, he was the first person of independent India to spent several months in exile in the dense forest of Bhalukpong in Arunachal Pradesh in 1982 under Assam Maintenance of Public Order Act 1947.

He was deeply involved with the celebration of Krishak Swahid Divas in memory of 140 Krishak Swahids who were brutally gunned down by the British at Pothorughat on January 28 of 1894 and was also the invited guest in the Krishak Swahid Divas celebration by the Army. In the Krishak Swahid Divas celebration at Pothorughat in 2005, the then Deputy Commissioner had addressed him as 'The General in Khadi', which was seconded with a standing ovation by the then GOC of Gajaraj Corps Lt Gen AS Jamwal.

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