All about the historic and revolutionary town of Silchar

SILCHAR, Dec 26 2011: Silchar has its own historic and revolutionary phases in its origin, growth and development from a cantonment of the British to the present status of a populated and thriving town. After the annexation of Cachar by the British in 1832, the English rulers established their administrative unit at Dudhpatil, on the north bank of river Barak. After a few years, they shifted their colony to the villages of Silchar, Tarapur and Malugram on the south bank for security and administrative expediency. Basically, the town was a military base to look after the frontiers and contain the tribal rebels. The bank of the river was strewn with stones called ‘shila’, from which the name Silchar has been derived, pointed out Dr Manujvendra Syam, a leading citizen of this town, while recounting all about the history of this town. By 1855, Silchar became a tea trading centre with plantations coming up. It was also the time when the British railways constructed the Silchar-Badarpur-Lumding-Dibrugarh MG rail route, connecting the port town of Chittagong for easy communication and business. Dr Syam said, “This town has a glorious heritage and tradition in respect of education, freedom struggle, literature, drama, women-liberation movement, sports and journalism”. Boys’ Higher Secondary School, the second oldest institution in Assam, was established in 1863. A dedicated missionary-educationist, Miss E M Lloyed, set up the Girls’ Higher Secondary School. Both the schools played significant role in spreading English education in this valley. Today, we have a university and all the necessary educational institutions, medical, engineering, science, arts, commerce, teachers’ training, polytechnic, law, fine arts as well as painting. Dr Syam said from this town came galaxy of luminaries to shine at the national and international arena. Kamini Kumar Chanda, first member of Viceroy’s executive council from Assam, Dr Triguna Sen, the architect and first rector of Jadavpur University as well as mayor of Calcutta, Ramesh Bhattacharya, the pioneer of Bengali alphabets in telegraphic codes, Ashok Kumar Chanda, first comptroller and auditor general of India, Bashanti Rani Das, first science graduate with honors from Calcutta University, Sisir Kumar Dutta, ICS, the first chief secretary of Assam, Dr Ranjan Kumar Som, first jubilee scholar in statistics and first Indian to be taken as chief population advisor on WHO, Dr Amaresh Dutta, first Indian recipient of award on English poems from Rome and chief editor of Encyclopaedia of Indian literature and languages, Dr Nirupam Kumar Syam, first D Litt of science in Anthropology from Calcutta University and Ashim Kumar Dutta, first Rhode’s scholar in Assam. This town of Silchar, Dr Syam added to say, has a revolutionary role in the freedom struggle of the country. After the partition of Bengal in 1905, Bipin Chandra Paul, eminent orator and national leader, visited here and gave dimension and direction to the freedom movement. Khilafat movement got a boost with the formation of a committee in 1919 under the presidentship of Moulana Pir Mohammed Ali. People rose as one and extended tremendous support to non-cooperation movement in 1921. Salt campaign of 1930 and civil disobedience movement of 1932 gained ground under the leadership of Shyamacharan Dev. Arun Kumar Chanda gave direction to ‘quit India movement’ of 1942 and was imprisoned without trial. Surya Sen, Masterda, the chief of the Chittagong armoury rebellion, came here in 1926 and formed revolutionary organization, creating deep impact on youngsters to join the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose came here between 1922 and 1945 to inspire the freedom movement. SILCHAR, Dec 27: Besides playing historic role in the freedom struggle of this country, Silchar has also been noted for the development of various streams of literature. The ‘man of letters’ like Ram Kumar Nandy, Bharat Chandra Choudhury, Bhuban Mohan Bidyarnarba, Surendra Kumar Chakraborty and other contemporaries contributed towards literary creations. In 1925, literary magazine ‘Bhabisat’ edited by Nagendra Chandra Syam, exponent of Rabindra Nath Tagore, initiated the modern trend and concept in this valley and a host of writers and poets made their appearance. Notable among them were Kamini Kumar Adhikari, Khirod Bihari Som, Bhupendra Chandra Syam, Nirodbaran Goswami, Ashok Bijoy Raha and others. This literary movement influenced the talents of the time like Sudhir Sen, Ramendra Deshmukhya, Phanindra Dutta, Bijoy Bhattacharya as well as Amaresh Dutta enriched the literature which continues to inspire the young generations, Dr Manujvendra Syam said. Speaking about the other significant developments, Dr Syam added to say, Silchar has been pioneer in publishing the first woman journal ‘Bijoyani’ which was edited by Jyostna Chanda in 1940. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya, the great novelist, and Ramananda Chattopadhya, editor of ‘Pravashi’ and ‘Modern Review’ attended the literary conference in 1926 and 1927. Though Rabindra Nath Tagore did not visit Silchar, but the poet got essence of this town during his sojourn through Gauhati-Sylhet route in 1919 when he stayed at Karimganj for some time. In his most lyrical and romantic novel ‘Sheser Kabita’, name of Silchar does come. Dinabandhu Mitra, author of ‘Nil Darpan’ stayed in Silchar in 1871. Sir Ronald Ross, who discovered malaria-parasite, did a part of his research work in Labac Hospital. The famous RDI, better known as the Reading and Dramatic Institute, pointed out Dr Syam, was set up in 1908, the first of its kind in Assam, which played significant role in the propagation of opera in Northeast. Moni Bhattacharya, the maker of famous film ‘Mujhe Jine Do’, was from this town. This town again was the centre of women liberation movement. The first drama in Assam with absolute women casting was performed before public 1937 under the guidance of Malati Syam, social worker and front-liner of women liberation movement. She was also behind the holding of sports tournament for women in 1938. Modern polo was first played here and the polo field of this town is regarded as the oldest one in the world. India Club, the first club in Assam, founded by Capt NM Gupta in 1900, brought Assam on the football map of India. The football team of this Club took part in IFA Shield in 1917 and Beighton Cup tournament in 1920. It was again this town which brought out many football players of eminence like Ashutosh Dutta, once captain of East Bengal Club and others. Recreating from the past, Dr Syam said in the field of journalism too, role of Silchar is significant. The first newspaper titled Silchar was published in the first decade of 20th century. It was followed by the publication of Surma, Saptak and Prichyabartha and thereafter it was the ever growing number of publications, daily, bi-weekly, weekly and fortnightly. ‘Prantajyoti’ is the first Bengali daily of Assam which continues gloriously. Today, this town can be proud of the publication of other five Bengali dailies which include Jugasankha, Samayik Prasanga, Gati, Janakantha and Sakalbela, besides two English dailies The Sentinel and Eastern Chronicle. The sparsely populated town which started as a cantonment of the British with dense forests and jungles around abounding with flora and fauna is today a concrete jungle with burgeoning population. (Concluded) source: http://www.sentinelassam.com/cachar/story.php?sec=2&subsec=12&id=101744&dtP=2011-12-28&ppr=1#101744