Guwahati: A silk waistcoat over a dhoti-kurta and a handwoven sling bag “to carry essentials”. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was making a statement with his ensemble as he shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April. It was, after all, a special occasion.
Two days earlier, Assam had set two Guinness world records simultaneously — the largest Bihu dance with 11,298 participants, and the largest performance by folk musicians. The grand performance at Sarusajai Stadium was the culmination of weeks of rigorous practice involving Bihu artistes, trainers, choreographers and technicians.
Although this was not the first time a chief minister tried to harness Assam’s lucrative cultural distinctiveness, none did it as assertively as Sarma. With his speeches, often high on emotions and laced with anecdotes or sarcasm, the 54-year-old has been successful at mobilising crowds across the state.
From promoting Bihu to honouring 17th-century Ahom warrior Lachit Barphukan, Sarma has in his speeches asserted that the BJP government in Assam intends to ensure that the cultural legacy of the Ahom dynasty is acknowledged in Delhi and elsewhere.
Addressing a public meeting in Kamrup district on 9 July and another in Jorhat on 10-11 July, Sarma was quick to attribute the “peaceful situation” in the state to the efforts of the prime minister. He also lauded the BJP government in the state led by him for mounting a successful campaign to “protect the cultural heritage of Assam”.
Akhil Ranjan Dutta, head of the department of political science at Gauhati University, describes this burst of cultural and ethnic sub-nationalism as “the politics of neoliberal Hindutva”.
He adds that this is akin to “creating a kind of mass fever, or manufacturing a psyche around festivities, history, and heroes of the past, which renders people incapable of questioning economic and political processes”.
Sushanta Talukdar, senior journalist and editor of the online magazine NEZINE, says he views these actions as a “smokescreen created to cover the BJP’s core politics of reducing cultural identities to religious identities”.
“The (Assam) government has created constituencies of different communities in the name of promoting their culture, but is actually tweaking these into binaries of religious identities,” he adds.
Others feel that Sarma’s efforts are aimed at pleasing the BJP’s central leadership and projecting himself as the party’s undisputed leader in the Northeast.
“The dominance of Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam’s politics is so pronounced that ministers of his cabinet seem to have lost their space and mostly remain invisible. Even opposition leaders are overshadowed. He is, in a sense, very efficient but is also over-ambitious,” says former Assam director general of police (DGP) and writer Harekrishna Deka.
Deka adds that every move by the chief minister is “purposefully designed to showcase his political acumen and indispensability as an efficient regional political strategist for his party”.
Rajya Sabha MP and political secretary to the chief minister, Pabitra Margherita, however, describes Sarma’s tenure as the “golden era of Modern Assam”.
Development of a community or a state not only depends on infrastructure growth, but overall progress that includes intellectual development as well, he tells ThePrint. “In this regard, the state government under the leadership of Himanta Biswa Sarma has worked in parallel mode. Along with roads, bridges, integrated offices, schools and colleges, and maintenance of law and order, a socio-cultural and intellectual growth has been possible because of the chief minister’s visionary approach. Not just Ahom, he has given importance to every community. The public outreach has been planned in a scientific way.”
Margherita elaborates how the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan was “not merely an event of cultural activities, but a continuous process to preserve his legacy”.
“Historical icons are the pride of any community, the present government has taken up initiatives to not only honour Lachit Barphukan, but also to recognise the bravery of 10,000 Ahom warriors who sacrificed their lives on a single day in the Battle of Alaboi in 1669. Such steps have rejuvenated the self respect and pride of a community. In nine years of BJP rule in Assam, there has also been no incident of conflict between communities,” he adds.
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Honouring legacy of Ahom dynasty
The Ahoms are largely credited with establishing political and cultural unity among different ethnic groups in Assam, besides bringing about economic stability to the region. Siu-ka-pha, the first Tai ruler, had established the Tai Ahom kingdom in the 13th century. The dynasty ruled the region from the 13th to the 19th century.
Initiatives undertaken by the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government to nurture the cultural identity of the Assamese people range from setting world records, celebrating the birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan to the renovation of the historic Rang Ghar — a 17th century sports pavilion in Sivasagar, the erstwhile capital of the Ahom kingdom, built during the reign of Ahom king Swargadeo Rudra Singha — at a cost of Rs 124 crore.
মাননীয় প্ৰধানমন্ত্ৰী শ্ৰীনৰেন্দ্ৰ মোদী ডাঙৰীয়াৰ নিৰৱচ্ছিন্ন সহায়-সহযোগিতা আৰু আশীৰ্বাদৰ ফলত অসমত শান্তি আৰু সমৃদ্ধিৰ ক্ষেত্ৰত এক নতুন যুগৰ সূচনা হৈছে। মহাবীৰ লাচিত বৰফুকনৰ ৪০০সংখ্যক জন্মজয়ন্তীৰ কাৰ্যসূচী, বিশাল বিহু নৃত্য কাৰ্যসূচীৰ গীনিজ ৱৰ্ল্ড ৰেকৰ্ডছত নাম সন্নিৱিষ্ট আৰু… pic.twitter.com/fkBTJ0sXbc
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 9, 2023
To that effect, Assam has now set its sights on yet another world record, which it aims to achieve before 2026.
On 1 July, Sarma announced that he was thinking of organising a Bihu dance with 25,000 participants. The idea, he said, occurred to him during one of Modi’s visits to the state when he was welcomed by “3,000-4,000 Bihu dancers” at Tingkhong in Dibrugarh district.
“I thought if Dibrugarh has this many Bihuwa and Bihuwati (male and female Bihu artistes), Sivasagar and Charaideo, and other places too would have as many. Now, I am thinking if we can perform in New Delhi with 25,000 dancers. In informal language, such a performance would be quite a jolt for onlookers (Manuh hili jaabo…),” he said at a public meeting.
Coming soon ~ 25,000 Bihuwas and Bihuwatis to perform the World’s Largest Bihu in New Delhi.
अपना ही world record तोड़कर एक नया वर्ल्ड रिकॉर्ड बनायेंगे । pic.twitter.com/B5OpyjVdA4
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 1, 2023
On 11 July, Sarma announced his next ambitious project, aimed at honouring Assamese icon Lachit Barphukan, the Ahom warrior who led his forces to victory in the Battle of Saraighat. The naval battle, fought on the banks of the Brahmaputra river in 1671, saw the Ahom forces defeat Aurangzeb’s Mughal army then under the command of Raja Ram Singh I.
Addressing a public meeting at the Sukapha Samannay Kshetra museum in Jorhat, the chief minister said a “Sahitya Akademi recognition holder would write the history of Lachit Barphukan, and it would be translated into every Indian language — Tamil to Gujarati, Bengali to Marathi”.
He added that this book would be released “around January-February next year in every capital city of India”.
In November last year, a three-day celebration was held in Delhi to mark the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan. The ceremony was attended by Modi and several ministers of the Union cabinet.
In March, the state government had set another Guinness world record — with its essay writing campaign to mark the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan — for the largest online photo album of handwritten notes. The campaign received some 43 lakh entries in different languages.
The achievement came days after another celebration over the central government receiving technical clearance from UNESCO for World Heritage Site status for the moidams of Charaideo linked to the Ahom dynasty. India’s sole nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage Site status this year, the Moidams await an evaluation in October by experts from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
The moidams offer a window into the almost 600-year-old Tai Ahom dynasty. More importantly, it is part of the BJP government’s push to highlight warriors across India who fought the Mughals. From Shah Jahan to Aurangzeb, the Ahoms fought the Mughals and prevented their expansion into the Northeast. According to oral history, as many as 10 moidams are believed to have been vandalised by the army of Mir Jumla, a governor under Aurangzeb who invaded the Ahom kingdom in 1662.
Yet another cultural project Sarma has embarked on is the renovation of Rang Ghar. The oval sports pavilion was the venue for games and events held for Ahom royals to witness, especially during the Rongali Bihu, a harvest festival.
The BJP government in Assam also has plans to promote Rongali Bihu. Sarma had announced that starting from 2024, the state will host a seven-day Bihu festival, on the lines of Nagaland’s famous Hornbill festival, at the Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati and Rang Ghar in Sivasagar.
“During the Ahom rule, the Swargadeo (divine kings) upheld the cultural tradition of Bihu, assimilating all people together. In two years of our governance, and with the blessing of Swargadeo Siu-ka-pha, we have been able to achieve our goals of protecting the cultural heritage of Assam,” he had told the audience at the public meeting in Jorhat on 11 July.
আজি যোৰহাটৰ স্বৰ্গদেউ চাওলুং ছ্যু-কা-ফা সমন্বয় ক্ষেত্ৰত উপস্থিত হৈ বৰ অসমৰ ভেটি গঢ়োঁতা মহান আহোম স্বৰ্গদেউ চাওলুং ছ্যু-কা-ফালৈ গভীৰ শ্ৰদ্ধা নিবেদন কৰোঁ।
Offered Shraddhanjali to Swargadeo Chaolung Siu-Ka-Pha, founder of the Ahom Kingdom and icon of nation building 🙏 pic.twitter.com/0TOxMNaHKe
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 11, 2023
On 10 July, Sarma visited Jorhat to review the progress of the proposed memorial and cultural complex under construction at the Lachit Barphukan Maidam in Hollongapar, besides that of the Sukapha Sammanay Kshetra in Mohbandha. Funds amounting to Rs 100 crore over the next three years have been earmarked for its beautification.
And while a second campus of the Guwahati-situated Assam State Museum is to be constructed in Jorhat, a 125-feet statue of Bir Lachit is also being built at the Lachit Barphukan Maidam, which would be unveiled by January next year. The project will be completed at a cost of Rs 120 crore.
The world’s tallest statue of Bir Lachit Barphukan is expected to be ready by January 2024. Earlier today, I visited the construction site.
📍 Hollongapar, Jorhat District pic.twitter.com/s443Tn8tnt
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 10, 2023
“About 12 percent work for the Lachit Moidam memorial is complete. We are building it across 50 bighas of land donated by villagers. In Noida, a massive statue of Barphukan is being constructed and almost 60 percent of work is complete,” Sarma told reporters in Jorhat.
On Saturday, the chief minister took to Twitter to share pictures from his two-day trip to Jorhat, stating that the “district is closely tied to the birth of Assam Tea and the history of the Ahom Kingdom”.
Earlier this week, I spent two memorable days in Jorhat. The district is closely tied to the birth of Assam Tea and the history of the Ahom Kingdom.
Sharing some glimpses: pic.twitter.com/n6cvdHcwZ4
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 15, 2023
Sources in Dispur said the government is planning to launch a global tea campaign to mark the completion of 200 years of the tea industry in Assam.
Religious undertones & Opposition
In January, Sarma sparked a controversy by suggesting that Ismail Siddique (Bagh Hazarika), the 17th century warrior who fought the Mughals alongside Lachit Barphukan, was a fictional character. This did not go down well with many, especially Assam’s indigenous Muslim population.
People in Assam may follow different religions, but share a common culture. Different identities have been made stronger by a common language (Asomiya).
Gauhati University professor Dutta, quoted earlier, points out that in the new Hindutva politics, “they (BJP) no longer focus on religious enemies, but a civilisational enemy or enemy of the indigenous communities, and indirectly referring to a particular religion”.
He adds, “Assam is recognised by its linguistic and cultural nationalism, and also, territorial nationalism. People may have different religions, dress codes or food habits, but if you conform to and respect the fact that Assamese/Asomiya is the official language, and Bihu is our Jatiya (national) festival, we do not have a problem. Bihu and the Asomiya language are the two foundational premises of Assamese nationalism.”
“But you are not respecting this fact when you keep referring to a particular community as a civilisational enemy,” he tells ThePrint.
He further says that people in Assam today are “not talking about the control they have on their own resources”.
“Rather, they have been driven to a situation where they are more concerned about the traditional symbols, rituals and festivities. This is not the Hindutva of Savarkar or of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is a kind of Hindutva politics where the corporates have been given free hand in appropriation of resources, and the government knows that people no longer come out united and in large numbers to resist such attempts.”
The Opposition in Assam, meanwhile, sees Sarma’s cultural projects as an attempt to “mollify the sentiments of the public that can see through the malafide intentions of the current BJP leadership”.
Kaliabor MP and deputy leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, says Sarma is “emulating the previous Congress government in Assam”.
Elaborating on developments under the leadership of his father and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the opposition leader says it was the Congress that “built a Bir Lachit Borphukan statue in the middle of Brahmaputra river in Guwahati, created a Guinness world record with artistes from Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha (largest social-religious organisation in Assam) playing khol (drums), and established the Swargdeo Sukapha cultural centre in Jorhat, while also promoting Bihu culture across the world.”
On issues such as Delimitation, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the delay in the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the granting of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for six major ethnic communities, Gogoi tells ThePrint that despite his many cultural projects, Sarma’s statements and decisions have only isolated indigenous communities — especially Ahoms, Goriya-Moriya and the Koch Rajbongshi.
“The former chief minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, was from a prominent ST community, and we all know how he was replaced,” he adds.
Basanta Deka, educationist and one among the chief advisers to the regional party Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), alleges that Sarma’s cultural initiatives are “driven by narrow political objectives”.
“It is a shame that Himanta Biswa Sarma, on behalf of the RSS and the BJP, is projecting Lachit Barphukan as a Hindu hero. It only demonstrates their lack of knowledge. It is a shame that he is creating cultural beneficiaries while borrowing money from financial institutions.
“Development of primary schools is more important culturally than spending Rs 100 crore to earn a Guinness world record. He is placating the Ahom after reducing their importance in the delimitation process.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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