Bid to establish freedom fighter as national hero

orhat, Aug. 12: A drama, a memorial and now a documentary. The Gomodhar Konwar Smriti Surakshya Committee is all set to take the cause of Assam’s first freedom fighter right to the doorsteps of Delhi in a bid to establish him as a national hero.

Addressing a meeting here today, Jintu Hazarika, chief secretary of the committee, said freedom fighters like Mangal Pandey, Rani Lakshmi Bai and Bhagat Singh were household names on whom both films and soaps had been made. But an Ahom prince who had rallied his men and stood up to the British in the early 19th century had been only recently accorded state recognition and was relatively unknown in the rest of the country.

“It is disheartening that the government has done nothing to propagate the name of Konwar who fought valiantly against the British and declared himself king at Gharphalia-Maibella here in 1827. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi had promised to give us funds for a documentary on him when we had enacted a drama on the freedom fighter at Rabindra Bhawan on July 30, 2007. But we have not received anything yet,” Hazarika said. The Tamil Nadu government, he said, had made a documentary on the exploits of Puli Thevar, a chieftain who had opposed the British between 1750 and 1760 and is known as one of the earliest opponents of the British in South India.

Hazarika said the budget of the documentary, which it wants to screen all over the country, was pegged at Rs 10 lakh but might be decreased if public donations were not generous. “We hope the government will give us funds so that we do not have to compromise on quality,” he added. The shooting for the documentary is scheduled to begin from the end of September.

Hazarika also hoped the chief minister would arrange for a public tribute to Konwar in New Delhi so that he gets central recognition.

An 11-foot fibreglass statue of Konwar atop a 15-foot pedestal and a park with a pond are being constructed on a three-bigha plot at a cost of Rs 20 lakh, allotted from the chief minister’s fund, at Gharphalia-Maibella near Nakachari in the district, 335km from Guwahati.

The committee has been fighting for Konwar’s recognition since 2002, ever since a Xansi paat (Sanchi bark) script pertaining to his anti-British activities surfaced at Deodhaigaon in Morabazar under Amguri revenue circle in Sivasagar district. The script, written in Tai Ahom language, was a historical record of his day-to-day activities documented by a priest of the Ahom period. On Konwar’s birth bicentenary in 2007, the committee had staged a drama in the state’s districts. In 2010, when it could manage the funds, it organised a three-day programme to commemorate his bicentenary. It organises a ceremony every year on January 29-30 (Magh 15 of the Saka calendar), the day Konwar is said to have declared himself king.
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