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"The man who shaped Assam "
 

The first Chief Minister of undivided Assam in independent India, Gopinath Bordoloi, a renowned political thinker and intelligent leader, was born on June 6, 1891, at Raha of Marigaon district. He did his schooling from Cotton Collegiate School in Guwahati and graduated from the Scottish Church College in Calcutta. He did his MA and Law coursses under the Calcutta University and graduated by 1917.

While in college, Gopinath became actively associated with the Congress Party and soon took the lead role in establishing the Congress in Assam. With Gopinath assuming the role of the first secretary of the party and almost all regional parties extending support to this newly formed entity, the Assam Provincial Congress Committee soon plunged into the Non- Cooperation Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.

Apart from politics, Bordoloi also joined the Sonaram High School in Guwahati as a headmaster for a brief time. But he soon left the profession to join the Guwahati Bar. In 1921, he joined the freedom struggle of the country and presented his impressive performance as a Congress loyalist. He was imprisoned thrice for his active participation in the Indian Freedom Movement.

 
 
 
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In 1934, Gopinath Bordoloi was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi to offer individual Satyagrah. He was elected to the Assam Assembly in 1937 and was elected as the leader of the Assam Congress Legislature Party. After the resignation of the Sir Saadullah Ministry, he formed the Congress coalition government in the State. In 1938, Bordoloi became the Chief Minister of Assam. His concern for the welfare of the tribal people of the state was the hallmark of his leadership.

Gopinath was the first Chief Minister of undivided Assam in independent India. As a leader of the people, Gopinath could instill a sense of unity and integrity by bringing the people belonging to different ethnic origins and communities closer to each other. His earnest efforts for the all round growth of the State of Assam rightly earned him the epithet of “architect of modern Assam.” Gopinath was not only the first to foresee the problems caused by the infiltration of Bangladeshis into Assam but he also took active steps to check it. The Bordoloi Government imposed agricultural tax on the wealthy farmers, becoming the first one to do so among the contemporary provincial governments.

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Fondly referred to as Lokapriya or the “beloved of the people”, Gopinath Bordoloi was honoured posthumously with the Bharat Ratna – the highest civilian award of the country – in the year 1999. The award came his way forty nine years after his death. Soon afterwards, the

Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Memorial National Award was instituted in his memory to inspire the people of the country to follow the ideals of the visionary leader and to work together for building a strong and prosperous nation.

Bordoloi was an avid supporter of Mahatma Gandhi and his principles of non-violence. When coupled with his absolute dedication to the cause of India’s struggle for Indpendence, it did not take Bordoloi long to rise up through the ranks of the Indian National Congress.

The biggest challenge to Gopinath Bordoloi as a leader came about during 1946-47. It was during this that the then undivided majority Muslim political leaders from Bengal, with most of them affiliated to the Muslim League, desired the inclusion of a significantly Hindu-dominated Assam into East Pakistan. This was a very crucial point in the life of Gopinath Bordoloi. However, the matter was sorted out by holding a number of protest rallies and deliberating on this issue with high-ranking officials in the colonial government. There were apprehensions about the breaking out of mass communal riots in the Assam region because of this reason, but Bordoloi and other leaders used a lot of tact and political influence in order to finally preserve this territorial integrity within the Union of India.

In the Post independence period, Gopinath Bordoloi worked in alliance with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to secure the sovereignty of Assam against Communist China on the one hand and East Pakistan on the other. He was also instrumental in rehabilitating thousands of Hindus refugees who fled from East Pakistan fearing the possibility of break out of riots. Gopinath worked day and night to ensure communal peace and harmony here. These moves kept Assam safe and progressive till the 1971 war which saw the liberation of East Pakistan.

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The deteriorating law and order situation in the State of Assam and the role of political leaders in dividing the society for their personal or party’s interest has compelled the citizens today to remember a leader like Gopinath Bordoloi, who saved Assam from becoming a part of Pakistan on the eve of India’s Independence in 1947. That was a time when the British government hd conspired to divide the country on religious basis by creating Hindu and Muslim majority States.

The present turmoil in the State calls for the emergence of a leader like Gopinath Bordoloi, who had played vital role in saving Assam more than six decades ago. Had the British Cabinet Mission succeeded in its plan, the history of Assam would have been different today

In 1946, the Labour Party government in Britain sent a mission to India in order to explore the possibilities of drafting a future Constitution for India in consultation with the Viceroy and the Indian political leaders. The mission reached India on March 23, 1946, and began discussions with Indian leaders.

In his interview with the Mission on April 1, 1946, Gopinath Bardoloi strongly protested the inclusion of Assam in Group C. He argued that Assam was already a province, formed on linguistic and cultural basis, enjoying provincial autonomy. Assam should be allowed to continue in the future set-up also as a full-fledged unit, he had pleaded. He had even favoured the separation of Sylhet district from Assam and rejected Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan as being absolutely preposterous. The Cabinet Mission, however, stuck to its plan of forming groups.

The Mission’s proposal to group Assam with Bengal for creating a predominantly Muslim zone in eastern India, like the one proposed to be set up in western India, was strongly resented by the people of Assam. According to this plan, the representatives of Assam to the Constituent Assembly would have to sit in a section with the Bengal representatives to determine the provincial constitution and also a constitution for group C by a simple majority of votes. Except for the Muslim League, all quarters in Assam protested this grouping scheme.

The Assam Provincial Congress Committee (APCC) in its session in Guwahati lodged an emphatic protest with the Congress Working Committee (CWC) against the proposal. There began a feverish agitation in Assam to quash the group scheme. On July 16, 1946, the Assam Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution moved by Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi himself expressing strong disapproval of the plan. The resolution further directed the ten representatives of Assam to the Constituent Assembly, elected by the Provincial Assembly, not to sit in section with any other Province for devising the Constitution of Assam or for the settlement of any question relating to Assam.

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The discontentment in Assam was based on genuine fears. It was clear that once Assam was grouped with Muslim majority Bengal, its fate would be sealed because of the policies that would be formed to serve the interest of the Muslim community. Assam would lose her identity and individuality in the political whirlpool of Muslim India, although the State was not and had never been a Muslim majority province.

Gopinath Bordoloi, who became the Chief Minister of Assam for the second time in February 1946, continued to lead his ministry through Independence until his death on August 5, 1950. He had also expressed his views and suggestions on the future Constitution of India vis-a-vis the State of Assam within it when the Cabinet Mission had invited him for this purpose in April 1946.

The CWC took time in giving a clear and bold lead over Assam on this vital issue. On behalf of Gopinath Bordoloi, Bijoy Chandra Bhagawati and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury called upon Gandhiji at Srirampur and placed Assam’s case before him seeking his advice and guidance at the critical juncture. Strengthened with the blessings of Gandhiji, Gopinath Bordoloi succeeded in convincing the Indian leaders about Assam’s just case and getting this part of the Cabinet Mission’s plan scrapped. Had not Assam opposed the grouping scheme, the formal establishment of Pakistan might have been delayed for a time, but there would have been no Assam left. Gopinath Bordoloi with his farsightedness, sagacity, revolutionary zeal and heroic leadership rescued Assam and the people from the mischievous conspiracy of foreign rulers.


(This article has been published on the occasion of Gopinath Bordoloi’s 120th Birth anniversary on June 6, 2010

 

>> Mithun Dey
Courtesy by the Sentinel

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