In 1861,when a large group of peasants in a remote Assam village had beaten a Lt Singer to death while protesting taxes,they had added their bit to the struggle against the British and become part of history. Today,exactly 150 years later,Assam hardly remembers them. There is no effort to hold any function to mark the Phulaguri dhewa (peoples convention) as an event of national importance. The only pointers to the event are a welcome arch that has some incorrect information,a neglected martyrs column and a half-built community hall at Phulaguri,a sleepy village in Nagaon district and about 100 kilometres from Guwahati. Had it been in Punjab,West Bengal or any other state,the sacrifice of Phulaguris peasants would have been observed as a national event, said Abhoy Barua,75,a local resident. Barua had helped commemorate October 18 when he was president of the Phulaguri Dhewa Smriti Udjapan Samiti for a few years. But his organisation is almost defunct now. Agriculture Minister Nilamani Sen Deka said an official function to mark the sesquicentennial would be organised sometime in December. Phulaguri dhewa was definitely a major landmark in Indias struggle against the British. We are organising an official function in December, said Deka,also the spokesman for the government. At ground zero,villagers vividly recall all that has been passed down by word of mouth through generations. Harikanta Das,secretary of the Phulaguri Anchalik Krishak Parishad,refers to the details given in Political History of Assam and The Comprehensive History of Assam,both edited by historian H K Barpujari. According to Barpujari,peasants had been disturbed by news of a new tax on houses,baris (homesteads) and paan and betel-nut cultivation. About 1,000 villagers marched to the deputy commissioners office in Nagaon on September 17,1861. Deputy commissioner Herbert Sconce got them arrested for their riotous and disorderly behaviour. The following month,peasants organized a dhewa or raij-mel (peoples convention) at Phulaguri. When Lt Singer tried to arrest the leaders and ordered the people to disperse,the crowd pounced upon him,beat him to death and threw his body into the river Kallang. A number of peasants were subsequently arrested and tortured for the act. We are organising a small prayer meeting tomorrow as we do every year. We thought the government would understand the significance and organise a big function. The local MLA had assured us of this, said Harikanta Das. The MLA,Piyush Hazarika,admitted he was too busy with his wedding to find time for this. In 2008,the state government had forgotten also to mark the 150th anniversary of the martyrdom of Maniram Dewan,the states hero of the 1857 revolt. Why do you expect the government to commemorate this (Phulaguri) event? said Prof Udayaditya Bharali,a historian and former principal of Cotton College in Guwahati. Wasnt it only last week that four jute cultivators were killed in police firing in Darrang district when they demanded an enhanced support price for their produce?
