JHARKHANDI ADIV ASIS OF ASSAM

A Dalit Perspective

Devabrata Sharma

Assam and the Assamese are themselves peripheral and marginal identities as far as
India and the 'Greater' Indian 'nation' are concerned. But that Assamese nationality
formation process is far from a fait accompli. Here, we intend to focus on the intricacies
of Assamese nation building process with particular reference to the Jharkhandi-Adivasis
of Assam who were brought to the state to work primarily in the tea gardens. However,
in sharp contrast to the dominant Assamese nationalist version of nation formation and
the prevalent official 'Marxist' version of class-struggle, we would examine the subject
from a Dalit-Marxist perspective.
The Immigrant Adivasis of Assam : The Wretched of the Earth
I knew of cases in which coolies in the fourth year of their agreement were not paid the higher rate
of salary to which they were entitled. In other cases, rice was not provided at the statutory price
and the subsistence allowance prescribed by law was not paid to sick coolies or pregnant women.
Advances were often illegally debited against coolies on account of subsistence allowance or sick
diet, as well as on accout of rewards paid for the arrest of deserters, and labourers were thus bound
hand and foot to tea garden service. In some instances only afew annas (or pence) found their way
into the hands of a coolie as wages in course of the whole year. 2
- Sir Henry Cotton, Chief Commissioner of Assam

I came across notices posted at river ferries and railway stations describing runaway coolies and
offering rewards for their apprehension that reminded one of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Runaways who
were legally arrested, were seldom, if ever, made over to the police as the law required. 3
- Lieutenant Governor Sir Bampfijlde Fuller
Before taking up the issues related to assimilation of the nearly five million Adivasis

• Please see Assamese version of my Ph.D. thesis Non-state Cultural and Literary Organisations in the Construction of
Assamese National Identity and Ethos( Asomia Jatigathan Prakriya aru Jatiya Janagosthigata Anusthansamuh )
Jorhat, 2006.

Voice of Dalit Vol. 1, No. 2, 2008, pages 231-255

© MD Publications Pvt Ltd
Corresponding Author Email: deshprem@ymail.com
232 Devabrata Sharma

Before taking up the issues related to assimilation of the nearly five million Adivasis
of Assam, we first owe an explanation as to whom we apply this term. To be precise,
the Adivasis are the mass of tribal, semi-tribal and lower-caste people whose forefathers
were brought here by the British as indentured labourers, mainly to work in the many
tea estates of upper Assam. But we must not forget there are at least 5 lac of them in the
lower Assam districts (mainly Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon) who never worked in tea
estates. Besides, more than half of the upper Assam Adivasis DO NOT work in the tea
estates. Even though their forefathers worked in the tea estates some generations ago,
they have snapped their umbilical cord with the tea-industry. They have been trying to
stand on their own feet. They may be mere marginal farmers; but some of their children
have passed matriculation; a few have even graduated. They may be working somewhere
as a clerk or a primary teacher. There is nothing wrong if they dream about their
children becoming doctors or engineers. To term all these people, the majority of whom
are detached from the tea industry, as 'tea-tribes' is a serious and grievous misnomer.
This term doesn't apply even to the tea-labourers, simply because that is their job, and
not their ethnic identity.
The terms' Chah-Janajati', Chah-Janagosthi', 'Chah-Majdoor', 'Chapatia' (meaning green-
leafers coined by Asom Sahih;a Sabha president Dr. Mahendra Bora) 'Chahbagichar Asomia'
or 'Seuj-Asomia' (meaning green-Assamese, coined by another Asom Sahitya Sabha
president, Dr. Nagen Saikia), are now rejected as derogatory because these terms attempt
at bracketing the whole ethnicity by the nature of a job of a section of it; that too a
humiliating and dehumanising job. One simply wonders if an agriculturist community
would agree to be called 'Dhan-Jati' (Paddy-nation) or a middle class community would
accept the epithet of a 'Master-jati' (Teacher-nation); terms coined on the basis of jobs
they are engaged in.
All others terms referring to the ethnicity, like 'Labour', 'Majdoor', 'Bongali', 'Coolie',
'Chaprajaj', 'Seuj Sonar Silpi' (Artists of green gold) are rejected equally disdainfully by
the ethnicity because those are nothing but slang abuses or cosmetic euphemism heaped
upon them.
There are two other terms in use. As these people hailed from Jharkhand in the
not-too-distant past, as they are still electrified by the fact that they owe their inheritance
to the great anti-British fighters Birsa Munda and Sidhu-Kanu, as they still maintain all
sorts of social, cultural, even martial relationships with their Jharkhand counterpart, as
all their brethren. all over the country identify themselves as the Jharkhandis, they feel
proud to identify with that glorious heritage. Moreover, several organisations which
uphold the Jharkhandi banner have been working in Assam for the last two decades.
Those include the Jharkhandi Adivasi San gram Parishad, the Jharkhandi Adivasi Mahila Mukti
Samiti and the Jharkhand Adivasi Chah Sramik Union. However, it must be admitted that
there is a sharp debate within the community regarding this epithet, the relatively
Assamized section opposing it.

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 233

This leaves us with the relatively non-controversial epithet Adivasi. Etymologically

speaking, this word denotes aborigines and this community is not aborigine in the
sense Bodes, Misings and Rabhas are in Assam. Yet we have decided to use this term
for the sake of convenience and its relatively non-controversial nature.
The first batch of Jharkhand Adivasis was brought to Assam as indentured
labourers to work in the tea plantations. As far back as in 1867-68, two thirds of the
total plantation labour force of 34,433 in Assam had come from outside. 4 By 1901, one
fourth of total land of Assam was under tea plantation already !5 According to another
estimate, the actual numbers of labour force on various tea gardens of Assam was
10,65,000 in 1931. 6 The ex-tea garden labourers' poputation in 1931 in Assam as a
whole consisted of 4,45,000 which marked an increase of 84,000 since 1921. In addition
there were 55,000 Santhals in Santhal Colony of present Kokrajhar and another 5,000
in the Frontier Tracts. 7 It takes the total to around 15,00,000 in 1931 itself ! The total
population of the state was 55,61,000 in that year. 8 The Adivasi population was
evidently more than 25% of the total. Apart from other reasons the question of
integration of this vast mass into the Assamese nationality is extremely important
also because of its massive size.
But mere numbers or numerical strength of a community is not a measure of its
socio-political status. The Adivasi case is a glaring example of that. Prompted by their
bourgeois ambition of turning Assam into a green, tea-growing enclave, the British
tea-planters imported lacs of these labourers. The British government responded very
enthusiastically to this idea mainly because it was eager to suppress the various
Jharkhandi rebellions and to scatter the rebels so as to divide them. The planters sent
some recruiters (known as Arkattis), who recruited pauperised peasants in big numbers.
Those peasants were pushed to the brink through Jamindari and other variants of that
British land revenue system which had exacerbated and intensified the process of
disintegration of the tribal society. The primary producers were thus separated from
their chief means of production, land and forests. It was not a mere coincidence that the
anti-British upsurges shook these very systems violently. As Xaxa puts it:
That just when the British firms were establishing plantation estates in
north-east India, tribal peasants from the biggest tribal concentration in
India were being pushed off from their zones by an organised system of
recruitment that was evolved by the British capitalists in connivance with
the British administration. 71ze extent of outmigration from Chhotnagpur,
which was 3,30,000 in 1891, 2,82,000 in 1901, 7,07,000 in 1991 and
9,47,000 in 1921, clearly reflects this. 9
It shows that as many as 23,66,000 people were externed from Chhotnagpur alone
within a span of thirty years !

Voice of Dalit
234 Devabrata Sharma

In legal terms, the contractor of Arkatti made the Adivasis sign a contract. It made
them work in tea estates in return of transport and the assurance of specific conditions
of labour. But the reality was that the contractors procured labourers through abduction,
enticement, fraud, chicanery and violence. According to Xaxa, the transportation of the
labourers was so inhuman and mortality on arrival so high that even the colonial
government was forced to appoint a commission of enquiry as far back as 1861. 10
Leaving aside various native accounts of such inhuman modes of transportation,
we would quote here from some British sources. The British government's 'Resolution
on Immigrant Labour in Assam for the Year 1903 - 04 had to admit that 'owing to the
unpopularity of Assam and to the irksomeness of the journey, the stream of immigration
is affected very greatly indeed by any circumstances which offer alternative means of
livelihood to service on a tea garden' .11 The Chief Commissioner of Assam had hoped
that 'before long it will be possible to arrange that sardars and their coolies travel to
Assam with the freedom enjoyed by ordinary third-class passengers'. 12 It shows that
the wretched Adivasis did not enjoy the status of even the ordinary third-class
passengers. They perhaps belonged to some fourth or fifth class which is consistent
with their 'pancham varna' status in the new society.
We have recently unearthed a confidential British document entitled Report of
Cholera on Board the Steamer 'Bunna' which tells a very sordid tale about the
transhipment of these Adivasis. When Cholera broke out on boards the 'Burma', 'Punjab',
'Simla', 'Progress' and many more steamers, the British government had to issue strict
orders limiting the number of coolies to be convet;ed at each transit .... that coolies are not to be
placed on board the steamers, those vessels, from the small space available, great heat from the
furnaces, and from the way the decks are crowded by cabins and portions of the machinery, being
unfit for the conveyance of coolies. '13
The said Report noted the sordid details of the unhygienic life on board the steamer
in the following words :
In many fiats the coolies are located on the upper deck; the seams of
some are in places not closely joined together, and tolerably thick fluids
can pass through. The food is cooked on the lower deck, in large boilers,
in the afterpart of the vessel, and is carried in them, uncovered, for
distribution; thus it is venJ liable to be contaminated, and particularly
so in the following manner : Before the rice is distributed, it is taken
hot from the vessel (or boiler) and spread out on a mat, which is laid on
the deck, where, perhaps, a short time previous, a coaly suffering with
Cholera may have made a mess, as they keep away from hospital as long
as possible. 14

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 235

The Adivasi coolies were thus huddled together in big numbers. There was hardly
anything to protect them from the sun and the rain. They were drenched in the rain
and dried in the sun. Cholera-infected Adivasis often committed suicide by jumping
from the steamers into the Brahmaputra. One such unfortunate Adivasi woman took
her own life by jumping into the river from board the steamer 'Burma'. Jogendra Narayan
Bhuyan reported in his Mahafejkhanar Khirikiyedi, how a cholera-infected Adivasi
person was forced to land alone in a dense jungle on the bank of the Brahmaputra. In
fact the number of suicides were so high that the British government had to order tall
railings to be built in all the steamers so as to prevent large-scale suicides. 15 Besides,
the death-toll due to epidemic diseases was very high.
In 1841, the Assam Company attempted to import labour from Chhotnagpur. An
outbreak of Cholera proved disastrous as none of its 652 recruits reached the Company's
gardens. Most of them died, and the few who survived, fled. 16 The committee of
enquiry into the emigration of labourers to Assam and Cachar appointed bJ the
Government of Bengal put the mortality rate on such voyages at as high as 50%! Not
that the Adivasis died only on voyage.
The following figures for the period 1865-67 bear tell-tale evidences to what
transpired in the tea estates. According to conservative British estimates, 111 out of 282
labourers died in Ghiladhari Tea Estate of Golaghat, 110 out of 301 in Charaideu, 103
out of 275 in Jaipur, 115 out of 415 in Pratapgarh, and last but not the least 113 out of 203
in Cherragong (Sylhet). In the last case the death rate was as high as 55.66% !18 Another
datum shows as many as 30,000. out of 84,995 died in 1866.19
Now a few words about the pathetic living condition of the Adivasi tea labourers.
They were put into 'overcrowded barracks', where labourers had less than twenty-five
square feet area per head. A British ICS officer admitted that such 'indefensible barrack -
line system was only too common in the Assam valley.' 20 Another British government report
informed how 'many gardens insisted on a morning muster of the coolies 121 which reminded
jail roll-calls. Another British government report revealed that 'it is a constant complaint
in the recruiting districts that, no matter whether the labourer be feeling unwell, he has to turn
out to work all the same. 122 The Assam Labour Enquiry Committee, 1906, stressed on the
need to improve birth rates among the Adivasi labourers. The Report read :
It is of the utmost importance that even;thing possible should be done
to encourage births and to secure that the children born are not neglected
in infancy. The harder it is to obtain imported labour, the greater should
be the attention paid to the natural growth and maintenance of the
health of the existing labour force. 23
The British government also prohibited abortion in a bid to increase the birth
rate. 24 It sounded like a manual for increasing birth rate of chickens or calves. Not

Voice of Dalit
236 Devabrata Sharma

surprisingly, of the total workforce in tea estates, children comprised 38.4% and, woman
31%, only 30.6% being adult males. 25
The wage of the Adivasi labourers was abysmally low. The average monthly cash
wage for men was Rs. 5, Anna 0, Paisa 8 whereas the wage for women was Rs. 4.00,
Anna 1, Paisa. 26 Compared with the Rs. 30.00 earned by a casual labourer per month in
Burma 27, the Adivasi tea labourer got only one-sixth of that amount ! Adivasis were
made to sign bondage contracts ·by paying paltry amounts of even Rs. 6.00.
Virginius Xaxa raised a very pertinent point in this regard when he said :
In 1864, a labourer in PWD earned a wage of Rs. 7.00 per month. In
tea estates, the same was between Rs. 4.00 toRs. 5.00 per month and in
some estates even lower than Rs. 4.00. Subsequently statutory provision
regarding minimum wage for the plantation labourers was made. The
rate was fixed at Rs. 5.00 for men, Rs.4.00 for women and Rs. 3.00 for
children, i.e., the age below twelve years. It was also stipulated to provide
rice to labourers at a rate of Re.1.00 per maund. Despite this, the planters
managed to pay lower cash wage by manipulating piece rate payments.
They also brought down the real wage by raising (rice price) to Rs.
2.00, then to Rs. 2.50 and finally to Rs. 3.00 per maund by 1900.
Meanwhile plantation labourers were receiving almost half the
wage earned by free agricultural labourers in the vicinity..... 28
We simply stress that the tea labourers get just half the minimum wage fixed for
even agricultural workers. This super-exploitation has been made possible through the
instrument of extra-economic coercion, which is based on national suppression. The
Adivasi workers uprooted from their soil, were strictly segregated from the local
populace. Their national/ ethnic identity was sought to be obliterated. A rootless,
identityless, floating populace was thus subjected to the most ruthless imperialist
exploitation which appropriated pre-capitalist modes. This obstructed Assamese
nationality building in a serious way.
The tea planters wanted the whole family of labourers - the male, the female, as
well as each and every child and baby. The wage of each section was kept so low that
all the family members had to work in the plantation just for their mere survival. By
employing women at a very low wage, export costs were cut. In this sense the export
sector of tea developed at the expense of the families of the labourers. Children cannot
go to school. The women must also work.
While the Adivasi family is bled high and dry in earning this meagre subsistence
wage, the planters had a curious explanation to offer; it is 'family wage'. In real terms it

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam : A Dalit Perspective 137

means half wage for each of them. Unlike all other workers on earth, the wage of an
Adivasi tea labourer is not fixed on the basis of minimum requisites of a 3-unit family
(one male, one female, and two minor children). Instead they are given the wage for
1 'h unit family, i.e., one adult and one minor child - thus making it absolutely
indispensable for the whole family to work.
This cutting by half of the wage is determined through national oppression. (The
Adivasi tea workers get half the minimum wage fixed for agricultural labourers even
today, i.e., the threshold of the new millennium!). How this 50% plunder is made possible
through national oppression is clear from the following words of C. S. Mullan, the 1931
Census Commissioner :
In Assam, a 'coolie' is always a 'coolie' and whether he works on a
garden or whether he has left the garden and settled down as an ordinan;
agriculturist, his social position is nil. 29
It is interesting to note that whereas Mullan's words regarding immigration of
Bengali Muslims to Assam were Vedavakyas for the Assamese middle class, the latter
failed to take cognizance of Mullan's words regarding the social position of Adivasis. It
also failed to offer the Adivasis any better social position. Mullan is however not alone
in his opinion, 'Other Indian scholars have also referred to untouchability and social alienation
of the Adivasis in Assam. 30
Besides social segregation and national suppression, the Adivasi labourers had to
suffer from legal bondage. Their lives were governed by Workmen's Breach of Contract
Act (Act III of 1859). According to this Act, the labourers were liable to prosecution,
and even imprisonment for any breach of contract. Inertia, refusal to work, and desertion
were equally punishable offences, and the workers were subjected to flogging, physical
torture, as well as imprisonment under various sections of this Act. 31
Apart from using a ruthless police machinery to enforce such illegal laws, the
British rulers allowed their planter brethren to take the law into their own hands.
Imprisonment was provided as the penalty for continued refusal by an Adivasi labourer
to work or for absence exceeding seven days, and employers were empowered to
arrest absconding labourers without warrant. 32 Besides, Adivasis were often beaten
to death and flogged mercilessly. To give a few examples, a boy died in a garden in
Darrang district after he was arrested by the garden manager on charge of theft. 'His
dead body was subsequently found with marks which showed that he had been most cruelly
beaten'. 33 52% of the 460 desertion cases resulted in conviction of the escaping Adivasis. 34
The irony here is that more than half of the convicted Adivasi labourers, who were
ordered to return to the respective gardens to complete their contracts in cases disposed
of during the year 1903, preferred to undergo imprisonment.35 It thoroughly exposes
the contention of the Assamese journal Mou, which claimed that the Adivasis themselves

Voice of Dalit
238 Devabrata Sharma

preferred to stay in the gardens than going back to their homeland.36

Flogging and beating of Adivasis continued to be the order of the day for many
more years. But more alarming was the way in which many civilians were empowered
to physically arrest Adivasis whenever the latter tried to escape from the brutal
conditions of the tea gardens. 'Hillmen were rewarded for arresting absconders - the reward
deducted from the absconder's pay.' 37 In fact the practice of Assam ferrymen arresting
Adivasi labourers (whether absconder or not) assumed such high proportion that a
British government report had to admit that 'ferrymen not infrequently considered
themselves justified in stopping persons of coolie class who attempted to cross by their ferries, on
the suspicion of their being deserters'. 38 The report also admitted of many illegal arrests
made without warrants. Meanwhile, 'the relations between planters and the neighbouring
villagers continued to be satisfactory. 39 Apart from tribal hillmen or Assamese ferrymen
who were regularly rewarded for catching Adivasis, Assamese villagers were also
mobilized in this 'coolie-catching business'. In fact the British tea planters and their Raj,
in collusion with the Assamese landlords, had created armed village parties to see to it
that the Adivasi indentured labourers did not escape from the slave camps called tea-
estates. This was true also of neighbouring Bengal where the Bengali bhadraloks often
led armed village groups whose duty was to catch the Adivasi tea garden labourers
who tried to flee from their slavery.40 A definite, substantial payment used to be made
for apprehended Adivasi runaways, dead or alive. 41 This was a clever imperialist ploy
which would subvert the Assamese nationality building process by sowing the seeds
of suspicion and hatred between these two communities. To use the words of an activist-
intellectual :
These workers were so segregated from the local population that at one
time they were paid in company tokens which could be converted into
commodities only in the company shops within the plantations and
these workers had no· right to freely travel out of the particular
plantations to which they were assigned. Such segregation was not
conducive to their assimilation into the Assamese nationY
In fact Omeo Kumar Das had to move two bills, titled, 'The Assam Tea Garden
Labourers' Freedom of Movement Bill' in 1938 and 1939 in the Assam Legislature.43 Though
Das withdrew the bill on both occasions, for reasons best known to himself, it
nevertheless exposed the gulf of segregation.
The Adivasis were not only subjected to the worst forms of segregation, but they
were ghettoised too. Bereft of all socialising processes, the Adivasis were forced to live
a wretched life, which reminded one of Uncle Tom's Cabin or Roots. That they were
treated as Indian Negroes, is further proved from various references made by the
British themselves, who often compared the former with the Negroes of Africa. 44

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis ofAssam :A Dalit Perspective 239

The national suppression on Adivasis had its effect in other domains as well. It
made them lag behind in the educational arena, and in turn this educational
backwardness further retarded the community. The official reports in this regard
were themselves revealing. The report for the year 1917-18 is an example. There were
as many as 2 lac children of school going age in that year. But not even 2% of them
ever went to any kind of primary schools. Wrote an European DPI of Assam in his
report for the year :
Education steadily goes back in the tea gardens. The number of schools
had fallen from 149 with an enrolment of3,615 to 142 with an enrolment
of 2,888 (these are only lower primary schools). The decline is in the
number of 'C' class schools, i.e., schools maintained by the planters
themselves. 45

Reverend Tanu Ram Saikia's speeches at the Assam Legislative Council in 1932
also exposed the fact that there were only C-type, i.e., third class schools in tea estates. 46
Binod Kumar J. Sarwan' s speeches at the floor of the Assam Legislative Assembly ten
years afterwards confirmed that C-type schools continued to be the only educational
institution that existed in a tea garden. 47 And even for that, the Adivasi tea-labourers
were charged taxes, alleged Omeo Kumar Das, a Congressman, in the floor of the
Assembly. 48 The total amount of money spent during the First Five Year Plan for their
welfare was only Rs. 2.6 lac, i.e., not even ten paisa for each Adivasi ! Therefore one
is not surprised to learn that while there were 5,00,416 children of school going age in
the community in 1950, only 29,361 of them, i.e., a meagre 6% went to school.49 Sontosh
Kumar Topno, a veteran Adivasi leader, further reported that during the 1946-50
period, there were only four college students, viz., Sontosh Kumar Topno, Simon
Singh Horo, Anandmachi Barla and Valentine Kerketa. The break-up of high school
(including M.E.) students was as follows; Jorhat-29, Dibrugarh-15, Tinsukia-7,
Naharkatia-3, Moran-10, Sibsagar-15, Golaghat-22, Titabar-4, Nagaon-10, North
Lakhimpur-12, Tezpur-52, Mongaldoi-5 (Total175 out of 5,00,000). The five job-holders
in 1950 included Prof. P.M. Sarwan, Ciril Richards, Dr. Sneh Machi Barla, Harold
Sontosh Bajrai and Tintushi Taig. 50
While political discrimination, social segregation, economic exploitation and many
other factors were responsible for such miserable backwardness, the question of medium
of instruction is not to be overlooked. Narayan Ghatowar, a prominent intellectual of
the community demanded that Assamese be imparted to their students only by Sadri-
knowing teachers. 51 This opinion assumes significance in view of the fact that Ghatowar
is also closely associated with the Asom Sahitya Sabha. Sushil Kurmi, another Sahitya
Sabha associate from the community, also agreed that as the Adivasi children are born
and brought up in a tri-lingual situation (their own language or dialect like Santhali,

Voice of Dalit
240 Devabrata Sharma

Kurukh, Mundari etc. at home, Sadri in the tea garden and Assamese outside, and also
in the school), their teachers should at least know Sadri. Incidentally Kurmi' s book
containing these opinions was published by the Sahitya Sabha itself. 52 Though Amal
Rajkhowa, a Sabha general secretary recognized the existence of Sadri or Sadani as the
lingua franca of all the tea garden and ex-tea garden Adivasis, the Sabha has done
precious little to improve this dialect which could have served as an intermediate step,
a bridge towards Assamization. In the final analysis, the question of language or medium
thus continues to be a political question - a question of power or powerlessness.
Educational and economic backwardness of the community has strong socio-political
factors behind it. For example the community is deprived of a basic constitutional right,
that of reservation in Assam. Their brethern in Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Madhya
Pradesh enjoy the facilities of reservation as scheduled castes and tribes. Not that they
never enjoyed it. They enjoyed it till the end of forties. They enjoyed four assembly
seats out of 108, against 34,279 electors,53 i.e., they enjoyed the facilities of reservation
till that date. However, they were descheduled in 1950 by the ruling Caste Hindu
Congress leadership. Since then various central government commissions one after the
other have been recommending their rescheduling in no uncertain terms. But both the
central and state governments have concertedly foiled any attempt for their rescheduling.
Being disgusted, the Dhebar Commission (1960-61) commented :
The Government of Assam has consistently opposed any change of their
status on the ground that it would disturb the local political picture. 54
Similarly the Lakur Commission (Government of India) and the A.K. Chand
Committee (Government of India, 1968) also recommended their rescheduling in
unequivocal terms. 55
The results of this blatant discrimination has been disastrous for these impoverished
people. Vasanthi Raman has rightly pointed out that this descheduling has 'narrowed
education and training opportunities and incentives resulting in a lack of access to new
and diverse occupations. Occupational mobility, both horizontally and vertically, is
also blocked by the lack of reservation entailed by descheduling.' 56
Descheduling is significant on one more count. The denial of reservation has served
a purpose : that of keeping the Adivasis as an illiterate, uneducated, pauperised lot, a
reserve army of cheap labourers - who have nowhere to go except the tea- gardens,
nothing to sell except their cheap labour - cheapened through the instrument of identity
suppression.
The Adivasi tea labourers were deprived of their constitutional right in another
novel, ingenious way. Till the other day they were not allowed to participate in the

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 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 241

local self governments, thanks to Indian democracy. The tea gardens were always outside
the jurisdiction of panchayats, town committees or any other forms of local self rule
during the period of our study, i.e., 1872- 1960. (They got some rights towards early
nineties only). In practice it meant that the tea garden Adivasis had no political or
administrative interaction with the broader society. Besides, these poorest of the poor
are still kept out of various poverty alleviation programmes like NREP, DRDA, TRY,
PMRY etc. which are normally channelled through the panchayats. This is nothing but
continuation of the same colonial rule in another form. It extinguishes even the flicker
of hope as it makes it impossible for an Adivasi boy to diversify occupationally. He is
thus pushed back to the abyss called tea-gardens.
What was the role played by Assamese non-state cultural, literary as well as political
organisations in the integration or otherwise of the Adivasis into the Assamese
mainstream? Was it a sympathetic, cooperative, accomodative role, or was it insensitive,
indifferent and insincere ? Let us discuss objectively.
Saroajanik Sabha, one of the first few organisations of the Assamese middle class,
openly advocated the use of opium for the tea labourers. A Sabha memorandum read :
The hard-working classes in the malarious plains of Assam require some
stimulant to keep up their powers. On the whole, opium taken in a
moderate quantity, is beneficial and necessary for a large number of
people earning their livelihood by manual labour in the swampy rice
fields and in the tea gardens of Assam and of boatmen and others. 57
In this regard it must be mentioned that M/s Jagannath Barua, Mohendra Nath
Phukan, Munshi Rahmat Ali,- all Assamese tea planters, and Madhav Chandra
Bordoloi, EAC and father of Nabin Chandra Bordoloi, freedom fighter (also a petty
planter)- all supported the cause of opium.57 Dr. H. Gohain rightly pointed out that
a few Assamese tea planter were opium dealers as well.59
Other non-state organisations of later days also kept up the tradition of
Sarvajanik Sabha. The role of Asom Sahitya Sabha was most open to question in this
regard. We have already mentioned how the Sabha leadership heaped one epithet
after another on the Adivasis - Chahpatia (Green leafers), Seuj Asomia (Green
Assamese), Seuj Sonar Silpi (Artists of green gold) being a few examples. Jnananath
Bora, one of the presidents of the Sabha announced in unequivocal terms that,
interalia, the tea garden Adivasis were foreigners in Assam. 60 He called for
Assamizing the immigrant Muslims. In his words we hear a resonance of Samraksini
leaders like Nilamoni Phukan. The latter was a tea planter himself who showed
eagerness to integrate with the immigrant Muslims. But curiously enough, Bora
did not nurture the same kind of interest in Assamizing the Adivasis. The reason is

Voice of Dalit
242 Devabrata Sharma

self evident from the following lines :

European tea planters have of course taken much more money than
the Indian foreigners. One tea planter has taken away as much as that
of 100 such foreigners. Yet this movement must not be directed against
those European planters. Because unlike other foreigners, these
European tea planters have not exploited us, the Assamese. Instead
they have imported other foreigners (read Adivasis- D.S.) to work in
the tea gardens, exploited them and sent the money to Europe. They
have accumulated money from the soil of Assam, but not from Assamese
people. (read Assamese caste Hindus- D.S.)·61
This statement makes it absolutely clear that for at least a section of Sahih;a Sabha
leadership, the white British planters were closer to their hearts than the illiterate,
underfed, hardworking black tribals. It is to be noted that apart from Sahitya Sabha,
Bora was closely associated with the Samrakini movement. He was also an advocate of
sovereign Assam. It shows that his sovereign Assam was not meant to accomodate
these wretched people as his definition of Assamese nation carefully excluded them.
It would have been better if we could have ignored it as an ancient story. Maniklal
Mahato, a leader of the tea labourers, alleged in as late as 1981 that another Sahih;a
Sabha publication indicated that tea garden Adivasis were foreigners. 62
This was entirely a consonance with the dominant schools of thought of the
Assamese (upper) middle class- upper caste. Way back in the 1880's, Bolinarayan Bora,
the Mou-editor conducted a vindictive tirade against this miserable lot. Dr. Satyendra
Nath Sharma, the editor of the collected volume of Mou as well as Asom Sahitya Sabha
president, argued that Mou's approach towards Adivasis was objective. 63
This was undoubtedly the dominant trend among the Assamese intelligentsia.
Not that such an attitude got expression through socio-cultural organisations and literary
journals only. The Assam Pradesh Congress being the absolute dominion of the same
caste - class group, also followed similar policies. There are numerous evidences to
prove that the Assam Congress leaders were not interested in mobilizing the tea garden
labourers in big numbers in the ongoing freedom struggle. On the contrary, whenever
the Adivasis rebelled on their own against the British planters, the upper caste Congress
leaders always felt panicky.
In 1927 Adivasi tea labourers in the northern bank of Brahmaputra burst out in a
series of militant demonstrations against the British planters in particular and the British
government in general. The list of agitating tea estates was long enough : Sonajuli,
Helem, Kacharigaon, Dhendai, Jinjia, Amaribari, Bamgaon, and many more. But the
role of Congress leaders was one and the same everywhere; pacifying and restraining

Voice of Dalit
 fharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 243

the Adivasis, subverting their militant anti-British upsurge. The Congress role may at
best be called that of a mediator with British tilt, or at worst, apologists of the British.
Omeo Kumar Das admitted that the Congress had never worked among the tea
garden Adivasis till 1921. Even in 1921 it had to intervene in order to save British
planters and the government from the wrath of militant Adivasis. The local Congress
leadership telegraphed to the British Deputy Commissioner informing him that it was
'ready to cooperate' in spite of the fact that the Non-Co-operation Movement was going
strong at that time. The Congress co-operated lest the agitated labourers indulge in
some 'misdeeds'. The British D.C. appreciated that the 'Congress leadership had advanced our
cause considerably'. The Congress leaders were also full of praise for a 'sympathetic' British
D.C. The mob was finally dispersed. The Congress leaders heaved a sigh of relief. 'I felt
that we should adopt the same degree of caution with such people which is necessary in dealing
with a powder-keg'. 64
The disturbances in Kacharigaon Tea Estate was also a repetition of the earlier
story. The Congress leaders telegraphed to the D.C., saying 'Perturbed due to violence,
willing to co-operate'. The British D.C. responded : 'Co-operation excellent. Meet me evening
at Tezpur Club'. Omeo Kumar Das wrote how Congress leaders believed in the 'innocence'
of the Lainee, the British D.C. and were afraid of the Adivasis. The Congress played
invariably the same role whenever and wherever there were some agitation among the
Adivasis. Das admitted that though they were non-cooperators in theory, in case of
Adivasi labourers agitations, they had always cooperated with the British Government. 65
(One has to keep in mind that Omeo Kumar Das was not just a Congress leader. He was
also the editor of Banhi and Asomiya, prominent Assamese journals. In short he was a
spokesman of the Assamese middle class).
Das's experience was not something unique: It was rather of truly representative
nature. The reminiscences of Padmanath Borthakur - another senior Congressman
would give us an insight into the Congress line of thinking :
A group of workers met me at night. Aggrieved with the Barasahib, they
wanted to stop work, and I was approached to show them the way. On
hearing this my heart was almost frozen. It was not long ago that some
sixty coolies were thrown into the jails, because of a strike in Suntak Tea
Estate of the same Assam Company. It turned out to be a terrible sort of
development as a result of which all the white Sahibs and the entire
supervisory staff, who had greyed their hairs on the garden service, managed
somehow to flee the garden alive. That is why, it was but natural that the
very mention of a strike would send a shiver down my body, and my mind
was indeed filled with surfeit of repentance. Why, at all, did I enter amidst
the tea garden workers, without having considered the pros and cons ?66

Voice of Dalit
244 Devabrata Sharma

Borthakur was not alone in his predicaments. Almost all sincere Congressmen
had to face this great dilemma. This reluctance to accomodate and integrate the
Adivasis into the rank of the freedom struggle must be traced to the approach taken
by Gandhi himself. For it was. Gandhi, who in response to the private letter of a
European planter from Assam, wrote the following lines. He tried to allay the
apprehensions of the planter about possible disturbances in tea gardens. Gandhi later
reported in Young India :
I assure him that I have never told any labourer of Assam to strike
work. Neither do I claim to know labour problems there. Besides, he
should also know that our non-co-operation does not apply to capital or
capitalists . Our non-co-operation is limited to Government
administration only. 67
Gandhi did not speak the truth. He was sufficiently informed about the pitiable
plight of the Assam Adivasis. Omeo Kumar Das wrote how they supplied Gandhi with
minutest details about life in tea gardens. 68 He also visited a number of gardens like
Parua in Darrang. Tyagbir Hem Chandra Barua also informed how Gandhi ordered
him to collect all possible data regarding tea gardens and tea labourers of Assam. 69
Therefore, there was no question of Gandhi not knowing the true state of Adivasis.
But instead of siding with the Adivasis, Gandhi praised the British planters directly in
a Dibrugarh tea party. The mandarins of the Indian Tea Association hosted that party.
Gandhi praised the British planters because they had 'fulfilled all the material necessities of
the Adivasi labourers'. Only moral-spiritual teaching was lacking. 70 Another noticeable
aspect of Gandhi's Dibrugarh visit was that he did not burn foreign clothes in this
citadel of British capital.
Apart from the fact that Gandhi did not address any gathering of Adivasi tea
labourers though he joined a meeting with the British planters. We must add that Arjun
Ghatowar, an ex-labourer of Dibru-Darrang Tea Estate, who eventually became a
Congress activist, was 'never encouraged, by the Congress to hold any meeting in the
said garden or to tell his fellow labourers to come out of their garden. 171
Omeo Kumar Das confirmed :
For myself, as a worker and an office bearer of the Congress, I can say
that there was no instruction to call out the labourers from the tea
gardens. 72
Interestingly enough, a British ICS officer later revealed that even 'in 1942 there
were no reportable strikes in Assam and that in the three succeeding years, there were, two, one,
and two strikes respectively' 73

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perepective 245

The Congress in fact started to enter the tea garden only in 1946-47 (i.e., when the
transfer of power became imminent), and that too with due permission of the British
planter-dominated Indian Tea Association (I.T.A.). The ITA's confidential circular dated
21 July, 1947 makes the (British) planter-Congress connection absolutely clear. 74
Interestingly the Congress trade union in tea gardens was preceded by even the CPI
organisation as well as the Assam Tea Labourers' Association (ATLA), an organisation
launched by the legendary Prof. P.M. Sarwan. This evident reluctance on the part of the
Congress to organise the most oppressed and poorest section of the society in Assam
must be considered side by side with Congress eagerness to organise even the prostitutes
for the cause of freedom. 75
It is a very serious question because the total indifference adopted by the Congress
leadership towards the tea garden Adivasis resulted in an irreparable loss for the
Assamese nationality building process. It is because apart from comprising one fourth
of the state's population, the Adivasis are the poorest, most oppressed but hardest
working lot who contributes a massive wealth to the state exchequer. No modern
Assamese nation could be complete without them. But the central leadership of the
Congress chose not to antagonise the British planters and so carefully avoided any
touch of the Adivasi untouchables. It was a serious blunder because had they been
brought within the vortex of the rising tide of united anti-imperialist struggle,
integration and assimilation would have followed logically. In sharp contrast they
were segregated and ghettoised, any socio-cultural truck with them being discouraged.
It left the nationality building process incomplete. (The narrow caste/ class interests of
a few Assamese tea planters alSo contributed to this).
The Congress opposition to the minimum demand of constitutional reservation for
tea garden Adivasis further worsened the case. It so happened that the Adivasis demanded
their inclusion in the Harijan's list and then to increase Harijan's reservation quota to
make provisions for the Adivasis. Gandhi rejected the plea directly when he said :
I quite agree with you that their inclusion ought not to be used now herea;ter
for increasing the representation of Harijans. If the increase or decrease
in the number of Harijans is utilised for regulating the number of
representatives, very dangerous results are likely to follow/ 6
(emphasis ours).
Laterday Congressites only kept upto the tradition founded by the 'Mahatma'
when they opposed any minimum human right for the tea garden Adivasis. The U.N.
Dhebar Commission, appointed by the Government of India in 1950's was clear when it
said:
The Government of Assam has consistently opposed any change in their
status on the ground that it would severely disturb the local political picture?7

Voice of Dalit
246 Devabrata Sharma

The Lakur Committee, was also of similar opinion :

It is unfortunate to note that the state Government of Assam which
is responsible for descheduling of these tribes in free India has been
consistently opposing their inclusion as SC and ST on the ground
that it would seriously disturb the local political scene. 78 (emphasis
ours).
The Report of the A.K. Chand Committee (1966) mentioned that the Congress
Minister of Social Welfare was opposed to the rescheduling of the Adivasis. It noted
that the condition of the Adivasis had not improved in the intervening period while
their tribal characteristics and way of life remained the same. The report squarely blamed
the Assam Congress leadership when it said :
These tribes were recognized as scheduled tribes even before 1947. But
after 1947 these tribals were descheduled, not because of any principle,
but purely on political grounds, .... It means that the Government
wants to perpetuate the ignorance, backwardness, poverty of tribal people
only because (scheduling) will disturb the political pattern in the state.
This objection is not valid and is against the principle of social justice
and equality. 79
The facts are then more than clear. Compromise with the imperialistic interests of
British tea planters as well as indulgence of pre-capitalist, feudal ideas of untouchability,
social segregation and discrimination led an influential section of Assamese political,
social, religious as well as cultural leadership to keep away from the Adivasis. Class
and caste interests thus got preference over broader national interests. The national
cause got adversely affected in the process.
The reasons are not far to seek. A number of Congress leaders had tea plantations
of their own while many others had friends and relatives in the tea garden managements
or staffs. For instance, Assam Association leaders like Manik Chandra Barooah,
Ghanashyam Barua, Ganga Gobinda Phukan, Prasanna Barua, Chandra Kamal Bezbarua,
S.C. Bagchi, Bistu Prasad Chaliha were all tea planters while Gopal Chandra Dutta and
Bhabani Prasad Barua were managers of tea estates. Some of them were direct
collaborators of the British. Similarly Sarvajanik Sabha leaders like Jagannath Barua
and Devi Charan Barua were budding tea planters. Assam Congress leaders like Navin
Chandra Bordoloi, Tarun Ram Phookan,80 Kuladhar Chaliha, Padmanath Borthakur-
were all tea planters as well. Krisnanath Sharma's father was also a planter.
Here one point which should not be missed is that apart from Assamese Congress
leaders, a number of all India Congress leaders also had tea plantations in Assam.
Barrister Ananda Mohan Basu and Desh Bandhu Chitta Ranjan Das, both veteran

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 247

Congress leaders, had a paternal tea estate in Darrang district. Besides, the all India
leaders also enjoyed a rapport with Marwari planters of Assam. Hence, it can be fairly
assumed that the policy of keeping the Adivasis at a pole's length, was a brain-child of
the all India Congress. It was only faithfully followed by the Assam Congress
leaders - thanks to their class-caste interests.
Last, but not the least, a number of SaJzihJa Sabha presidents were either tea planters/
managers themselves, or they had some indirect relations with the tea industry. Those
included Rajanikanta Bordoloi, Nilamoni Phukan, Chandradhar Barua, Laxminath
Bezbaroa (his father the famous Dinanath was also a planter), Krishnakanta Handique,
Ananda Chandra Agarwala etc. Anandaram Barooah, the great Assamese scholar, also
made arrangements for buying a tea garden. To be precise, 158 out of 620 tea gardens
of those days belonged to Assamese planters, the ratio being 1:4. In fact the list of
Assamese tea-planters (and also managers and babus) in those days was almost a who's
who of the Assamese middle class. The success or otherwise in integrating or assimilating
the Adivasis in therefore the credit or discredit of this class.
This should not however lead us to simplify and generalise that the Assamese
people or the middle class as a whole was anti-Adivasi. There was always a
liberal, humanitarian and democratic trend-though it could almost never become
dominant.
Laxminath Bezbaroa and Mathura Mohan Barua, later editors of Banhi and
Advocate of Assam respectively, protested vehemently against the anti-Adivasi tirade
conducted by Bolinarayan Bora, the Mou editor. That Bezbaroa later regretted his
earlier stand, was another matter. More notable is the fact that Mathura Mohan Barua,
who also edited Asom Banti for a time, stayed steadfast in his pro-Adivasi position.
Assam Bilasini, apart from opposing land allotment to British planters, also upheld the
labourers' cause on different issues. For example, it opposed the unjust punishment of
Madhu Tanti, an Adivasi labourer by the British planters.81 The Asamiya also exposed
the feudal lord-like behaviours of tea planters and managers. 82 It is remarkable because
Chandra Kumar Agarwala, the publisher of Asamiya, was himself a planter. We have
noted similar pro-labour stands taken by Nabin Chandra Bordoloi,83 Congress leader
and a petty planter in the press chapter already. Debicharan Barooah, another planter
and Sarvajanik Sabha leader opposed the British planters working as the jury in tea
gardens. He argued that it would give the British planters a handle to intensify their
oppression on labourers.84
Leaving aside the press and the planters, there was always a progressive trend
within the Assamese people and also the middle class. A Guwahati public meeting,
held in June 19, 1921 supported the agitating Adivasis of Chargola-Chandpur who
went out of their work and headed for their homeland. The labourers were ruthlessly

Voice of Dalit
248 Devabrata Sharma

suppressed. The Guwahati public's solidarity with the agitating labourers was a positive
gesture. 85
There were other instances which showed that a humanitarian approach was not
totally lacking among the Assamese. For example, Col. Dr. Sibaram Bolinarayan Bora,
the then Civil Surgeon of Tezpur, once visited Dhendai Tea Estate. The medical register
showed the mysterious death of a labourer three days before. Bora ordered that the
body be exhumed and post-mortem be conducted upon it. The post-mortem report
showed that the man died as his spleen burst. It was later discovered that the British
manager of the Tea Estate kicked the labourer before he died. A great commotion
followed. 86 Col. Bora was sent on punishment transfer. However, on other occasions he
earned acclaim for rendering maximum possible clinical services to coolies who were
transshipped from India to Africa. (Col. Bora later set up a tea-estate of his own along
with Jagannath Barua.)Col. Jalnur Ali, another Assamese, was also sent on punishment
transfer for similar reasons. 87
More remarkable was Laxidhar Sharma's conscious and political espousal of the
cause of Adivasis. The razor-sharp political consciousness of this young militant is
reflected in a story, which criticized the national Congress leadership's anti-Adivasi
policies written only a few months before his death, it revealed Sharma's disillusionment
with the Congress line,88 which led him to pacify the rebellious Adivasis in the tumultous
1921's.
Though the Indian Communists adopted a now-on and now-off policy towards
the freedom movement (thanks to their international guides), a few Communists in
Assam tried hard to integrate with tea garden Adivasis and to build their struggle. In
fact Bankuru Saora, an Adivasi labourer of Suntak Tea Estate of upper Assam, who was
martyred by the British planters, was a member of the CPl. The IPT A (Indian Peoples'
Theatre Association) made a hero out of Bankuru by writing and staging Badia Lena, a
play written in Sadri language jointly by Purnendu (Panu) Paul and Nagen Kakati. It
was most warmly received by the Adivasis.89 Evidently it was an alternative approach
of integration. That it was not followed up with consistency is another matter. Whatever
that might be, the most glaring examples of a pro-Adivasi humanitarian liberal example
was most certainly Jyoti Prasad Agarwala. Incidently it was so in spite of the fact that
Jyoti Prasad was a tea planter himself. It would suffice here to add that the 'tea planter'
Jyoti Prasad not only fell in love with an Adivasi tea labourer girl, he loved the
community as a whole. Jyoti Prasad also used Sadri dialogues in his writings related to
these people. 90 Bisnu Prasad Rabha, another pioneer of the peoples' cultural movement
of Assam, also did not lag behind. His speech at the conference of Rangapara branch
Chah Majdoor Sangha (Tea Labourers' Association) was delivered in chaste Sadri :
Aaj hamnimunker sabhaker malik sabhapati, pratinidhimun, gotiamun our

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 249

hamder aja-aji, nana-nani, bap-mai, dada-didi our bhai bohinmun ...91

It shows that there was always a parallel progressive trend of accommodating,
understanding and assimilating Adivasis at a democratic basis, This trend was never
dominant, but it existed all the same.
Leaving apart the outside influences, dominations or sympathies, the community
itself began to stir slowly in course of time. It is interesting here to note though the
community in Assam was basically a class of industrial proletariat or semi-proletariat
labourers, the first organisations were not 'class' organisations in the classical sense.
Neither did these organisations refer to their dehumanizing job. Rather they referred
back to their homeland and appealed to their attachment to traditional cultures,
languages, rituals etc. Professor Prabhudan Kumar Meyrick Sarwan (popularly known
as Prof. P.M. Sarwan), a professor turned-principal turned-MLA from the community,
and also its most enlightened member in those days, formed the Assam Chhotanagpuri
Association (or Chhotanagpuri Sabha). 'P.M. Sarwan was the moving spirit of the Chhotanagpuri
Association who worked for the welfare of tea labourers'. 92 The Association, formed around
1938, was the first of its kind among the Adivasis. Not just Chhotnagpuri Association,
other organisations like the Chhotanagpuri Chhatra Sanmilan, also held aloft the national
banner. The last mentioned of these organisations was formed in 1948 December by a
group of educated youths, mostly tribals, like Prof. Sarwan, most of these student
leaders were also Christians. They also brought out an organ Chhotanagpuri Sanskarak.
The lone published issue of the .organ was edited by one Uday Oreya. In the cases of
both Chhotanagpuri Sabha and Chhotanagpuri Chhatra Sanmilan, Jharkhand influence was
direct and evident. Major Jaipal Singh, the moving spirit of the Jharkhand movement,
came to Assam several times at the invitation of the Sabha and addressed several big
rallies at Tinsukia, Darrang etc., while 'Adivasi Students' Fellowship, of Bihar was a
fraternal organisation of the Chhotangpuri Chhatra Sanmilan.
In the meanwhile, Prof. Sarwan tried to expand the scope of his organisation, as
the rechristened it as 'Bongali-Coolie Sabha' to include all the non-Chhotanagpuri Adivasis.
Prof. Sarwan was extremely hurt when some Assamese leaders cracked cruel jokes at
the cost of his illiterate, underfed brethren. They were laughed at as 'dirty' people.
Infuriated, Prof. Sarwan rechristened his organisation as the 'Letera Coolie Bongali
Sabha' (The Dirty Coolie Bongali Association)93 !
Besides it was Prof. Sarwan and his 'Chhotanagpuri' comrades who came forward
to form the Assam Tea Labourers' Association94, much before the Congressites ever
attempted to form a tea labourers' union. The Congress Union was formed only in
December, 1947, i.e., after transfer of power, and that too, with due permission of the
still British dominated-ITA 95 ! Naturally nothing much could be expected from the
Congress-controlled Assam Chah Majdoor Sangha (formed in December, 1947) which
was held by Assamese upper-caste leaders like Rabin Kakati, Bijay Chandra Bhagawati,

Voice of Dalit
250 Devabrata Sharma

and Kamakhya Prasad Tripaathi, these leaders lacked any sort of caste/ ethnic and class
affinity with the tea garden Adivasis. Hence they could not even imagine of any positive
step to build tea labourers movements for economic equality and social justice, which
could have brought the Adivasis nearer to the Assamese mainstream and assimilate
them. Instead they acted as good fire-brigades. The result is there for all to see.
Whether or not these organisations inspired them to assert them to have their
say, the Adivasis did not or could not remain aloof from the ongoing earth shaking
events. A series of strikes spread through some Darrang estates (as mentioned already),
as well as some Tinsukia estates like Hookanjuri Hansara, Raidang, Pabhojan and
Dhedaam in 1920.96 The murder of an Adivasi labourer infuriated the Adivasis of Khoreal
Tea Estates in Surma Valley in April 1921 and they struck work. We have already
mentioned the historic labour exodus from Chargola and the subsequent killing of 300
Adivasis. Apart from their own struggles, the Adivasis also joined the freedom struggle
in considerable number. Adivasi activists like Arjun Ghatowar, Gajaram Kurmi, Protap
Gond, Shambhuram Gond, Mohanchal Gond, Jagmohan Gond, Bideshi Kamar, Ansa
Bhuyan, Radhu Mura, Gobin Tanti, Ramsai Turi, Bisu Baisnab, Suku Majhi, Bogai Bauri,
Babula! Kamar etc., were imprisoned, fined or punished in other ways for upholding
the cause of freedom. Doyal Panika, Mongol Kurmi, Ramcharam Goala, Tehlu and
Bankuru Saora were martyred. Malati (alias Mungri) Mem, an Adivasi woman hailing
from Tezpur became the first ever women martyr of Assam in the freedom struggle.
That the role of Adivasis in the freedom movement is not generally recognized and
that even the names of Ramcharans, Bankurus, Tehlus and Mungris are often obliterated
from the pages of official/non-official historiography, is not surprising in view of the
fact that these people were sought to be kept away from the movement from the very
beginning. Hence it must be admitted that the Adivasis joined in the movement not
because of the Assamese middle class, the Congress or the Assamese non-state
organisations, but in spite of them.
One more point to be noted here is that the ethnic/ community demands of the
Adivasis took shape in the furnace of the freedom movement itself. 'For example, Chanoo
Kheria, the first matriculate of the communih;, approached the Depressed Classes' representative of
the Assam Franchise Committee in February, 1934, with an appeal to include the Adivasis among
the Depressed'. Kheria reportedly condemned the attitude of the local higher castes who
considered them as nothing but 'untouchables'. The Assam Depressed Classes' Conference
that followed adopted a resolution, at the instance of Sonadhar Das Senapoti, to demand
reservation also for the ex-tea garden Adivasis. 97 Prof. Sarwan's Chhotangapuri Sabha
and the later-day Chhotanagpuri Chhatra Sanmilan also reiterated the same demand, only
to be stubbornly refused by the government and stone, walled by the different non-
state organisations. The Assam Tribes and Races Federation and All Peoples' Party,
two united fora of various depressed ethnicities of Assam, also upheld these demands
- only to be stiffly opposed by the upper caste elite. The nature of all these movement

Voice of Dalit
 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 251

are best described in the following words :

A recurrent feature of most popular movements was the reliance on
traditional community consciousness and sanctions based on it, whether
tribal, caste, or religious. It is noteworthy that tribals uprooted from
their native earth and linkages apparently, also lost much of their
militancy. Despite atrocious, semi-servile conditions, Assam tea coolies
recruited in large part from tribal areas failed to develop organised protest
movement as distinct from sporadic cases of violence-till a fairly late
date. 98 ·

It shows how loss of identity led to a sense of rootlessness, a soulless vacuity. It

deprived the people of their militancy and relegated them to the position of servile,
docile, ignoramuses. Reversely, ethnic consciousness gave rise to movements which
intertwined ethnic issues with issues of class and broader national import.
We conclude this discussion on the problem of integration of the Adivasi working
class into the Assamese mainstream by drawing a parallel which may seem to be
farfetched at first sight. However the historical affinity of the two situation is self
evident. To quote Karl Marx :
... The English bourgeoisie has not only exploited the Irish poverty to
keep down the working class on England by forced immigration of poor
Irishmen, but it has also divided the proletariat into two hostile camps.
The revolutionary fire of the Celtic worker does not go well with the
nature of the Anglo Saxon worker, solid, but slow. On the contrary, in
all the big industrial centres in England there is profound antagonism
between the Irish proletariat and the English proletariat. The average
English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor who lowers wages
and the standard of life. He feels national and religious antipathies for
him. He regards him somewhat like the poor whites of the Southern
States of North America regard their black slaves. This antagonism
among the proletarians of England is artificially nourished and supported
by the bourgeoisie. It knows that this scission is the true secret of
maintaining its power . ... Any natiotl that oppresses another forges
its own chains. 99
The million rupee question here is that whether British divisive policy paved the
way for a similar situation of the Assamese nationality vis-a-vis the Adivasis on one
hand and the immigrant Muslims on .the other. The strength and vitality of the future
Assamese nationality would greatly depend on its capability of integrating and
assimilating these two mammoth masses.

Voice of Dalit
252 Devabrata Sharma

Notes and References

1. Planter Raj to Swaraj, p. 44.
2. Planter Raj to Swaraj, p. 45.
3. Demography in India, Vol. XIV, No.1, 1985.
4. Caste and Class : Social Stratification in Assam, p. 45.
5. Immigration Report, 1930-31.
6. Cosmogony of Caste and Social Nobility in Assam, p. 61.
7. Census Report, 1931.
8. Virginius Xaxa : 'Tribal Migration to Plantation Estates in North East India : Determinants and
Consequences', in Demography of India, Vol. XIV, No.1, 1985.
9. Ibid.
10. Resolution on Immigrant Labour in Assam for the Year 1903-04, Shillong, 1904, p.2.
11. Resolution on Immigrant Labour in Assam for the Year 1903- 04, Shillong, 1904, p.2, (Ibid).
12. Report on Cholera on Board the Steamer 'Burma', 1872, Government of Assam.
13. Report on Cholera on Board the Steamer 'Burma', 1872, Government of Assam, (Ibid).
14. Ibid.
15. The History of the Indian Tea Industry, pp. 64,267.
16. Ibid, p. 269.
17. The History of the Indian Tea Industry, p. 351.
18. Report of 1906 Enquiry Committee into Labour Conditions.
19. The History of the Indian Tea Industry, p. 363.
20. Report of the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee 1906, p. 19.
21. Ibid, p. 19.
22. Ibid, p. 18.
23. Report of the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee 1906, pp. 8 - 9,
24. Resolution of Immigrant Labour in Assam 1903-04, pp. 186.
25. Resolution of Immigrant Labour in Assam 1903-04, pp. 186.
26. Report of the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee 1906, p. 4.
27. 'Tribal Migration to Plantation Estate in North East India : Determinants and Consequences.' Demography
of India, Vol. XIV, No.1, 1985, p. 77.
28. 1931 Census Report.

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 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 253

29. R. K. Kar and J. L. Sharma : 'Tea and Ex-Tea Labour in Assam :A Preliminary Appraisal of Social
Stratification and Ethnicity': paper presented at a NEICSR Seminar, Shillong, 1985.
30. Virginius Xaxa : 'Tribal Migration to Plantation Estate in North East India :Determinants and Consequences',
Demography of India, Vol. XIV, No.1, 1985.
31. The History of Indian Tea Industry, p. 271.
32. Resolution on Immigrant Labour in Assam, 1903-04, p. 10.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid, p. 5.
35. Please see the chapter on press/journals of this thesis.
36. The History of Indian Tea Industry, p. 270.
37. Resolution on Immigrant Labour in Assam, 1903-04, p. 11.
38. Ibid.
39. V. Raman: Within the Pole: The Tea Worker Class and Ethnicity in the Tea Gardens of North East
India, p. 124.
40. Satyesh Bhattacharyya : Some Little Known Facts ofAssamese Chauvinism' in For A New Democracy,
Assam Special Issue, March-April, 1983, p. 65.
41. K. M. Sharma: 'The Assam Question' in Economic and Political Weekly, July, 1980.
42. Political History of Assam, Vol. II, p. 251.
43. Evidence Recorded by the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee, 1921-22, p. 29.
44. D. P.l. of Assam report for 1917-18, p.21, quoted by Nabin Chandra Bordoloi in his article 'Chah
Bagichar Coolie' in Bordoloi Rachanavali, p. 378.
45. Assam Legislative Council Debates, 1932, p. 578.
46. Assam Legislative Council Debates, 1942.
47. Assam Legislative Council Debates, 1938, Voi.II, No. 18, p. 710.
48. Sushi! Kurmi : Chahbagichar Asomiya Sampraday, p. 24.
49. Sontosh Kumar Topno: 'Asom Chhotanagpuri Chhatra Sanmilan' in Sirish, 1995, Dibrugarh, p.S.
50. Narayan Ghatowar,'Asomor Bhasik Astitwa Raxat Chah Majdooror Bhumika' in Bishalyakarani,
Tinsukia,1990,p.6.
51. Sushi! Kurmi: Chahbagichar Asomiya Sampraday, Jorhat, 1983, p. 22.
52. Political History of Assam, Vol. II, p. 332.
53. For a New Democracy, Assam Special Issue, Calcutta, 1983.
54. For a New Democracy, Assam Special Issue, Calcutta, 1983.
55. V. Raman: Within the Pale : The Tea worker Class and Ethnicity in the Tea Gardens ofNorth East India', p. 124.

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254 Devabrata Sharma

56. Sorvojanik Sabha' s Memorandum to Royal Commission on Opium, 1893. Reproduced from Planter
Raj to Swaraj, p.348.
57. Minutes of Evidence, Royal Opium Commission, 1893.
58. Tora Aru Boka, p. 33.
59. Asamat Bideshi, (First Edition, 1925), Guwahati 1996, pp. 11, 19, 23.
60. Asamat Bideshi, p. 23.
61. Maniklal Mahtwa: 'Asom Sahitya Sabhar Ekhan Kitapar Mate Chah Majdoor', Nagarik, 9.7, 1981.
62. Editorial comment in Mou collected volume, Guwahati, 1980, p. 8.
63. Omeo Kumar Das ·: }ivan Smriti, Guwahati 1923, pp. 115 -120.
64. Ibid, pp. 225 - 231, 123.
65. Padmanath Borthakur : Swadhinata Ranar Sangsparshat, Dibrugarh, 1968, pp. 83 - 84 and %.
Reproduced from Dr. A. Guha's Planter Raj to Swaraj, p. 137.
66. Young India, dated 29-06-1921, Reproduced in Bharatar Swadhinata Sangramat Asomor Avadan,
p. 253.
67. ]ivan Smriti, p. 204.
68. Asomia Madhya Shrenir ltihash, p. 207.
69. Jivan Smriti, pp. 116-17.
70. Planter Raj to Swaraj, p. 138.
71. Ibid, p. 139.
72. The History of Indian Tea Industry, p. 385.
73. Planter Raj to Swaraj, Appendix, p. 352.
74. Jivan Smriti, p. 114 and Political History of Assam, Vol. II, p.44.
75. M. K. Gandhi's letter to Sonadhar Das Senapati, 10 May, 1934. Reproduced from Cosmogony of
Caste and Social Mobility in Assam, p. 66.
76. For A New Democracy, Assam Special Issue, Calcutta, 1983, p. 64.
77. For A New Democracy, Assam Special Issue, Calcutta, 1983, p. 64.
78. Report of the A.K. Chanda Committee, 1986, reproduced from For A New Democracy, Assam
Special Issue, Calcutta, 1983, p. 64.
79. Md. Tayebulla : Karagarar Chithi, p. 206.
80. Prafulla Chandra Barua : Asomor Batori Kakat, Eti Ruprekha : p. 58.
81. Political History of Assam, Vol. III, p. 217.
82. 'Chahbagicltar Coolie' in Bordoloi Rachanavali, pp. 378-9.
83. Political History of Assam, Vol. III, p. 165.

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 Jharkhandi Adivasis of Assam :A Dalit Perspective 255

84. Planter Raj to Swaraj, p.130.

85. Omeo Kumar Das : Jivan Smriti, p. 18.
86. Ibid.
87. Lakhidhar Sharma's story 'Parajay', Avahan, 4th Year, 2nd Issue, 1933, Reproduced in the collection
Roudra Nilima edited by Homen Borgohainand Nanda Talukdar, Guwahati, 1%9, p. 69. Sharma
died in May, 1934.
88. Nagen Kakati: 'Jyoti Prasadar Sannidhyat' in Prasenjit Chaudhury, Paramananda Majumdar
edited Jyoti Prasad, Guwahati, 1990, pp. 110-9.
89. 'Eta Matoal Barua' inJyoti Prasad Rachanavali, Guwahati, 1986, pp. 729-30.
90. Bisnu Prasad Rabha Rachana Sambhar, Tezpur, 1997, Vol. II, p. 1289.
91. Home Poll, file No. 18/4/38, F.R. first half of April, 1938, National Archives oflndia. Reproduced
from Political History of Assam, Vol. II, p. 251.
92. Brief biography note on Prof. Sarwan in Bhogdoi, a local souvenir and unpublished
autobiographical notes of Prof. Sarwan; also interview with Dineswar Tasa, a prominent community
leader and Sitara Peters, Prof. Sarwan's daughter.
93. Political History of India, Vol. II, p. 251.
94. Planter Raj to Swaraj, Appendix - 12, p. 352.
95. Other striking tea-estates of different districts included: Bomfila, Jabaka, Dewan, Ram pur, Alyna,
Pakhichea, Doloi, Eraligod, Salona, Manabari, Singlijan, Doomdooma, Powel etc.
%. Cosmogony of Caste and Social Mobility in Assam, pp. 64-5.Sumit Sarkar : 'Popular Movements
and 'Middle Class' Leadership in Late Colonial India: Perspectives and Problems, Calcutta, 1985,
p.25.
97. Marx and Engels Selected Works, Moscow, 1977, Vol. II, p. 176.

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