The Tai Ahom National Council Memo Scheduling

The British followed a subtle policy of downgrading the Ahom politically, socially,
economically, and even psychologically to affect the collapse of their moral. One classic
example of the contemptuous treatment meted by Francis Jenkins, the Agent to the Governor-
General in North East, to a genuine complaint lodged by ex-King Purandar Singha (1833-38)
may be cited here. Just after one year he was dislodged from power and his territory of Upper
Assam annexed to the British dominion, Purandar Singha protested against the desecration of the
sacred royal moidams at Charaideo and the pulling down the bricks from the royal palace at
Garhgaon by the Assam Tea Company. The representation (its English translation made by the
British official authority) runs as below:
“It was the custom of my ancestors from the time of Chukapha Rajah not to burn their
dead but to bury them, and when any royal person died all the ornaments and golden
plates to the value of from 20,000 to 25,000 Rupees were buried with him, and the body
was buried at Cherry Deo and mound raised over it. It was called a moidam. I have now
heard that some gentlemen are preparing to cultivate the tea there. Sir, these tombs are in
a manner holy with us and the cultivating the tea or anything on them would much affect
me, and they are destroying the Rajah Palace at Ghergong and building factories there.
Sir, whereas any one builds a grave it is not the custom of the country to destroy them but
these gentlemen not having regarded this have caused me great distress, and I have
addressed you trusting that they will be order to leave these to remain and to repair these
they have destroyed.”
The complaint was addressed to Captain T. Brodie, the then Deputy Commissioner of
Sibsagar, who forwarded it to Francis Jenkins. The contemptuous comments of the latter are
unbecoming on the part of the highest officer of the East India Company’s government in the
North-East. Jenkins’ official letter runs:
“I mention that in my opinion the Rajah’s objection to the pulling down the Palace
and Fort were of little weight. The Palace and Fort are of little to the govt. But they
may prove a great convenience to the Assam Company, and is my opinion the whole
had better be cleared away as the Fort is now only a harbour for wild beasts,…”
(Letter No. 67, from the Agent to the Governor-General to the Secretary, Government of
India at Fort William, 6 th April 1840, in Vol. No. 9).
Marginalization and Pauperization of the Ahom: