Assam 2009 - Posoowa

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North East India International Meet – 2010 (Neiim-2010) Dear All, A MEET is being organized in Guwahati on 11 and 12 (Monday and Tuesday) January, 2010, wherein the policy makers from the Government of Assam, from the State Governments of other NE States and from Government of India are expected to participate. Please note that from the North-East we have 3 ministers in the new Central Govt. Sri B.K. Handique is the Minister of Mines and DONER; 28 years old Ms. Agatha Sangma is the youngest Minister of Government of India, she is Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development; Mr. Vincent Pala is the Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources. Indian Diaspora has played a major role in shaping India’s political and economic history. The influence is such that a ministry (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs) has been created to look after their affairs. In contrast to states like Kerala, Punjab and Gujarat, the number of NRIs from Assam and the entire North East is miniscule and of relatively recent origin. Moreover, they are mostly professionals. Hence it would be unrealistic to assume huge investments from NR-NEIs. Keeping this in mind, the NEIIM-2010 is organized to tap the vast “knowledge bank” of the NR-NEIs. The NR-NEIs can act as catalysts in the development of the region through the transfer of their knowledge and skills and by facilitating investments from large foreign corporates. The dates 11 and 12 January have been chosen so that NR-NEIs traveling to India to attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on 7-9 January will find it convenient to attend NEIIM-2010 in Guwahati. Moreover for visiting Assamese NRIs Magh Bihu uruka falls on 13 January. The organizers of NEIIM-2010 will also provide information on the following :- (1) Hotel tariff (discount rates for the delegates) and information in Guwahati (2) Flight information (3) Hotel tariff and information in Shillong, Kaziranga etc. (4) Will engage a reputed tour operator for the delegates interested in touring Shillong, Tawang, Kaziranga etc. NEIIM-2010 will be a one and a half day programme with a number of sessions so that maximum number of delegates can participate in their area of expertise & interest. Please send your suggestions on how to make it more meaningful and participatory. The MEET will be at a central location of Guwahati city. Also there will be a cultural function in the evening of January 11 followed by dinner at a beautiful resort in the vicinity of Guwahati City . The inaugural and valedictory functions will be graced by dignitaries. We have started the process of Preliminary Registration from today so please send your names immediately to barkakoty@yahoo.co.in, so that we can start arranging the logistics. Bohagor Duwardolit at IIT Guwahati, photo by Sonit Gogoi 22 POSOOWA • June 2009
20th century Assam icons Bhupen Hazarika, Bhabendranath Saikia: A caste point of view years ago. I was not amused then. No symbolic, ad-hoc, superfluous gesture of revolt moves me. The elderly Brahmin’s professed antipathy for caste awareness in the Indian society was apparently an articulated sign of egalitarianism. He clearly expected claps for this, but then there is also India’s ‘best loved Englishman’ Mark Tully who finds “…caste is obnoxious to the egalitarian West, so it is obnoxious to the Indian elite too.” (No Full Stops in India, Mark Tully, Penguin). The two most recognized Assamese personalities in the second half of the twentieth century are certainly Dr. Bhupen Hazarika and Dr. Bhabendranath Saikia, incidentally from the same caste with identical constitutional status in India and social footing. I believe their success and standing bear an epoch-making significance, which ought not to be diffused by some inflexible outlook. The comments of an honorable man belonging to the Brahmin community motivate me to call for a caste reappraisal of the two most famous twentieth century sons of Assam, Bhupen and Bhaben. This individual calls himself progressive and castigates Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia for robbing Mr. Pradip Barua of the glory as the mastermind of the premier Assamese magazine Prantik. This individual claims to be a relative of the Prantik editor; I have known him since the 1970s, initially as one of my classmate’s father and later as a respectable older person with a lot of good advice for me in many situations. It needs to be mentioned here that Dr Bhabendranath Saikia was the founder chief editor of the Assamese fortnightly Prantik launched in the 1980s with Mr. Pradip Barua as the editor, printer and publisher.. As for the honorable man and my classmate’s father, there had hardly been an occasion for me to doubt his integrity. He is educated and polished, well mannered and helpful besides being a former journalist who contributed editorials for the Assamese daily with which I began my career. Though I belong to a caste apart from his, there was no hitch in our relationship right from my school days until one doubtful 23 day when the retired bureaucrat volunteered to make me aware of his broadmindedness by revealing that he does not wear the sacred thread called lagun. So, he boldly discarded a prevalent Brahmin custom. It is an ill-advised practice in his views, and the seventy year old former bureaucrat earnestly added, “I don’t believe in caste discrimination.” For years, I remained a curious spectator of what he wanted me to acknowledge as his liberalism or modern outlook. Years later this very liberal Brahmin tried to convince me that the credit for the most successful Assamese magazine should go to his relative Mr. Pradip Barua and not Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia ‘who does not do anything.’ The honorable man’s charge of Dr. Saikia ‘doing nothing for Prantik’ stunned me as I vividly remember giving the manuscript of my only article to be printed in Prantik to an ailing Dr. Saikia who gracefully accepted, edited and returned it to me with a note to the Prantik editor Pradip Barua; I carried the manuscript from Dr. Saikia’s residence to the Editor who eventually published it. Later I collected the manuscript and still preserve it with Dr. Saikia’s notes and correction marks. So this is my first hand experience of Dr. Saikia’s diligence and commitment for the magazine of which he is the founder editor, yet paradoxically there exists a class of people to disparage him. My mind went back to the old honorable man’s avowal of liberalism What is caste then Caste remains a buzzword in Indian social interactions, formal and informal, academic or casual. For most Indians, it is a column to be filled in application forms submitted to the authority. Caste invariably plays a role in employment and educational opportunities. Caste decides political outcome and it is an undercurrent in all kinds of social contacts, more openly in wedding alliances. The caste system outlasts centuries old revolt against it in the forms Buddhism or Vaishnavism, Ambedkar and Mandal Commission and also this nameless bureaucrat Brahmin discarding lagun. I know caste remains strong and steady, yet caste deliberations never cease to entertain me. Here a few of caste centric paragraphs from a few outstanding books that leave me no wiser but I can’t help reading them again and again. Caste from Encyclopedia Britannica: Caste is a group of people having a specific social rank, defined generally by descent, marriage and occupation. Each caste has its own customs that restrict the occupations and dietary habits of its members and their social POSOOWA • June 2009
Page 1 and 2: NON-RESIDENT ASSAMESE (NRA) MAGAZIN
Page 3 and 4: An Early Morning Adventure The sunl
Page 5 and 6: Earth. In our Kingdom, even motorcy
Page 7 and 8: shame you will bring to this Office
Page 9 and 10: We will leave, see you again later.
Page 11 and 12: said nothing; she wanted to hear wh
Page 13 and 14: 13 POSOOWA • June 2009
Page 15 and 16: Best Wishes to Assam 2009 Samar and
Page 21: 21 POSOOWA • June 2009
Page 25 and 26: Shillong Chamber Choir Performs in
Page 27 and 28: anks provide livelihoods to the por
Page 29 and 30: Guwahati-Dimapur railway is extende
Page 31 and 32: 4. Songs : Rohan and Reema Baishya
Page 33 and 34: Michael Fincke’s Talk from Space
Page 35 and 36: ‘Dhit Dhit Dhite Dhite Dhage Tite

Assam 2009 - Posoowa

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