Bhopal: David R Syiemlieh, chairman, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) delivered a lecture on ‘North East India: Periodisation: Freedom Struggle: Integration’ at IGRMS here on Friday. The lecture was chaired by SN Choudhary, Rajiv Gandhi Chair, Barkatullah University, Bhopal.
Syiemlieh questioned the method of periodisation in Indian history, which he said, had left out a major chunk of Indian regions especially the North-East. Giving example of lack of mention of Ahom dynasty, he said, “It was the longest ruling kingdom in India, yet there is no mention of Ahom dynasty in most history books.”
Speaking in the context of role of youngsters, women and revolutionaries from NE in Indian independence movement he said, “In a book published by GoI in 2016 it is mentioned that a 17-year-old girl, Kanak Lata Barua was martyred while raising Indian flag at Gohpur, Assam in September, 1942. This story is known only in Assam but not known in rest of India.”
The history books and that is the contribution of people of Manipur, Assam and Khasi Hills of Meghalaya towards the Azad Hindi Fauj (Indian National Army). Let this part of history be told because the role of North-East reflected in Indian history and it must be told beyond the North-East, people from outside of NE do not know much about the history and the contribution of the people of the north-east towards Indian Nationalism.
Discussing reasons behind the stories remaining largely untold to the rest of India, Syiemlieh said, “The primary reason was a peculiar form of British Administration which isolated North-East. Second is the distance of NE from other parts of mainland India. For example during the first independence movement of 1857, it took two months for the North-East to realise that other parts of India were in revolt against the British. Therefore there was later development of freedom struggle and the mutiny in the North-east India simply because of distance.”
