Assam: Going all out to showcase its vibrant history to the world

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Himanta-Biswa Government is going all out to tell the stories of Assam’s glorious and vibrant past to the world.

“Telling Assam’s glorious and vibrant stories before the world-that’s the latest task that Dispur has taken up seriously,” claimed Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on March 9, when the state government received the certificate from Guinness Book of World Records for having the “largest online photo album of handwritten notes.”

A compilation of over 42 lakh essays on valiant Ahom general Lachit Borphukan, uploaded in a portal in October-November last year as part of 400th birth anniversary celebrations of Borphukan, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the “largest online photo album of handwritten notes”.

Though the state government collected around 45 lakh essays on Borphukan from the state’s people, only handwritten entries were considered for the world record.

However, Assam’s entry to the Guinness Book of World Records will not stop here. Assam government seemed to have planned to make it a task to register Assam’s presence in the Guinness Book of World Records multiple times within the next few years. The chief minister said that making the records would be a part of the state government’s attempt to “tell Assam’s stories before the global audience”.

Sarma said, “It was only when the state government decided to observe Lachit Borphukan’s birth ceremony in such grandeur and started to tell the stories of his bravery and patriotism, the world started to recognise him as a national figure. It’s our demerits that we could not tell our own great stories in front of the world like others and give respect to our history makers. It took 75 years since Independence for Lachit to become a national hero. The world is asking now why we have not told our stories to them yet.”

In November last year, the final leg of Lachit Borphukan’s birth anniversary celebration was held with a series of programmes in New Delhi which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others.

Sharing the state government’s ‘storytelling’ attempts, Sarma mentioned how Dispur has already pushed the state’s historic Charaideo Maidam of Ahom kingdom for the UNESCO World Heritage Site tag. Already the Centre has nominated the Maidams for the UNESCO World Heritage Site tag amongst 52 other tentative sites of the country.

“When we (state government) projected the Maidams for the prestigious accreditation, the Centre has agreed to send it as the country’s lone nominee. It’s not that the Maidams have become important recently, but it has been an important site in terms of history and archaeology since history. We have so far failed to tell our stories about it before the world. I’m convinced that the Maidams will also get its due recognition,” the chief minister said.

Charaideo Maidam, also known as the pyramids of Assam, was the original capital of the Ahom Kings built by Chaolung Sukhapa, the dynasty’s founder, in about 1229 CE. Located at the foothills of Nagaland, it is around 30 km from the historical Sivsagar town in Assam.

Some 42 tombs (Maidams) of Ahom kings and queens were present at Charaideo hillocks. The Ahoms preferred to place their departed family members at Charaideo where the first king Sukapha was laid to rest. The historical records claimed that wives, attendants, pet animals, and huge quantities of valuables were buried with the departed kings. Though the actual number of Maidam was more than 150, only some 30 Maidams were being protected by the Archaeological Survey of India and Assam State Archaeology Department.

Sarma added, “We have now managed to tell two of our stories of Lachit Borphukan and the Maidams before the country and world. Now, our third storytelling will be done on April 14 when we will take our own Bihu to the global platform and attempt the largest performance of Bihu in the world.”

Assam has been gearing up in its effort to set a Guinness record for the world’s largest performance of Bihu during the Rongali Bihu celebrations. As per the schedule, on April 14 when the Bohag or Rongali Bihu celebrations will begin in the state, over 11,000 dancers and musicians will gather at Guwahati’s Sarusajai Stadium for a Bihu performance.

Workshops were currently underway for the event which is also slated to be attended by PM Modi.

This would be the northeast’s second attempt for a record for the largest performance of a traditional folk dance. On 5 April 2019, Nagaland entered the Guinness World Records when 4,687 artists performed the Konyak dance.

Already a video of Bihu dancers performing at the stadium has been submitted to the Guinness World Records authorities as part of the application process, and the state has received preliminary clearance for further inspection.

“Our fourth and fifth story before the world in the coming days will be the Bagurumba and Satriya dance forms and I am sure the world will recognise our culture with open arms,” the chief minister informed.

The Bagurumba dance is a traditional dance of the indigenous Boro people living in the state. It is also called the ‘butterfly dance’ as women dancers personify the movements of butterflies and birds by using the traditional Aronai scarf. Percussion instruments will accompany the dance.

Similarly, the Satriya dance was created by 15th-century Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva to accompany the Ankiya Naat (a sort of Assamese one-act drama invented by him), which were mainly performed in the satras, the Vaishnavite monasteries of Assam. (EM)