Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah has said that Lachit Barphukan is not merely a son of Assam but the entire country. “A person in the North East of the country fought the battle of Swabhiman, Swaraj and Swabhasha against bigoted and power-greedy people and won. Lachit Barphukan was a brave son not only of Assam but of India,” he said in his speech while inaugurating a book Assam’s Braveheart – Lachit Barphukan at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati. He said this, in a lighter vein, while disagreeing with the title of the book which points out the Ahom general as merely Assam’s brave heart. The book has been translated into 23 scheduled languages of the country.
In his address, Mr. Shah said that Barphukan’s tale of valour will make every citizen across India proud, while the great military general during the Ahom era in Assam can be called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj of Eastern India. Shah said that the Battle of Saraighat is important in Assam’s history and if Lachit had not won this war, Assam would have been a part of Bangladesh. He said that the fact that the entire North East and Assam is today a part of India is because of the valour of the people who thwarted every invasion, be it the one led by Bhakhtiar Khilji or that of Aurangzeb, and saved this land.
Mr. Shah said that bringing to the fore the personality and character of Lachit Barphukan will awaken the collective consciousness and self-confidence of the country. “Despite being a commander, leading the war by being in the first line like a soldier is the best example of Lachit not being arrogant.”
The Union Home Minister said that people were taught history from the British point of view and hence the bravery of the country’s people was removed from history textbooks. Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided to celebrate the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to awaken the consciousness of the country. He pointed out to the outcome of Prime Minister’s initiative through the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: To create awareness among the young generation about the sacrifices of the countless freedom fighters; To glorify the achievements of the country in the last 75-years and move forward on this foundation, and to take a pledge to build an India which will be first in the world in every field by 2047. “This two-year long campaign has filled the mind of every youth of the country with confidence that the next 25-years belong to India,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma thanked Mr Shah for his suggestion in publishing a book on Lachit Barphukan in different Indian languages while attending the 400th birth anniversary celebration of the general in New Delhi on November 24, 2022. He expressed his gratitude to the author Arup Kumar Dutta and the translators of the book for their dedication in accomplishing the task within a time frame.
He said that the translated versions of the book would be released in all the States where these scheduled languages are spoken. He also said that a mega theatrical performance on Lachit Barphukan, as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be staged across the nation. The show will involve nearly 500 artistes.
The authors involved in this translation work are Gyan Prakash Tekchandani and Sundardas V Gohrani (Sindhi), Wahengbam Kumari Chanu (Manipuri), Rajeshwar Singh Raju (Dogri). Munjuluri Krishna Kumari (Telugu), Suren Talukdar (Assamese), Pradeep Kumar (Hindi), Lalchand Saren (Santhali), Devayan Bhaduri (Bangla), Harkamalpreet Singh (Punjabi), Dr. K Shivlingappa Hadihalu and Veerendra Rabihal (Kannada), Bindumadhava Kulkarni (Marathi), RS Bhaskar (Konkani), Kannayan Dakshinamurthy (Tamil), Vijaydeo Jha and Sanjay Jha (Maithili), Dr. Khagen Sharma (Nepali), Subhash Chandra Satpathy (Odia), Baldevanand Sagar (Sanskrit), Swarnaprabha Chainary and Phukan Chandra Basumatary (Bodo), S Salim Kumar (Malayalam), Mirza AB Baig ( Urdu), Nissar Azam (Kashmiri), Vinod Patel (Gujarati) and Deen Dayal Sharma (Rajasthani).
