GUWAHATI, May 16 - Noted columnist and social activist Dr Anima Guha released a book on the Sino-Indian conflict, prepared and published by the Asamiya Club, Tezpur, at a function held at the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture (VKIC), Uzanbazar yesterday.
The book titled Chin-Bharat Sanghat: Eti Abalokan (Sino-Indian Conflict: A Perspective), contains write-ups on the history of Sino-Indian relations, the historical perspective of the conflict between the two countries, the 1962 Sino-Indian war and the personal accounts of the victims of the 1962 war, etc. It has been edited by senior journalist Manoj Bora and its contents are divided into six sections.
The contributors include Dr Hiren Gohain, historian Dr Rajen Saikia, politician Bijit Saikia, academician Rabin Barthakur, noted journalist Sanjay Hazarika, cultural worker Prithiviraj Rava, John Wangsu Sain, Chao Mong Hoi, Dorjee Chiring, Phuksang Tham and others.
Releasing the book, Dr Guha recounted her horrifying condition during the 1962 war. She maintained that the Sino-Indian conflict was centred round a plot of land measuring a few square miles. This was very unfortunate. The horror created by the 1962 conflict was such that she, then in an advanced stage of pregnancy, became restless. During the initial days of the conflict, there was no information about her husband, noted economic historian late Dr Amalendu Guha, who was then serving as a college teacher at Tezpur. Dr Anima Guha was staying with her elder sister in Shillong during those days.
Later, she received information that Tezpur had fallen to the Chinese Army. This was followed by news that Dr Guha, Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rava and some others were arrested by the Indian security forces for their Leftist leaning. A tether was used to bind Bishnu Rava by his waist. Such was the ill-treatment meted out to a doyen of culture by the security forces, she said, adding, �I failed to enjoy the feeling of attaining motherhood because of the agony that resulted from the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict.�
Prithiviraj Rava, who presided over the function, narrated their agony after the arrest of their father Bishnu Prasad Rava. Prithiviraj and his brother, both minors then, were sleeping with their father. The next morning, they learnt from the neighbours that their father was arrested by the security forces. People of Tezpur were fleeing their native town to other places. Some of the well-wishers of the Rava family took Prithiviraj and his younger brother to the Tezpur ferry station to shift them to Nagaon. But at the ferry station, the two boys met a child-lifter and this made them flee the ferry station to their home.
Speaking on the occasion, Winghing Tham, an Assamese citizen of China-origin, who has now settled at Tezpur, said that many Assamese people of China-origin were arrested by the security forces during the 1962 conflict and were either sent to jail or to the Deoli detention camp. However, Tham was not arrested.
The function was addressed by Asamiya Club Tezpur advisor Prof Shailaja Padmapati and editor of the book Manoj Bora.
