GUWAHATI, Dec 22 - Thaluwa Byaktitvar Sandhanat, the Assamese version of In Search of Native Personality, the small-in-size-but-heavy-in-weight book, penned by renowned socialist turned leading ideologue of the indigenous peoples� movement for self-determination in the North East region Late Nibaran Bora 36 years back, was released at a function held here on December 17.
The book was translated into Assamese by Krishna Gopal Bhattacharyya, who was closely associated with Bora as a party colleague in the Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad (PLP), one of the forefront organisations of the anti-alien Assam Agitation.
Bora wrote In Search of Native Personality in 1982, describing how the languages and cultures of the indigenous people of the NE region have been subjected to cultural attacks of a section of the Bengali-speaking Hindu people and how the business community from Rajasthan has destroyed the economy of the local societies here.
As soon as it was released, it received the acclamation that accorded it the status of a thesis on the present status of the indigenous people of the NE region. Bora was then leading the PLP as its president and the book was accepted by the PLP as its base paper.
It was also presented before the delegates of an all-party meeting of the NE region held on June 12, 1982. The leaders present at the meeting included DD Lyngdoh and Hopingstone Lyngdoh of Meghalaya, Zoramthanga of Mizoram, O Joy Singh of Manipur, among others. They accepted the views offered by Bora in the book on the predicament etc., facing the indigenous people of the region.
It is alleged that the book earned the wrath of the Indian rulers, as it enthused a sense of rebellion among the indigenous communities of the state and other parts of the NE region against the injustice they are subjected to by the rulers. Therefore, a conspiracy was allegedly hatched by the Indian rulers to damage Nibaran Bora and the PLP and also to derail the anti-alien Assam Agitation.
Thaluwa Byaktitvar Sandhanat was released by senior journalist Ajit Bhuyan and the function was attended, among others, by ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, general secretary Anup Chetia, vice president Pradip Gogoi and former PLP president and secretary general respectively Thaneswar Boro and Bisweswar Deka.
