Abstract
The Surma-Barak valley comprised the districts of Sylhet and Cachar in colonial Assam. This valley has been prone to flooding from time immemorial. Although our knowledge of floods in pre-colonial days is inadequate, with the arrival of the British from the late eighteenth century, our sources of information took a great leap forward. One of the heaviest floods to visit Sylhet and Cachar was in June 1929, and it left a trail of havoc in the valley. But this flood is more important because it provided another occasion for the Indians to evaluate the role of the British in aggravating floods in the valley. The majority of the inhabitants of the valley considered the flood of 1929 to be a Plabon or Deluge, the like of which had never happened before. On the other hand, the British officials flatly rejected these allegations. In the end, a committee was formed to investigate the causes, but its findings failed to satisfy the Indians. This paper will deal with this important event in the history of Assam and will show that nationalist critique of colonial rule in Assam had varied dimensions, as yet unexplored by historians.
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Notes
- 1.
David Ludden , “Investing in Nature Around Sylhet : An Excursion into Geographical History,” Economic and Political Weekly 38, no. 48 (29 November 2003): 5080–5088.
- 2.
For details on the physical features of the Surma-Barak Valley see F. O. Lechmere- Oertel, Floods in the Surma Valley: Their Causes and Remedies (Assam : Shillong , 1916); Report of the Administration of Assam for the year 1911–12, pt. II, 1–3; W. W. Hunter, A Statistical Account of Assam, vol. 2 (New Delhi : Spectrum Publications, 1998). For a contemporary description of the Cachar region, see Abani K. Bhagabati, Ashok K. Bora, and Bimal K. Kar, Geography of Assam (New Delhi: Rajesh Publications, 2001), 42.
- 3.
B. C. Allen, Assam District Gazetteers: Volumes on Cachar and Sylhet (Calcutta , 1905).
- 4.
F. O. Lechmere- Oertel was the Chief Engineer and Secretary and Commissioner of Assam in the Public Works Department . This department dealt with construction and maintenance of government roads and bridges, buildings, irrigation works, public health, and some other minor issues. During the colonial period, the Public Works Department was always headed by a person with expertise in engineering, particularly related to construction.
- 5.
For details see Lechmere- Oertel, Floods in the Surma Valley; Monisankar Misra, “Encountering Floods: Colonial State and the Flood of 1916 in the Surma-Barak Valley of Assam .” Unpublished manuscript, last modified August 16, 2015. Microsoft Word file
- 6.
A. J. Laine, official communiqué to the Chief Commissioner, 10 September 1929, Revenue A, March, 1930, No. 291, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
- 7.
Report on Relief Work after the Memorable Devastating Floods of June,1929 and during Subsequent floods up to 1934 (Sylhet : The Sylhet Cachar Flood R elief Committee,1934), 1.
- 8.
Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, March, 1930, No. 283, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
- 9.
Report on Relief Work, 1.
- 10.
Suresh Chandra Bhattacharjya , Deluge in Assam : History of the Assam Flood of 1929 in Anglo-Bengali, (Silchar , 1929), 10–37.
- 11.
Report on Relief Work, 1.
- 12.
Kaliprasanna Bhattacharjee, Silcharer Karcha (in Bengali), 2nd ed. (Kolkata: Parul, 2008), 69–70.
- 13.
Prabasi, Shravan, 1336 B. S. Prabasi was a Bengali literary journal started by Ramananda Chattopadhyay (1865–1943) in 1901 in Allahabad and published for more than sixty years. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore regularly contributed to it.
- 14.
Suprava Datta , Suprava Datter Diary (in Bengali), ed. Amalendu Bhattachrjee (Silchar , 2008), 63 (translated by the author).
- 15.
Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, No. 283.
- 16.
Report on the Land Revenue Administration of the Surma Valley and Hill Division for the Year 1928–29, 4.
- 17.
Edgley, Reports on the floods in Assam during the year 1929-30, Revenue A, March, 1930, No. 284, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
- 18.
A. J. Laine, Reports on the floods in Assam during the year 1929–30, Revenue A, March, 1930, No. 291, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
- 19.
Edgley, Reports on the floods in Assam during the year 1929–30, Revenue A, No. 284.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
Report on Relief Work, 2.
- 22.
J. A. Dawson, Reports on the floods in Assam during the year 1929–30, Revenue A, March, 1930, No. 295, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid. The role of insufficient waterways in aggravating floods in Surma-Barak Valley was much discussed in the colonial period, particularly after the three consecutive floods of 1913, 1915 and 1916.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Report on Relief Work, 9; Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, No. 283.
- 29.
This solidarity between the Europeans and Indians at the time of the flood was also reported by Bhattacharjya , Deluge in Assam , 29–30.
- 30.
A maund is 40 kilograms.
- 31.
Edgley , Reports on the floods in Assam during the year 1929-30, Revenue A, No. 284.
- 32.
Ibid. Kamini Kumar Chanda ( 1862–1963) was born in undivided Sylhet district (in present-day Bangladesh) and was a nationalist leader in the Indian National Congress in the early twentieth century. Hem Chandra Datta (1884–1965) was a renowned social and political figure of Silchar , Cachar , from the 1930s onward, and was a member of the Assam Legislative Council before independence. He was married to Hirankumari Devi, the daughter of Kamini Kumar Chanda.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, No. 283.
- 35.
Report on Relief Work, 6.
- 36.
Promode Chandra Datta (1869–1950) was a renowned lawyer and political personality of Sylhet . He was involved in many welfare activities, particularly in the field of education. He also played a leading role in founding Lady Keane College of Shillong , presently a premier institution of northeast India, and was a member of the Governor’s executive Council in Assam in the 1920s and 1930s.
- 37.
Report on Relief Work, 37–39. In colonial India sixteen annas made one rupee.
- 38.
Ibid., 22–23.
- 39.
Ibid., 6–8.
- 40.
Ibid., 21.
- 41.
Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, No. 283.
- 42.
Hossain , Banyar Kabita O Durbhikhha Sangeet (in Bengali) (Khosalpur: Hossain, 1336. B. S.) Mohammed Ashraf Hossain (1898–1965) was born in a remote village of the Moulvi Bazar sub-division of colonial Sylhet District. A self-educated man, later in life he played a major role in spreading western education as well as women’s education in the district. However, his greatest contribution lay in the field of literature; he composed his own works, but also collected, recovered, and published the neglected folk literature of the district. In 1925, he received the honorific titles of “Sahityaratna” and “Kavyavinode.”
- 43.
Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, No. 283.
- 44.
Report on Relief Work, 15–17.
- 45.
Ibid.,12.
- 46.
Resolution on Floods in Assam during June 1929, Revenue A, No. 283.
- 47.
Bhattacharjya, Deluge in Assam, ii. When he wrote this treatise, Suresh Chandra Bhattacharjya was Assistant Master of Silchar Government High School and Secretary of Prachya Siksha Parishad. He was also the ex-president of Srihatta Baidic Samiti.
- 48.
Ibid., iii (emphasis in original).
- 49.
Quoted in ibid., ii.
- 50.
Report on Relief Work, 9.
- 51.
Assam Legislative Council debates, in The Assam Gazette, pt. VI, 1929, 1020, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
- 52.
Ibid., 1021.
- 53.
Ibid., 1021.
- 54.
Ibid., 1024.
- 55.
Ibid., 1034.
- 56.
Report of the Flood Enquiry Committee, Assam , 1929 (Shillong : Assam Secretariat Printing Office, 1930), 1.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
Ibid., 5.
- 59.
Ibid., 6.
- 60.
Ibid. (italics added).
- 61.
Ibid., 13.
- 62.
Ibid., 18.
- 63.
Ibid., 9.
- 64.
Report of the Orissa Flood Committee of 1928 as cited in Report of the Flood Enquiry Committee, Assam , 1929, 5–6.
- 65.
Ibid., 6–8.
- 66.
Ibid., 5–6.
- 67.
Ibid. Afflux is the difference between the water level in the area on the upstream side of an embankment and the general water level below it.
- 68.
Assam Legislative Council Debates, in The Assam Gazette, pt. VI, 1930, 334–336, Assam State Archives, Guwahati.
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Misra, M. (2017). When the “Deluge” Happened: The Flood of 1929 in the Surma–Barak Valley of Colonial Assam. In: Schenk, G. (eds) Historical Disaster Experiences. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49163-9_19
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