Event Description

Sheila Bora an eminent historian delivered a talk on “Kanaklata Barua: A women pioneer of As- sam” on 16th of March 2017. This was a part of her research on a series (women pioneers) pub- lished by National Book Trust. Shiela Bora, exten- sively spoke about Kanaklata Barua’s live history, her childhood, her ideal and her struggle against colonial rule as well as patriarchal structure of the society. She counters the statement that Kanak- lata died by chance. She said that Kanaklata did not die by chance rather she was motivated since childhood by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Chan- draprabha Saikiani, Jyotiprasad Agarwala to take part in protests and to be active in politics.

She was very active and wanted to participate in various sabhas held during that period to motivate people against colonial rule. She was much mes- merised seeing women riding horse and dancing to welcome activists in the Ryot Sabha. Whereas at that time riding horse and dancing by women were considered as an offence.Movie shoot on “Joymoti” also influenced Kanaklata Barua to be brave and courageous. She wanted to join Mrityu Bahini at the age of 13 but to be member of Mrityu Bahini one must be 18 years of age. But Kanakla- ta insisted and pleaded Puspalata Das and said that ‘I am not afraid of the bullets. I would be glad to die in order to uphold the honour of the nation- al fag.’ On her earnest request she was granted membership of the Mrityu Bahini and appointed as the leader of the women cadres of the Mrityu Bahini. On the day September 20, 1942 Kanaklata stood at the head of the line of women volunteers with the National Flag in her hand and started marching toward Gohpur Station with slogans of ‘Bande Mataram’ when the Office-incharge warned Kanaklata Barua not to trespass into the thana compound.

She did not pay any heed to his warning and decided to march ahead saying “You do your duty: I will do mine.” After presenting Kanak- lata Barua’s life history since her childhood to how she was influenced by the spirit of na- tionalism and her sacrifice for the country,

Prof.Shiela Bora admitted the limitations of her research on Kanaklata Barua due to lack of information and photographs.

The speaker acknowledged her informants who were not able to give much informa- tion. The speaker further held that there are no records of finding any clothes woven by Kanaklata Barua. She assumed as told by some informants that she was wearing Mekhela Chadar she wove on the great day where she sacrificed her life. At the end, Prof. Bora requested the gathering to hand over information, documents and other materials related to Kanaklata’s life. She re- quested to submit if any to the Centre for Women Studies for further research and preservation.

The programme was attended by students, faculty members, research scholars, staff working in colleges and universities.

A book fair was organized in collaboration with National Book Trust on 15th - 17th March, 2017 for the students and other public.

Many books on varied issues like, history, developement, media, agriculture related to women were sold out.