Cunningham Circular of 1930 : History of Assam
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Cunningham Circular and it’s followed up opposition protest made the freedom struggle gain more popularity in Assam and thus increased engagement of peoples of Assam in the struggle against British.
When the whole country was preparing for the start of the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930, students in Assam also played a key role. To discourage and stop students to participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement, J.R. Cunningham, the then powerful Director of Public Information of Assam, issued the Cunningham circular in 1930 imposing a blanket ban on any anti-British and pro-swadeshi activity by students. It forced parents, guardians and students to furnish assurances of good behavior and also asked them to sign an undertaking that they would have to quit their schools and colleges if they participated in anti-government demonstrations or movements.
The circular was aimed to forbade students from participating in political activities and so, it raised a very strong response. Thousands of students, throughout Assam, left their educational institutions.
Many swadeshi educational institutions like Kamrup Academy of Guwahati and Sibsagar Vidyapeeth were also established at the same time to accommodate the students leaving British Govt. school & colleges. A philanthropists group decided to start a swadeshi school in the city on the lines of national schools being established in Calcutta, Sylhet, Habiganj, Karimganj, Silchar and elsewhere in the country.
The Kamrup Academy, the first swadeshi school in the Northeast, was conceived with Rai Bahadur Kalicharan Sengupta as its president and Gaurikanta Talukdar as its secretary. The school started functioning on July 15, 1930 and initially, lessons were imparted in both Bengali and Assamese language. has the distinction of being.
The school, being failed to be affiliated to a board, the first batch of students, backed by Ashutosh Mukherjee, appeared for the matriculation examination as private candidates. Akshay Kumar Dutta, Dwijesh Sengupta, Satish Chandra Kakati and Bharat Das were among the student who passed the examination that year from this school.
In 1937, the school shifted to its present premises at Chenikuthi with new infrastructure. Devendranath Sharma, Keshav Narayan Dutta, Ishwar Prasad Chowdhury, Sureshwar Gohain and Golap Chowdhury headed the school in its nascent stage and nurtured it in all ways to make it a hub of nationalist activities.
Physical education was greatly stressed upon and many students became disciples of Khudu Mahanta, the legendary sword and stick trainer who taught the skills of self defence in the academy. A handicraft section headed by Gyananda Choudhury and Girish Mali opened at the school and students were trainned in paper-making.
Many other prominent educational institution of Guwahati like B. Baruah College and J.B. Law Colleges started from these premises of the Kamrup Academy. The school stands as a symbol of a great heritage, sacrifice and commitment
During Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s visit to the school as the Union education minister, he was very impressed and said, “What India needs is man-making education as prescribed by Swami Vivekananda. Nationalist institutions like Kamrup Academy should serve as the model for the country.”
Important Point
- The Kamrup Academy, the first swadeshi school in the Northeast.
- Someswar Kakoti was arrested for opposing the Cunningham circular in 1930 and was imprisoned for six months in 1932. In 1940-1941, he was again sent to jail for six month for his active participation in the Satyagraha Movement.
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