The Shillong Memorial
Three
major campaigns on the North East Frontier and in Burma were recalled by a small
Memorial erected in Shillong Cemetery[1]. The Memorial bears the
names of 94 men of the Assam Rifles and the Assam Military Police
(predominantly Gurkhas), killed while maintaining order in Assam and Burma.
This included the 1st Lushai Hills Batallion, 2nd Lakhimpur Batallion, 3rd Naga Hills Batallion, and the 4th Batallion.
This included the 1st Lushai Hills Batallion, 2nd Lakhimpur Batallion, 3rd Naga Hills Batallion, and the 4th Batallion.
The
punitive measures in the Kachin Hills (31 December 1914 – 28 February 1915)
were the result of ‘outrages’ committed in the extreme north of Burma. The
punitive measures in the Chin Hills (1 December 1917 – 1 June 1918) were
carried out in the western part of Upper Burma, adjoining the south east border
of Assam. The operations in the Kuki Hills (1 November 1918 – 15 May 1919) were
carried out on the borders of Assam and Upper Burma.
The
multifarious activities of the Golam Hyder Mollah family were the pioneering
contributions to the building up of economic infrastructure in Shillong. In
appreciation of their achievements, one of the numbers of the family,
Kasimuddin Mollah was conferred the title of Khan Bahadur by the Governor General of India, Lord Hardinge on 3
June 1915[2].
By
1915, new Gurkha immigrants were given opportunity to use land under the Mylliem
Syiemship[3]. There was an expansion and change in the mix
of the Gurkha population. During 1915-16, Sirdar Lama was appointed as a tax
collector to the Syiem of Mylliem
from Nepali graziers. One of the first to venture into the production of electricity
was Ram Nath Babu. Since 1915, he operated a small turbine for his flour mill
near the Mawlai bridge.
In relation to the Pasteur Institute, the Governing Body of the Indian Research Fund gave a grant of Rs. 25,000 towards the construction of the research laboratory and Rs. 15,000 for equipment and books. The foundation stone was laid on 4 November 1915, and the buildings were completed in 1916. On 5 January 1917, a communique was issued to the Press to the effect that the Institute was ready to receive patients.
The main building of the Institute had a south frontage and consistsed
of a central block with four wings. It stood in an estate of ten acres of
plateau on a pine-covered hill at an elevation of 5,000 feet above sea-level. It was about a mile from the
centre of Shillong and overlooked the Race Course and Golf-links.
The
Nepali settlement in Shillong is said to have started significantly only after
the First World War, when many of the retired army personnel of this community
were allotted land for settlement in Jhalupara area by the Cantonment authority[4].
Again in reation to the Pasteur Institute, during the period 1917-1923, patients were treated not only from Assam but also from Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. In relation to the Kala-azar and Research Section, since the opening of the Institute research work has been carried out especially on diseases of importance to Assam such as kala-azar, Naga sore, malaria, etc., but also on general lines.
In relation to the Vaccine Section, in order to deal with the general demands for vaccine from the Province, and especially in connection with the Influenza epidemic a vaccine section was sanctioned as an additional branch of the Institute work and was finally organised and put into running order in July 1919. The Section, however, stopped the manufacture of prophylactic vaccines in 1922 from which time it has acted as a distributing centre for Assam of vaccine prepared at the Central Research Institute, Kasauli.
A Kala-azar Ward was attached to the Institute and a great deal of
experimental work had been carried out there in the treatment of the disease by
various new drugs. This was also a training centre for medical men of the
Province in the diagnosis and treatment of Kala-azar by the most modern
methods.
In
1918, the Opera Hall was established in Thana
Road, Shillong. Aulad Hussain was an eminent dramatis personae, intimately connected with the Opera Hall. Aulad
Hussain’s son, Ahmed, a photographer of renown, operated the Karuz Photo Studio situated next to
their ancestral home on the Police Bazar-Kachari road[6].
Rabindranath
Tagore first visited Shillong in April 1919 and stayed at Brookside Compound,
Rilbong. In 1920, a visit by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy to the station was to leave
a lasting impact. Concerned that the beautiful town was in darkness, for the
Shillong Municipality was not regularly lighting the acetylene gas lamps, he prepared
a hydro-electric scheme for Shillong.
Dr.
B.C. Roy selected the Bishop Beadon Falls as the
location for his project. This was to be Shillong's source of electricity for
many years. The Meghalaya State Electricity Board office, opposite the
Meghalaya Secretariat, is named after Dr. B.C. Roy, and is another of the older
structures of Shillong which has a story to tell.
Apart from these more significant
influences, the ordinary Bengali went about doing his bit, in the office of the
Municipality where several more prominent Bengalis were Ward Commissioners. In
the offices of the Assam Government and the Post and Telegraph where they were
present in large numbers. They engaged in trade and commerce, set up book shops
such as Chapala Book Store - which is located in the building were the first Bank of
Shillong operated, which too had a Bengali presence. Large numbers of
school and college teachers came from the community.
They set up printing presses and
newspapers such as The Shillong Times, and were among the first of book
keepers. The present Karuz photographers is a legacy of the first photoshop of
Shillong. Largely from Sylhet, the Bengalis of that district were known for
litigation. Not surprisingly therefore, many of the community found the
profession in the law courts as advocates and pleaders.
After
retirement from Government service in 1920, Amjad Ali permanently settled down
in Shillong and took an active civic role. He was Ward Commissioner of Laban,
President, Shillong Tax Payers' Association, and member of the Board of
Trustees of the Quinton Memorial Hall.
In
1921, the motor service contract was taken over by the Commercial Carrying Company and continued till independence. After 1921
several Bengalis of Sylhet represented the valley in the Assam Legislative
Assembly. Sir Syed Muhammad Saadulla represented the Brahmaputra Valley Muslims
in the Council during its two terms of three years each, the second being
extended till the Montagu-Chemsford Reforms. During Dyarchy from 1921 to 1937,
he was an Executive Councillor and then a Minister in charge of Transferred
Subjects.
Abdul Majid and Syed Abdul Majid were
members of the Governor's Executive Council and Ministers in Charge of
Transferred Subjects. Then there were Kutubuddin Ahmed and Abdul Hamid. Between
1921 and 1936, one of the Executive Councillors was a Muslim and the other a
European. With the only exception of 1923, one of the Ministers was a Muslim.
In 1922 the large and
well-equipped Presbyterian Hospital was opened. It was in 1923 that St.Edmund’s
College was ready to start Inter-Arts and Inter-Science classes, and
affiliation to Calcutta University, for these courses was received in 1923. The
first classes of the University section of St.Edmund’s College opened in 1924.
Rabindranath Tagore again visited Shillong in
1923 and stayed for over a month at Jeet Bhumi a little away from Brookside
Compound. It was during this visit that he penned his famous drama Yakshapuri (later published as Raktakarabi) and the poem Shillong-er Chithi. The original owner
of Brookside was K.C.Dey, who was a CIE living at Calcutta. He was so fond of
Tagore that after Tagore's stay at Brookside, he preserved his memory there
with full care till his death.
Amjad
Ali was the first resident of Shillong to be honoured with the title of Khan Bahadur on 9 April 1923. The same
year, he was nominated to the second reformed Legislative Council of Assam
under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms as a member from the Sylhet constituency.
2.5
miles out of Shillong was a disused camp called the Happy Valley, which had
belonged to the 123rd Outram Rifles when quartered in Shillong[7]. A certain number of barracks and quarters
for officers were standing but in considerable neglect. These in 1923 were
auctioned and eventually bought by Government at a pleasingly low figure, and
made over to the 5th Assam Rifles which sent up two platoons under Captain
Hooper to occupy the place and start putting all into proper repair. This has
been once of the Battalion's posts ever since.
[1]The
Registers of the names inscribed on the memorials at Delhi and Shillong, India.
Compiled by order of the Imperial War Grave Commission, London, 1930. State
Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Pg.18,458-461.
[2]Sengupta,
Sutapa. & Dhar, Bibhash. & North-East India Council for Social
Science Research. 2004, Shillong: a
tribal town in transition / editors, Sutapa Sengupta, Bibhas Dhar
Reliance Pub. House, New Delhi:
[3]The Gurkhas,
settlement and society : with reference to Shillong, 1867-1969 / Sanjay Rana.
New Delhi : Mittal Publications, 2008.
[4]K D Saha,
while confirming the growth of the Gurkha population in the study of community
wise distribution growth of population in Shillong; pp. 28-29.
[6]Sengupta,
Sutapa. & Dhar, Bibhash. & North-East India Council for Social
Science Research. 2004, Shillong: a
tribal town in transition / editors, Sutapa Sengupta, Bibhas Dhar
Reliance Pub. House, New Delhi:Hussain, Afzaj, Shillonger Bangla Theatre (Bengali Theatre of Shillong),
Choudhury, Bibhu Bhusan, p. 83, p.86.
[7]Colonel L.W.
Shakespear; History of Assam Rifles; p. 207.
Very interesting post/info. Thanks for sharing.
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