Dibrugarh, Jan. 14: The people of Ledo in Tinsukia district are about to witness history in the making, as the organisers of Dehing Patkai Festival are screening a 90-minute documentary, The Stilwell Road, which documents the survey and construction of the 1,736-km-long road during World War II.
The reopening of Stilwell Road has been the central focus of the Dehing Patkai Festival, which has been celebrated at Lekhapani in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district every year since 2002.
The documentary that will be screened tomorrow has another special ingredient — the narration is by former US President Ronald Reagan. “We are excited about the screening. All arrangements are being completed. We do hope that the documentary will be able to shed more light on various unknown aspects of building the road during World War II,” Manjela Singpho, general secretary of the organising committee of the Dehing Patkai Festival, said.
Manjela recently received the tape of the documentary, retrieved from an US archive, from a German musicologist, Jurgen Schoef, while he was on a visit to Lekhapani. Schoef learned about the Dehing Patkai Festival from Majela, whom he met a year ago during a research trip to Lekhapani.
“I could not believe myself when I received the tape. After various levels of examination by experts, we have come to know the history behind the documentary. The entire shoot for the documentary was done as the survey was conducted and the road was built,” Manjela said.
Of the 1,736km of the road, built by the Allied Forces under the leadership of Gen. Joseph Stilwell, 61km is in India. After much deliberation, the government has accorded the status of NH-153 to this stretch. Reconstruction of the Indian portion into a two-lane road is currently under way.
“The construction of the road, defying the invading Japanese and overcoming a totally hostile terrain filled with mosquitoes and leeches, was definitely quite an engineering feat, which Gen.Joseph Stilwell achieved several decades ago,” Rajib Ningkhee, another local Singpho youth and budding writer, said.
The organising committee has expressed its gratitude toSchoef for providing the tape, which will be a valuable document for the organisers in years to come. “I am very excited about the documentary. After hearing Reagan’s name as the narrator, my curiosity has doubled,” Partha Goswami, a Margherita-based tea garden employee said.
The inaugural meeting on Sunday will feature state forest and tourism minister Rockybul Hussain,cultural affairs minister Bharat Narah and power and industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi.
