Guwahati, Sept. 2: Some were captured as soldiers in the 13th century, while others came from Punjab and died battling for Ahom kings, leaving their descendants to make distant Assam their home.

They were outsiders who taught Assam to make bricks, sing jikir, and taste langar.

As a mark of tribute to hundreds who found home in Assam, the state minority commission plans to bring out a book compiling the contributions of the Sikh, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Jain communities to the state.

“The book will serve twin purposes — honour the communities and document some historical facts, which will inform our present and future generations about the contributions made by these communities,” chairman of the commission Allen Brooks told The Telegraph yesterday.

“We are collecting the data at present,” he said, adding that the project is likely to be completed by 2013.

“Though the present generation is aware of the contributions of Christian missionaries towards Assamese language and script, the first Assamese newspaper, grammar, a majority are not aware of the contributions made by the Sikh, Muslim and the Jain or Marwari communities,” Brooks said.

The commission chairman said many in the present generation are not aware that the settlement of the Sikh community dates back to 1820 when Ahom king Chandrakanta Singha sought the help of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab to fight back the third aggression of the Burmese army.

“This is very interesting. Maharaja Ranjit Singh sent a battalion of 500 brave Sikh soldiers under the leadership of great Sikh general Chaitanya Singh. The brave general and most of his valiant soldiers fell in the war at Hadira Choki and the few survivors escaped to save the life of the wife of the Sikh general,” he said.

Brooks said the Sikh community of Borkhola in Nagaon are descendants of these soldiers.

“Similarly, the history of Muslims in Assam also dates back to 1205 AD when the then King of Gaur (now in Bengal) Bakhtiar Uddin Khilji wanted to take an expedition to Myanmar through Kamrup. The Kamrup king opposed and attacked Khilji’s soldiers. However, the Gaur soldiers, who were caught by the Ahom soldiers, never went back even after their release and instead settled here. Later, they also fought the Mughals on behalf of the Ahom kings,” said Dewan Nazrul Qadir, associate professor of B.B. Kishan College at Jalah.

Qadir said the Muslim soldiers taught the people of Assam how to make bricks and artillery. Jikir and jari geet, an integral part of Assamese culture, are also contributions of the Muslim soldiers of Gaur.

Bagh Hazarika, one of the most trusted captains of the great Ahom general, Lachit Borphukan, fought bravely in the battle of Saraighat in 1671.

“Similarly, the Marwari community has also contributed to the socio-economic development of the state — from the field of culture and literature to the development of trade and commerce,” Brooks said, adding that all these communities deserve rich tributes and our effort is aimed at this.

“In the first phase, we are going to publish the book just by compiling the contributions, but we have plans to incorporate more details in it,” the commission chairman added