Titabor memorial to honour freedom fighter

The tomb of Bahadur Gaon Burah inside the New Balibat mosque compound in Jorhat.Telegraph picture

Jorhat, Nov. 12: The people of Titabor are building a memorial to Bahadur Gaon Burah, one of the leaders of Assam who, along with Maniram Dewan, had participated in the 1857 revolt against the British.

Bahadur, whose real name was Bahadil, was a close aide of Maniram Dewan and Piyali Baruah, both of whom were hanged by the British for plotting to overthrow their administration in Assam.

Bahadur was put on trial for treason along with Dewan and others by the British in Jorhat in 1858 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Earlier, the British had appointed him village headman of Jorhat and Titabor and he was popularly known as Bahadur for his courage.

A retired professor of history, Ajit Dutta, who has done extensive study on Dewan and written two books on the role of Assamese revolutionaries in the 1857 uprising, told this correspondent that Bahadur was a close confidante of Dewan.

Dewan had entrusted him with the task of mobilising support among the Muslim community.

He was also involved in arranging arms and ammunition to carry out an armed revolt in Assam along with the disgruntled soldiers of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the British army, Dutta said.

Bahadur was born in 1819. He died at his son’s residence in Daflating near Titabor in 1891 after returning from Kalapani following the commutation of his sentence. He was buried at New Balibat in Jorhat.

The memorial will be used as a community hall near Majar Masjid in Titabor and will include a library, a museum and a career counselling centre.

The memorial construction committee has collected Rs 12 lakh from the people and chief minister Tarun Gogoi has given another Rs 5 lakh.

Gogoi, during his two-day visit to Jorhat district from Sunday, will also visit the place where the memorial is being constructed.

The chief adviser of the memorial construction committee, Ashraf Hussain, said it had bought four kathas of land and the Masjid committee had donated another katha.

The construction of the building began last year and its foundation has been completed. The committee will approach Gogoi for more funds during his visit, as the funds collected so far for building the memorial have been almost exhausted.

He said the proposed three-storey building at the site had been named Bahadur Gaon Bura Islamic Multipurpose Project as it included a plan to give career counselling, run professional courses and inculcate religious values among the Muslim youths of the area.