Parikshit Sarmah
Parikshit Sarmah is currently pursuing his PhD in the area
of Gender and Assam History under the supervision of Prof. Debarshi Prasad Nath
in the Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University. His areas of interest
are Gender, Assam History, Popular Culture.
Abstract
This paper tries to focus on the
construction of the image of a “masculine Assamese man”
and how that concept of Assamese masculinity carries unique features from
already established masculinity research. The paper tries to study how Assamese
masculinity is understood not only in oppositional cognations of men vis-à-vis
women but as men vis-à-vis other men, men’s role for society and his respectful
position. The respected social status of a man in Assamese society derives from
different qualities including class, caste and economic status; such factors
play an important part in shaping ideas about the male gender in the society.
Assamese masculinity (the image of masculinity among the Assamese speaking
community) is based on the images of the Ideal Assamese Man created by
the cultural institutions of media, folklore, and literature which are shaped
by patriarchy. This is perhaps the reason why we require a term which is more
indigenous, more rooted in folk and traditional Assamese life to discuss
Assamese masculinity. This study, therefore, tries to emphasize how the term dangoriya
is more apt in terms of discussing Assamese masculine identity. Accordingly,
the objective of this study is to establish both how the already established
term bhadralok does not properly justify Assamese masculinity and to
show how the word dangoriya more aptly conveys the sense of the same.
Keywords: Assamese, Masculine
Identity, Modernity, Dangoriya, Lakshminath Bezbaroa
Masculinity is a set of attributes,
behaviours and roles; it is not based on a single norm and that is why it we
prefer to talk about masculinities instead of masculinity. Masculine
considerations do not marginalize or ignore the physical aspects of sex and
gender altogether, but the focus of masculine theory and research is the
cultural, social and political aspects of gender - the construction, reception,
performance, attitudes and thoughts surrounding the male gender. For Connell,
“hegemonic masculinity is defined as the current configuration of practice that
legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the subordination
of women, and other marginalized ways of being a man” (Connell 186).
This paper tries to focus on the
construction of the image of a “masculine Assamese man”
and how that concept of Assamese masculinity carries unique features from
already established masculinity research of India. The paper tries to study how
Assamese masculinity is understood not only in oppositional cognations of men
vis-à-vis women but as men vis-à-vis other men, men’s role in the quest for the
Assamese nation which is not dependent on other and also the importance of an
Assamese identity based on its fight against a real and imaginary enemy. The
respected social status of a man in Assamese society derives from different
qualities including class, caste and economic status; such factors play an
important part in shaping ideas about the male gender in the society, these
qualities invites our attention to a particular term Dangoriya to find a
suitable term for masculinity studies in Assam. The researcher is aware of the
raging ongoing debate about who is an Assamese; there are still serious
differences about whether Assamese identity should be linguistically or
geographically defined. The researcher is also aware of the multiple
ethnicities that constitute the state. However, in this study, I propose to use
the term ‘Assamese’
in its geographical sense (all the people living inside the geographical
boundary of Assam) and all-inclusive sense to refer to the dominant cultural
codes regarding masculinity. The researcher is also aware of the linguistic
diversity of the state and different shape of Assamese nationalism and
sub-nationalism but based on the available literature on the formation of a ‘modern Assamese
nation’, throughout the paper, the
researcher uses the term ‘Assamese’
to define those people who live within the geographical boundary of Assam and
speak or understand the Assamese language.
This paper focuses on
basically two aspects; firstly it encompasses why masculinity research of Assam
demands a term that reflects the unique traits of Assamese man. Secondly, this
paper focuses on how the particular word dangoriya reflects some of the larger questions like acceptance of influx
of Western modernity by Assamese people during the pre-independence 19th
century Assam and the question of Assamese nationalism. Another word bhadralok has already gained wide
currency amongst masculinity scholars with reference to Bengali identity, the
word bhadralok also figures in the
Assamese vocabulary; so, it is also noteworthy to look at how the use of the
word bhadralok as the reference
of Assamese masculinity is susceptible to misinterpretation. In Assamese
vocabulary, bhadralok is considered as a third-person term, but dangoriya may be used for both
third person and second person.
This paper
projects dangoriya as a subjective analytical category that faces mainly two
obstacles. Firstly, it is rooted in the understanding of a social group and
disagreement may arise among different individuals who may use it for different
social experiences, so, the paper focuses on the early writings of modern
Assamese literature. Furthermore, the exact figure of dangoriya cannot be evoked
as it does not represent any particular category like education or profession
(which is very much significant in terms of bhadralok). (J.H. Broomfield has
calculated the bhadralok population as between 3 to 4 percent in 1900) (Bromfield
13).
The term dangoriya has been there in Assamese society from Ahom
kingdom[i] as a term assigned to
level officers of the state, as an honorable term assigned to the three
ministers of Ahom regime- Burhagohain, Borgohain, Borpatra Gohain. What I find
interesting in the term dangoriya is its dynamic nature in different contexts. Such dynamic term
more aptly conveys the multiple natures of masculinities. From ghost lore in a
rural platform to English educated Assamese people; from a modern-day political
and social formal gathering to the language of public speech of political
leaders in Bodoland Territorial Council Election 2020, dangoriya conveys multiple
meanings in Assamese society.
The term is derived from the word dangor, which carries
connotations such as manyobyokti (a nobleman; a respectable man), Manyolok, bixistobyokti,
shrestha lok (Honoured gentleman),
borlok (a
respectable man, a nobleman, a grandee) (Barua 441). A dangoriya, according to the
Assamese dictionary Hemkosh, is expected to be shrestha (best), manyo (respectable)
(Chaliha), bixisto (honoured), jestha (elder) (Barua
441). This term cannot be
regarded as a direct translation to English Gentlemen like bhadralok in
Bengali masculinity.
Assamese identity politics has been
trapped in the world of appearances, migration, language and cultural thread of
being exploited by the outsider from its neighboring states and countries
including Bengal. Different political events like the Assam Movement, the rise
and fall in popularity of the ULFA, implementation of AFSPA, Secret Killings,
the rise of regional parties like the Asom Gana Parishad and the perceived
threat of Bangladeshi immigrants have shaped and transformed the image of ‘Assamese
masculine man’
to figures like war hero Lachit[ii] and Chilarai[iii]. In such circumstances,
it is important to find out a contextualised and already established term to
denote desired masculine attributes of Assam and masculinity studies of the
state. In this regard, reminding the vast bhadralok literature of masculinity studies in India,
it is important to cross-check how the term bhadralok does not properly
justify Assamese masculinity and dangoriya more aptly conveys the sense of the same.
As a term dangoriya is highly rooted
in Assamese traditional life as a respected category which appeals to the
noteworthiness of it in projecting the respected Assamese man. As in
contemporary Bengal society, only the bhadralok mythology remains which work for status
for the educated Bengali Middle Class (Ghosh 4). This is tricky in the case of
Assam; the second half of the twentieth century in Assam’s history is full of
chaos and political demands. Such history has changed the concept of a real
respected man from the “English educated, social reformer, intellectual” to
“the real son of the motherland”, dangoriya remained respected side by side in both cases. The social, religious
and cultural renaissance of Bengal and Assam that established the status
group bhadralok remained severely
limited within the English-educated community (Ghosh 3) is not a question for
the present Assam where the quest for identity and “son of the soil” discourse
controls the lion’s share of social order. The symbol of masculinity for Assam
interpolated by cultural, historical and geographical location-related factors
reflects Assamese masculinity as more folklore rooted and in the rural context.
Besides, being an “ideal man” in the political unrest Assam from the 1980’s
demands a sacrifice of man for the “Mother Assam”; A manliness of sacrifice and
protector which is based on the concept of “us versus the other”.
Assamese nationalistic
elites take the lion’s share of the respectful status of Assamese man in
post-independence Assam.
Different political movements of Assam
distinctively shaped Assamese masculinity with the help of nationalism, with
the nation fighting real and imaginary enemies; attributes of masculinity can
be seen in the respective discourses that have emanated from each of these
movements. This group of people has been glorified with different terms
like luitopriya
deka (brave boys
from the bank of Luit), notun purux (new age man), lachitar senani (Soldiers of Lachit) and many more.
But, as dangoriya shares the same position in every circumstance of Assamese
social life, it will be more suitable to consider it among all other terms. The
projection of Lachit Borphukan as the new symbol of Assamese masculinity during
the second phase of the twentieth-century appeals to our heed to the importance
of Assamese nationalism in projecting respected Assamese man. By the 1970s and
1980s, this new class had raised the demand of cultural identity which had no
link with the bhadralok or babu identity but re-created new-age dangoriya group commonly
mentioned as notun purux (new age man) or deka Shakti (power
of young).
Considering all these qualities and
attributes of dangoriya, it is important to study the differences with the Bengali bhadralok. Primal Ghosh hints at how the
category of the bhadra and non-bhadra or choto do not operate in other parts of India and is very much a
Bengali phenomenon (Ghosh 22); but, some of the Assamese literature reflects
the availability of bhadralok – etor or chotolok in Assam during 19th century even though dangoriya was used to denote a
respectable man. We can find such examples in “Miri Jiyori” by Rajanikanta
Bordoloi, the first Assamese novel published in 1894, (Bordoloi 9-13). But,
such mentions are not adequate to establish the proper establishment of bhadralok in Assamese
society. As J.H. Broomfield in his pioneering research on the social class
of bhadralok divulged,
“the starting point of
the ‘educated middle class” (Broomfield 8) which came to take the most
respected position in Bengal history was started when the British recruited an
increasingly large number of Indian associates mostly from the upper classes
like Brahmin, Bidya and Kaystha, most of them previously service for Mughal
province or local Hindu Kingdoms” (Broomfield 10); but, in the state of Assam,
the government officials hired by the British mainly from the Ahom oligarchy
are mentioned as dangoriya (not bhadralok) in different official documents and newspaper articles.
Such understanding of an Assamese society
reminds us about the writings of Lakshminath Bezbaroa and his kripabari[iv] style, it is to cite
here that the writings of this Assamese stalwart not only linked Assam and
Assamese people to different aspects of life but also exists at the core of
modern Assamese nationalism and Assamese modernity. So, the researcher here
eager to study how some of his writings mainly published in Jonaki[v] and Banhi[vi] magazine projects the
importance of dangoriya for Assamese masculinity. Among all his literary works, the
researcher searched for Jonaki and Banhi magazine due to several
reasons. Arguably, the rich writings of Jonaki and Banhi can be seen as
one of the pioneer texts of Assamese linguistic nationalism (Sharma 144), on
the other hand, these two magazines contributed to the perfection of the modern
era of Assamese literature. The Jonaki and Banhi magazine played an important
role in the steady spelling of the Assamese language, contributed to its
richness in religion, philosophy, society, culture, language, history;
Moreover, analysis of old literature, book criticism and kripabari works, in reality, gave
perfection to the modern era of Assamese literature. With these two important
texts, this paper also refers to the autobiographical writings of Lakshminath
Bezbaroa.
Bezbaroa’s account of Assamese society
contains a deep understanding of perception about English educated Middle class
who came back from Bengal after higher education to Assam and get themselves
use to in European lifestyle, wearing western clothes like shirts and coats,
speaking in English during later half of the 19th century and first decades of
20th century during colonial rule. Such example can be found in his article
‘Lukua Nam’, where Bezbaroa mentions one of his childhood friend Satish who
after getting an education from Bengal with Bezbaroa became “sahib”[vii], wears English dress
like the coat, speaks English and incorrect in Assamese, making a joke of
Assamese language. Through a comparison between the writer Bezbaroa himself and
Satish, the article indicates how a bunch of English educated Assamese man
internalized colonial modernity and the other half started focusing on
upholding the Assamese language and tradition like read-write and speaks in
Assamese. Such men were greeted by outsiders as dangoriya. When Bezbaroa meets,
Nirmala who is a Bengali educated girl greets him as
Dangoriya
moi apunar kakotor ejon niyomiya pathika. (Tamuly 7)
(Dangoriya, I am a regular
follower of your magazine. Translation mine.)
The group of people who
stands in the spectrum of upholding Assamese tradition has a huge threat to
European lifestyle and modernity. In the politics of the term dangoriya, it is interesting to
see how; babu[viii] or bhadralok has been denied by
Assamese people as a word of respected man.
In one of his article, ‘Babu aru
srijut’, Bezbaroa mentions
ami asomiya manuh, xake khare egal
khai thaku, ami Babu tabu nohoi deuhe, tumi amak babu pati bahua xaji
nogurnagoti nakariba deuhe, babu buli kole ami bor asambhantra kora jenhe pau,
ear dwarai babu xobdotuk axambhanto mat bulisu tene navabiba.(Bora & Hujuri 562)
(We are Assamese people,
we live a simple life, we have no intention to be babu-tabu, please do not make
a joke of us, we feel insulted when someone calls us babu, but it doesn’t mean
that we are making insult of the word babu. Translation mine)
He further extended the line as
kunu ata bostu lukor pora lua jai
ketia? Jetia sei bostur hochahochikoiye
amar avab hoi; aru avab
noholeu jetia hei
bostu amar sei shrenir thoka bostut koi uttam shrenir; aru tak graham korile ami bixex labhoban hou. Engraji xikoni aru engraji
sabhyata adi ami ghaikoi ei
duta
karon
nimittehe graham korisuhok. Ei duta karonor kuntur mukholoi sai aji ami bidexi “babu upadhi” loboloi hat
melimhok? Amar ei
upadhi
sambodhanar avabot pora nai. (Bora &
Hujuri 562)
(When do we need to borrow
something from others? That is when we feel lack of it, and sometimes when that
is better in quality. This is the only reason why we choose to have English
education and English culture. But which one reason among these two compels us
to have outsider ‘babu title’? We are rich in this regard and there is no
reason to have this. Translation mine.)
In the same article, Bezbaroa refers to a newspaper named Asam, “The
truth is, the titles such as Borborooah, Borooah, Phukan granted by the Assam
Rajas were considered sufficiently honorary as not to require any further
addition to them. For instance Dhjekialphookan, Anandaram or Borbhandarborooah
Moniram is better designations than Babu Anandaram Dhekialphukan, Babu Moniram
Borbhandar borooah, or Anandaram Dhekialphukan Esquire, or Moniram Borbhandar borooah Esquire” (Bora & Hujuri 562). The
article also mentions:
bangaliba an
kunubidexik babu bular thait asomiyak ki bulibo lage, ei kotha tumi jadi najana tente tumi xiki loboloi jatna kora. (Bora &
Hujuri 563)
(If you do not
know how to greet an Assamese gentleman instead of how we greet a Bengali or
outsider ‘babu’, you should learn it. Translation mine.)
agor
axamiai babu mane marowari mahajan aru bangali manuhok e bujisil, ageye kunu
axamiya dangoriya k babu buli dithakat nalage xamajikot u sambhodhan koribo
nuarisil. (Bora &
Hujuri 564)
(Earlier
Assamese people refers only to a Marowari businessman or Bengali gentleman as babu,
it is beyond someone’s imagination to call an Assamese man babu. Translation
mine.)
Such words indicate how a term like babu and borbabu were
considered as bohiragoto or outsiders and rejected by Assamese people; such
writings signify how Assamese people were very selective in accepting the
influx of modern life and ideas through Bengal. The dress has been an important
identity marker of a status symbol in defining the respectful position of man
in different societies. The
clothing of men can also be an important metaphorical element as used by
Assamese dangoriya. The
most important element of Assamese men’s clothing was dhoti or suriya before the arrival of modern dress
code like shirt, coat and pant; this was worn by every Assamese man. Birinchi
Kumar Baruah mentioned that dhoti or suriya is
the main clothing of Assamese men. Different styles of wearing a dhoti symbolized the class difference;
a dangoriya (an elderly person in this
context) in the pre-1980s was often seen wearing a dhoti that extended up to his feet
(Baruah 149).
The Assamese language has been
rich in vocabulary and words like dangoriya have been there from time
immemorial. But, some of the Assamese literature including a bunch of essays
written by Bezbaroa also reflects the availability of bhadralok – etor or chotolok in Assam during the 19th century. We
can find such examples in ‘Miri Jiyori’ by Rajanikanta Bordoloi, one of the first Assamese novels
published on 1894, (Bordoloi 9-13). But different writings on man in the 19th
and 20th century reflect dangoriya as a proper replacement of bhadralok
in academic writings. A comparison of the writings of Rajnarayan Basu and
Lakshminath Bezbaroa is interesting in this point. Reference of a respected man
as Dangoriya in Assamese literature can be tracked in different letters
written to the editor of Junaki and Banhi; all the letters written to the
editors of the magazines addressed as dangoriya, srijut dangoriya or manybor
dangoriya. The image of normative masculinity in Bengal since the 19th
century has been conveyed by the term bhadralok as mentioned by Rajnarayan and discussed by Chatterjee in
Our Modernity (Chatterjee 5). Having said this, we will begin by dwelling a bit
longer on Rajnarayan’s concept of bhadralok
as discusses by Chatterjee (5) as it has serious implications in our
understanding of the concept of dangoriya.
Rajnarayan Basu spends the longest time comparing ‘those days’ with ‘these
days’ in terms of the body. This can also be seen in Assamese society where the
idea of the body was significantly altered by the Assamese society’s tryst with
modernity.
Chatterjee discusses that Rajnarayan mentions a very interesting
narrative:
Ask anyone and he will say, ‘My father
and grandfather were very strong men.’ Compared with men of those days, men no
have virtually no strength at all. If people who were alive a hundred years ago
were to come back today, they would certainly be surprised to see how short in
stature we have become. We used to hear in our childhood of women who chased
away bandits. These days, leave alone women, we do not even hear of men with
such courage. Men these days cannot even chase away a jackal (Chatterjee 4-5).
On the whole, quoting Rajnarayan, Chatterjee adds here, “Especially bhadralok,
respectable people have now become feeble, sickly and short-lived” (Chatterjee
5). In terms of Assamese masculinity, this narrative is quite appropriate; it
is very often a part of the everyday discourse of Assamese people to quote
narratives about the great physical strength of their forefathers and
ancestors. When Lakshminath Bezbaroa refers to his father in his biography, he depicts his father- dangoriya Dinanath
Bezbaroa’s- physical attributes as a steady man of few words, having no
disease, adept in horse riding, who can control an elephant, boating, cool calm
and confident man who could defeat three muscular men in a fight (Saikia 121).
It is interesting to see how dangoriya has been used as an
alternative to bhadralok in different platforms since then. The
government officials hired by the British mainly from the Ahom oligarchy are
mentioned as dangoriya (not bhadralok) in different official
documents and newspaper articles. Life account of Dinanath Bezbaroa by
his son Lakshminath Bezbaroa in his 1909 published book “Dangoriya Dinanth
Bezbaruahr sankhripta Jibon Charit”
(Saikia 118) foregrounds how the term dangoriya was used for respected
British employed administrative officials during British rule. Publishing news
about Dinanath Bezboroa’s departure, Times of India, one of the foremost
English daily in India wrote: “It is with extreme pain that we have to record
the death of Dangoriya Dinanath Bezbaoroa” (Saikia 118).
The statesman published:
The death of
Dangoriya Dinanath Bezbaroa at the age of 84 has deprived Assam of one of its
best known inhabitants. (Saikia 118)
Additionally, Bezboroa’s address of
well-mannered Bengali gentlemen as ‘Bengali bhadralok” in his article ‘Barbaruar Sithi’ (Saikia
212) indicates symbolism of Bengali elite class with the term bhadralok during this period
by the non-Bengalis. This signifies another aspect of the term bhadralok in Assamese
vocabulary which can be viewed as an aftermath of importing the working class
from Bengal and the emergence of the educated English-speaking Assamese middle
class who completed their education from Bengal.
In mocking the new English educated person
who used to speak English whenever they got a chance to show off their status,
Bezbaroa greeted the person as dangoriya instead of bhadralok or babu in his article ‘Barboroar Phu’ (Saikia 195), reflecting the
indigeneity of dangoriya to refer those persons who tasted English education during the
nineteenth century. Parimal Ghosh mentioned the knowledge of English as a very
important quality of bhadralok (Ghosh 03), but in the case of dangoriya, such qualities are not mandatory. But, the new English educated
middle class during the initial parts of the twentieth century which has played
a huge role in Assam history reflects bhadaralok and babu culture along with
such quality. It is to be critically seen how Bezbaroa has accepted the influx
of English education and culture, but denied terms like babu and borbabu.
Dangoriya
has been a term with different qualities in a different context, but solely
linked the concept of ‘respect’
of a man. In his article ‘Asomiya Jati dangor jati’, Bezbaroa mentions
about different qualities of jatiyo dangorota (greatness of the nation)
i.e. tez
(blood), bol (strength), sahisnuta (calmness), ekota (unity) , sthirota
(steadiness), gambhijya (civilized), byahambor (joyful), dharmanistha (religious), sadachar
(Politeness), sangeetor prati anurag (music lover) (Bora & Hujuri 28-32). It is noteworthy
that Bezbaroa also problematizes the use of dangoriya by referring to
some characters which allow the readers to go through a bunch of chauvinist
Assamese people during British rule. In his article ‘Bhukendra Baruar
Antollela’, Bezbaroa mentions Bhukendra Barua dangoriya who decided to
become a patriot after denied a government job, failed in study and life; but,
through his public speaking qualities, he gained the support of people and
established himself as a popular leader, he used to gather donation for an
organization named Moran Sabha. In reality, he spends the entire donation for
his trip to Calcutta in the name of giving memorial to British sahib (Tamuly
44-45). Such portrayal of dangoriya has a different connotation with the
term used by British officials and Bezbaroa himself for his father. In another
article ‘Bhempuriya Mauzadar’, Bezbaruah refers the term to a figure Bhempuriya
Mauzadar, a British civil official, he is a rigid Brahmin figure who follows
and enjoys a strong caste hierarchy and bow down under British colonial rule
(Bora & Hujuri 120-123).
Bezbaroa’s writing has given a great deal of importance to observation
and perception about the image of an ideal Assamese man and how a great deal of
politics has been linked with it in both 19th and 20th century Assam. The
politics of language and vocabulary, dress and different parameters of defining
a respectful Assamese man allows us a special canon in the study of Assamese
nationalism and modernity. However, the researcher here does not completely
deny the existence of a term like bhadralok, babu and sahib in
Assamese society, but the point this article tries to establish that, dangoriya
carries all the possible demand to be the keyword for Assamese masculinity.
This article studies the perception of the Assamese middle class which were
thoroughly established during the British government’s employment in different
jobs by English educated Assamese class. At best, the discussion can be concluded
as considering the differences between Bengal and Assam in different parts of
history, dangoriya is
more suitable in terms of the respectable Assamese man instead of bhadralok which is also available in Assamese
vocabulary and already established as a trademark of Bengal masculinity. But,
where bhadralok is a social stratification based on
education and intellectual power, dangoriya has
class differences with its counterparts in every aspect of Assamese social
life.
Footnotes
[i]The Ahom kingdom was a late medieval kingdom in
the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam. It is well known for maintaining its
sovereignty for nearly 600 years and successfully resisting Mughal expansion in
Northeast India.
[ii]Lachit Borphukan was a commander and Borphukan
in the Ahom kingdom, located in present-day Assam, India, known for his
leadership in the 1671 Battle of Saraighat that thwarted a drawn-out attempt by
Mughal forces under the command of Ramsingh I to take over Ahom kingdom.
[iii]Bir Chilaray, was the younger brother of Nara
Narayan, the king of the Kamata Kingdom in the 16th century.
[iv]
Laxminath Bezbaroa satirical comedies with a pseudo name Kripabar Barbaroa
plays an important role in the study of Assam history.
[v]Jonaki was an Assamese language magazine published from
Calcutta in 1889. It was also the mouthpiece of the then Assamese literary
society Oxomiya Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xobha in which the society’s aim and
objectives were regularly expressed.
[vi]Banhi
was an Assamese language magazine first published in 1909.
[vii] A
term denotes the government officials of higher order.
[viii]The title babu, also spelled baboo, is used in the Indian
subcontinent as a sign of respect towards men. But, during colonial rule, babu
refers to the government officials
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