Lachit Borphukan (24 November 1622 – 25 April 1672) was an army general, primarily known for commanding the Ahom Army and the victory in the Battle of Saraighat (1671) that thwarted an invasion by the vastly superior Mughal Forces under the command of Ramsingh I.^[1] He died about a year later in April 1672.^[2]

There is keen contemporary interest in Lachit Borphukan today—he has emerged as a powerful symbol of Assam's historical autonomy.^[3] ^[4] Since the rise of BJP in Assam, the party has been keen to project him as a warrior against Muslim invasion instead.^[5] This communalisation of Lachit Borphukan and the Battle of Saraighat is contested by historians who claim that Lachit himself was not Hindu rather followed Tai religion,^[6] that he had Muslim commanders like Bagh Hazarika (Ismail Siddique) under him,^[7] and that he fought against a Hindu Mughal commander, Ram Singh I.^[8]

Biography

Lachit was youngest born to Momai Tamuli Borbarua, a commoner who rose to the rank of Borbarua under Pratap Singha .^[9] His sister was Pakhari Gabhoru, a queen to the Ahom kings Jayadhwaj Singha, Chakradhwaj Singha and Samaguria Raja, and his niece was Ramani Gabharu, the Ahom princess who was given to the Mughals as part of the Treaty of Ghilajharighat. A few Buranjis give some details on Lachit's life and education.^[10] He is said to have participated in battle against Mir Jumla's forces at Dikhaumukh and rose up the ranks of Ahom officialdom—Ghora Barua, Dulia Barua, Simalugiria Phukan and Dolakasharia Barua.^[11] Following the Chakradhwaj's preparations to retake Guwahati and on the eve of the march, Lachit was appointed the Borphukan (Ahom viceroy in the west) and the commander of the Ahom forces.^[12] ^[13]

Guwahati campaign

Lachit set up his base-camp at Kaliabar and then advanced on Guwahati in August 1667 in two divisions;^[14] and after a series of battles, finally retook Guwahati with the fall of Itakhuli in November 1667.^[15]

Death

A few Buranjis briefly describe Lachit's victory over the Mughal naval fleet, led by Ram Singh, in the Battle of Saraighat.^[16] He died soon after in Kaliabor and was buried at Teok in Jorhat in a maidam,^[17] ^[2] which are burial grounds for Ahom royals and nobles.^[18]

Contemporary narratives

In the pre-colonial times Buranjis were not available for popular consumption.^[19] Beginning in the early twentieth century, a few localities in Upper Assam began commemorating November 24 as Lachit Dibox (trans. Lachit Day).^[20] The account of the celebrations and use of Lachit in Charingaon then were very different from those in the 1970s when Lachit had become a symbol of the Assamese.^[21] The contemporaneous burgeoning of public interest in history ensured that the legend of Barphukan had "attained an iconic status" by the first quarter of the century and Surya Kumar Bhuyan published an article comparing him with Shivaji;^[22] but Lachit was only one of the many historical icons who were appropriated by Assamese elites towards different politico-cultural ends, and his popularity was later surpassed by Joymoti Konwari and others.

In 1947, Bhuyan published Lachit's biography against the backdrop of Ahom conflicts with the Mughal Empire; not only did the work grant a veneer of "academic respectability" to the legend but also "mythologized" his exploits in the Assamese psyche. However, in state-building in postcolonial Assam, cultural heroes like Lachit were largely displaced by anti-colonial activists; Jayeeta Sharma notes the legend of Lachit to have "retired into the domain of knowledge, away from activism." Nonetheless, the legend survived in the backwaters of Assamese sub-nationalism, with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) — a secessionist organization seeking the creation of an independent and sovereign Assam — extensively using Lachit's imagery for propaganda.

Lachit's memory would be significantly appropriated by the state only under the governorship of Srinivas Kumar Sinha; Sharma, writing as of 2004, found that it was no more the ULFA but the Government of Assam that tried the most to bring him into prominence. Coterminous to the rise of Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, Lachit has been inducted within the framework of a Hindu Nationalist grammar, as a Hindu military hero who defended against Muslim aggression which is contested by historians who claim that Lachit followed Tai religion.^[23] ^[24]

His fellow commanders in the Saraighat War included Assamese Muslims, also known as "Gariya" and the most famous among them was Ismail Siddique, locally known as Bagh Hazarika.^[25] However, the Mughal forces were led by a Hindu Rajput named Ram Singh.

Bibliography

Book: Baruah, Sanjib . In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast . Stanford University Press . 2020 . en.
Bhuyan . S K . Lachit Barphukan: A great Assamese Contemporary of Shivaji Maharaja, and the successful antagonist of the Mogul General Raja Ram Singha of Amber . Proceedings of the Indian History Congress . 1935 . 1 Part II . 2–3 . 44202311.
Saikia . Arupjyoti . December 2008 . History, buranjis and nation: Suryya Kumar Bhuyan's histories in twentieth-century Assam . The Indian Economic & Social History Review . en . 45 . 4 . 473–507 . 10.1177/001946460804500401 . 0019-4646.
- Book: Sharma, Jayeeta . The Politics of Cultural Mobilization in India . Oxford University Press . 2004 . 9780195668018 . Zavos . John . Delhi . en . Heroes for our Times: Assam’s Lachit, India’s Missile Man . Wyatt . Andrew . Hewitt . Vernon.
Web site: Zaman . Rokibuz . Why Assamese historians and writers are protesting against the BJP’s celebration of Lachit Borphukan . 2022-11-27 . Scroll.in . en-US . 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230123193935/https://scroll.in/article/1038074/why-assamese-historians-and-writers-are-protesting-against-the-bjps-celebration-of-lachit-borphukan . 2023-01-23.

Notes and References

"In 1671 he commanded the Ahom forces that defeated the vastly superior Mughal army led by Raja Ram Singh of Ajmer in the battle of Saraighat."
"Lachit Barphukan, who had literaly staked his life and honour, soon died at Kaliabar, April 1672..."
"Lachit Borphukon is a powerful symbol of Assam’s autonomous past for many in Assam."
"That event subsequently served as basis for the proud claim by modem Assamese nationalism that Assam was one of the few regions to stave off ‘alien’ rule by ‘Bangals’ or ‘Yavanas’, as the buranjis classified these would-be conquerors from the Indian heartland."
"Ever since the BJP’s rise in Assam, however, the party has been keen to project him as a warrior of national significance. Sarma, for one, has frequently praised Borphukan for warding off “Muslim invaders”."
"Besides, [Udayaditya Bharali, a historian and former principal of Guwahati’s Cotton College] said, Borphukan himself was not Hindu. “Lachit was from the Tai religion,” he said. “History can’t be written forcefully as one wishes. Hinduism only became the predominant religion during the reign of Swaegodeo Siva Singh [1714-1744]. Many soldiers under Lachit were from the tribal faith.”"
"Udayaditya Bharali, a historian and former principal of Guwahati’s Cotton College, pointed out Muslims also held important posts in the Ahom army – the navy general Ismail Siddique, for instance, also known as Bagh Hazarika."
'"Lachit fought against the Mughals because they were outsiders or the invading force," said Jahnabi Gogoi, who teaches at Assam’s Dibrugarh University and specialises in mediaeval history. "There is no religious angle to it as the mughal general whom Lachit fought was Raja Ram Singh Kachwaha [a Rajput] of Amber. In Aurangzeb’s troops, there were many Hindu soldiers."'
"The supreme command of the expedition was entrusted to Lachit Deka, youngest son of Momai Tamuli Barbarua, the reputed statesman and general of Pratap Simha's time, who had earned renown in fighting the Mughals under Jahangir and Shahjahan."
"PAB, 104 (date); SMAB: 91; BKK, ii, 26-0; AB, 196-7; KB 91; TB, 4; Lachit, 17-24, based on MS. AB. Nos. 7, 8, 12, gives details of Lachit's family background, education;"
"Lachit himself had given sufficient evidence of his prowess and power of leadership in lighting Mir Jumla's men at Dikhaumukh and in different posts held. e.g. Ghora Barua (Superintendent of the Royal Horses), Dulia Barua (Superintendent of Dola or palanquin-bearers of kings and incharge of royal palanquins), Simaluguria Phukan (Commandant of the levy usually posted at Simaluguri near the capital) and Dolakasharia Barua (Superintendent of the armed guards accompanying the king while moving on the royal sedan, and police constable, in effect Inspector General of Police of today)."
"Thus he was selected after considerable search and due tests and appointed commander-in-chief of the army and Barphukan in charge of the civil administration of Lower Assam."
"Lachit himself reached the rank of Barphukan, with charge of the Ahom territories in Lower Assam, near modern Guwahati."
"On August 22, 1667, a large army, warned by the consequences of failure, sailed down the Brahmaputra from the capital. Fixing his base at Kaliabar, Lachit advanced towards Guwahati in two divisions."
"The fall of Itakhuli was followed by the flight of the defenders of Guwahati. Sayyid Firuz Khan faujdar and Sayyid Salar Khan Mir Bakhshi ("Sana' of Assamese sources) also fled with a few followers towards the Manah river, the old Ahom-Mughal boundary. The victors entered the capital about the middle of November, 1667." ; "The victory at Guwahati, won by Lachit, and implying the recovery of Kamrup up to the Manas, was a momentous chapter in Ahom-Mughal relations. It was the first round in turning the tide against the Mughals. In four years the Ahoms regained the prestige lost in 1663."
"In their accounts of the Ahom Bangal encounters, some of these chronicles made brief allusions to a victory narrowly won over the Mughal commander, Ram Singh, in a naval conflict by his Ahom counterpart, Lachit Barphukan."
"Lachit did not live to savour his victory, dying shortly after his defeat of the Mughal forces at Saraighat."
"Moidams are Ahom burial grounds for royals and nobles."
"The social function of pre-colonial Buranjis as an attractive reading subject was exceedingly limited, and even doubtful. Others than the pre-colonial elites and nobility, no one elsehad either the scope or the privilege to read these works."
"In a parallel development, Lachit was commemorated in similar manner through annual melas on a date declared as Lachit Diwas...The Lachit Diwas celebrations, in contrast, were much more localized, failing to spread much further than their epicentre at Charing Gaon, even within Upper Assam."
"When the well known ‘freedom-fighter’ and bibliophile, Benudhar Sarma’s autobiographical writings were published in the 1970s, his reminiscences about the celebrations of Lachit Diwas, and of a Lachit Sena, that he and others had organized at his birthplace, Charing village in Sibsagar, became available to a new generation that knew Lachit in very different terms, as an Assamese ‘name-symbol’ (Sarma, 1960)."
"Bhuyan wrote a biography of Lachit Barphukan, which was preceded by a paper presented in the first session of the Indian history Congress, held in 1935 at Pune. His choice of the subject and its critical relevance to the place of the conference cannot be ruled out. Bhuyan later stated that his paper had been appreciated by contemporary Maratha scholars who were also pursuing the career of Shivaji. See Bhuyan, Lachit Barphukan."
"Besides, [Udayaditya Bharali, a historian and former principal of Guwahati’s Cotton College] said, Borphukan himself was not Hindu. “Lachit was from the Tai religion,” he said. “History can’t be written forcefully as one wishes. Hinduism only became the predominant religion during the reign of Sib Singh [1714-1744]. Many soldiers under Lachit were from the tribal faith.”"
Web site: Zaman . Rokibuz . Why Assamese historians and writers are protesting against the BJP’s celebration of Lachit Borphukan . 2022-11-27 . Scroll.in . en-US.
Web site: Bagh Hazarika: The legendary warrior who fought Mughals alongside Ahom general Lachit Barphukan in Battle of Saraighat . Northeast Now. August 25, 2023.