MEMORIES OF INDIA’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM - I: THE PANIKAITI TRAIN DERAILMENT OF 24th NOVEMBER 1942

The Prelude

Sixty seven years ago, on 24^th November 1942, a small group of eleven freedom fighters, even at the risk of certain death if caught, derailed a military train carrying troops and supplies of the British Colonial Government at Panbari near Panikhaiti Railway Station, about 30 Kms east of the city of Guwahati in the state of Assam in India’s North East. Dedicated Congress workers and staunch followers of Gandhi’s policy of non-violence, they were incited to take the path of extremism by the severe crack down of the British Colonial Government on the Quit India Movement of 1942 and widespread police excesses on non-violent protesters across Assam, particularly in the villages and towns in the Nagaon district. Even though the engine driver, the fireman and four Indian troops died on the spot and thirty one Indian soldiers were injured (as recorded in home department records), the perpetrators were extremely fortunate to have escaped the police dragnet and subsequent prosecution, as Kushal Konwar, President of the Congress Committee at Sarupathar was arrested, tried and later hanged for a similar train derailment which had taken place on 10^th October 1942 at Sarupathar in the Golaghat district of Assam, even though he had no direct involvement in the particular act of subversion.

India won its freedom on 15^th August 1947 and the brave deed of these eleven freedom fighters faded from people’s memories. This was perhaps further helped by their attitude that they did what they had to, for their commitment to the cause of the freedom of their nation and sought neither public acknowledgement nor accolade for their sacrifices. Sometime in the late 1960s, nearly a decade and a half after the incident had taken place, eminent Assamese littérateur Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya learnt about it quite accidentally and awe-struck by the sheer audacity of the deed, immediately rushed to Mayong on the banks of the Kalang to get a detailed account of the exploit from none other than the man instrumental in planning and executing it, Mahadananda Deva Goswami, popularly known to all as Mahada Gosain, who was also an immensely respected Vaishnavite ascetic. Bhattacharyya dramatized and fictionalized this true story in his novel “Mritunjay” which was first published in 1970 and immediately caught the public’s imagination and earned critical acclaim. When in 1979, Bhattacharyya was awarded the immensely prestigious Janapith Award, the first Assamese to have received it, for this novel, Mritunjay and the deeds of Mahada Gosain and his comrades forever became part of literary history. Even though the novel and the award brought widespread publicity to this incident and helped find its place in the popular memory of the freedom struggle in Assam, precious little has been written or is known about the life and activities of Mahada Gosain and his ten comrades in the mainstream discourses of the freedom struggle or by the public outside Assam.

Their story, sadly, is not the only one about the freedom struggle which is fast disappearing from our collective memories, unacknowledged and unsung. Therefore, when the Strategic Research & Analysis Organisation began its panoramic programme for re-exploring South and Southeast Asian History called “Reviving Forgotten Histories” in late 2007, the many ‘undocumented’ or marginalized narratives of this epic struggle for freedom in the region of India’s North East, which is still struggling with the challenges of ethnicity and nation building, became an immensely important thematic component of the programme and owing to the nature of these narratives, oral history became an indispensable tool to explore, record and interpret them. On the 67^th anniversary of this incident, we at the Strategic Research & Analysis Organisation humbly pay our homage to the eleven freedom fighters by recounting “their story” of the Panikhaiti train derailment.

The Background

The fall of Singapore on 17^th February, 1942 and the subsequent fall of Rangoon on 7^th March 1942 to the Japanese during World War II compelled the Allied Forces in Burma (now Myanmar), mostly British, Indian and some Burmese and Chinese colonial troops, to retreat into India to make a stand against the advancing Japanese forces. Fortunes of war and military exigencies suddenly turned the region of India’s North East from a sleepy, tea-growing and timber trading outpost of the British Empire in India into a strategic frontline in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre of the war in Asia-Pacific, discussed, planned and debated about in the war-rooms in the distant capitals of Washington, London or Chunking. The need to reinforce the frontline against the Japanese onslaught necessitated a enormous military buildup, moving in company after company of fresh troops and the supplies necessary to keep them fighting. For a region with very poor communication infrastructure, the few motorable roads over long distances and the meter gauge railway that ran through the length of Assam became life-lines for the Allied war effort and their expansion and protection an indispensable priority.

The response to the war in India was divided. While some offered support to the British in their war against ‘fascism’, the then Governor General Linlithgow’s act of entering India into the war without consultation was criticized by most. The Congress’ support to the war was conditional and linked to transfer of power and complete withdrawal of the British from India within a set time frame. The British Government’s intransigence over the issue of transfer of power and the failure of the Cripps’ Mission to obtain total co-operation of the Congress for the war made it inevitable that political instability and conflict within India will intensify. The Congress on 14^th July 1942 passed a resolution demanding complete independence from the British and deciding on mass civil disobedience if the British failed to accede to this demand. Subsequently on 8^th August 1942 the All India Congress Committee in its historic Bombay session passed the Quit India Resolution and Mahamatma Gandhi in his historic address from the Gowali Tank Maidan called to the nation to launch a mass non-violent civil disobedience movement. An alarmed Colonial Government resorted to mass arrests and put almost the entire Congress leadership behind bars within the night. Gandhi’s call had already found resonance among the masses and the British Government’s effort to suppress the movement only served to galvanize the masses to mass protests across the country.

The Colonial Government, unsympathetic to the political sensitivities and civil rights of the natives at the best of times, considered this high treason amidst a war on all front and fighting for its very survival. Congress was banned, lakhs were arrested across the country, mass fines were levied and demonstrators and public alike were subjected to unprecedented police brutality. As a consequence many non-violent Congress workers and protesters resorted to acts of violence in frustration and bombs were exploded, government buildings were set on fire, vital installations and services like telegraph and electricity were sabotaged and communication lines were severed. India plunged into massive unrest and the country’s North East, including Assam too did not remain unaffected.

1942: The Unrest in Assam

People in Assam responded to Gandhi’s historic call for non-violent civil disobedience in 1942 to compel the British to “Quit India” with fervor. In Nagaon district in Central Assam, large public protests were almost immediately organized in various places: in Barhampur on 9^th of August, in Nagaon town and Kaliabar on 11^th of August, in Raha on 18^th of August, in Jagi Chowki on 19^th of August etc by the state and district leadership of the Congress with unstinted support of the workers and ordinary people. The British Government too did not lose any time to arrest the leaders indiscriminately and unleash a reign of police brutalities. Nagaon had already earned its reputation as a hot-bed of anti-colonial activities, be it action against exploitative land revenue imposed on farmers or that against the opium policy of the colonial government. Naturally, police repression did not deter their protests but rather, spurred some of them into indulging in sporadic acts of violence and retaliation against the police. On 23^rd August, a train was derailed near the Kampur Station in which an engine and several goods wagon were damaged. Then, on 24th August, living quarters near the Phulaguri Station were set on fire. The same day, tracks and sleepers on the Dimow Railway Bridge were removed resulting in the derailment of another goods train. Several wooden bridges on the Assam Trunk Road too were burnt down. On 25^th August protesters clashed with police in Kampur during a public rally and manhandled the British Officer present and damaged the Station and Tehsil Office. The Colonial Government called in reinforcements and unleashed an unprecedented spate of repressive measures.

Even after the non-violent civil disobedience movements or ‘satyagrahs’ of the Congress led by Gandhi became the most widely accepted means of political action in India’s freedom movement, there always existed ‘revolutionary’ and ‘extremist’ strands parallel to the larger movement. Protesters were not alien to violence, whether as victims or on occasions as perpetrators too. In the days after Gandhi’s call to the nation to compel the British to “Quit India” and the resultant repression of the movement, many among the Congress leaders and workers, sworn to Gandhi’s ideal on non-violence, were compelled to seriously consider violence and acts of subversion as an effective means of accomplishing their goals. This indeed posed a moral dilemma for many but the rational that if their activities were to disrupt a war which was not theirs perhaps helped sooth their conscience. And whatever little reservations were their were often dispelled in moments of anger to exact revenge on British police and forces which began resorting to indiscriminate firing at the slightest provocation, often killing not only unarmed protesters but innocent bystanders as well. On 26^th August Bolai Koch and Hemram Bora were killed in police firing while trying to set on fire a bridge on the Asam Trunk Road at Bebejia. In retaliation, the Tehsil office at Raha was burnt down. The same day Hemram Pator and Gunavi Bardoloi too were killed in police firing at Raha while trying to dig up the Assam Trunk Road to disrupt movement of troops. On the night of 28^th August Tilak Deka was killed in police firing in Barapujia during a raid on the surrounding villages. In retaliatory action, many government offices and buildings were set on fire across Nagaon. 16^th September was observed as a martyr’s day in Nagaon in homage to these five freedom fighters and people in towns and villages across Nagaon poured out into the streets to show their respect, defying police action and prohibitory orders. In many places, the crowds reclaimed the Congress offices locked out by the police. This happened in Barhampur too and the protesters decided to celebrate their victory on 18^th September. But jubilation was short-lived. In the ensuing clash with the police who once again came to drive the protestors out, Bhogeshwari Phukanani was seriously injured and Lakhi Hazarika, Bolu Saikia and Thagiram Bora lost their lives to bullets fired by Captain Finch, a British officer who had in a short span earned notoriety for his brutality. Injured Phukanani too succumbed on 20^th September. There were many more instances of repression and excesses. Ruthless repression and indiscriminate arrests slowly turned a movement which started as a mass non-violent civil disobedience movement into one of underground resistance. Responding to the situation, the Congress leadership in the districts sought young able bodied volunteers from among the Xanti Xena and formed the Mrityu Bahini, each a small groups of daring workers sworn to carry on the work of the movement clandestinely even if they risked death.

Many among the freedom fighters who took to the path of extremism realized that the most effective way to hurt the British was by undermining their war effort. And to do so the easiest means was by disrupting the movement of troops and supplies to the frontline. Assam in those days had very poor road connectivity and only one meter gauge railway. The wooden bridges on the Assam Trunk Road and the railway became the most tempting targets to the saboteurs and the most vulnerable and difficult to protect for the British Government. Records reveal that between August 1942 and March 1943 there were at least eight incidents of train derailments in Assam. It was in such a situation the conspiracy to derail a military train at Panikhaiti took shape.

The Panikhaiti Train Derailment

On the 18^th of November 1942, at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Shri Bhibiram Bora, Dhanpur Laskar and Manik Bora, all dedicated Congress workers from Kampur arrived at the Doipora Xatra Ashram of Shri Mahadananda Deva Goswami, known to all as Mahada Gosain, at Mayong in western Nagaon accompanied by Shri Bhugram Deka and Dodhiram Bardoloi of Konwargaon, both members of the recently formed Mrityu Bahini. Shri Bibhiram Bora was carrying a letter from Xanti Xena leader, Shri Lakhiprasad Goswami of Kampur to Shri Mahada Gosain, urging him to assist Sri Bora and his companions to carry out the derailment of a military special train at Panikhaiti. A known Vaishnavite ascetic and sworn Gandhian, the proposal posed a dilemma for Mahada Gosain, then the President of Mayong Sakha Congress but gave into the arguments of his compatriots. His help was crucial because he knew the area extremely well and such knowledge was critical if the saboteurs were to succeed in derailing the train and make a clean getaway.

This wasn’t the first time such an attempt was being made at Panikhaiti, however. Only that, the earlier attempts were somehow not carried through or aborted at the last moment. The conspirators therefore had kept up-to-date their information on the movements of train from their clandestine sources. Bhugram Deka now informed the group that he had gone to Guwahati a few days earlier and had learnt from his source that a military special train was to leave for Dimapur on the evening of 24^th November and was supposed to cross Panikhaiti at about 7 pm in the evening. Treating them to a sumptuous meal, Mahada Gosain sent Bora and his two compatriots away with Bhugram Deka and Dodhiram Bardoloi to Konwargaon to lie low while the preparations were completed.

Early next morning, that is on the 19^th, Mahada Gosain set out for Guwahati. He first paid a visit to his maternal uncle who lived near the railway station at Jagiroad from where Gosain caught the ‘passenger’ to Guwahati. He briefly explained about their mission to his uncle and requested him to obtain from the railway workshop nearby a good slide wrench to serve as a back-up to the tools brought along by Bibhiram Bora and his companions. Reaching Guwahati, Gosain quickly obtained the information about the movement of trains and found Bhugram Bora’s information to be correct. He spent the night in Guwahati and early next morning boarded the train back to Jagiroad. On the way, while the train passed through Panikhaiti, the place they had selected to carry out the derailment, he made a careful mental not on the alignment of the track and memorized the corresponding numbered telegraph poles to be able to locate the spot later without difficulty. He made a mental note of a particular spot near Panbari, beyond the Panikhaiti Station, where the passed through a narrow ravine or gorge and went into a sharp curve, finding it to be the most convenient place to carry out the derailment. Arriving back at Jagiroad, Gosain collected the wrench from his uncle and cycled back home, meeting Dodhiram Bardoloi on the way and informing him on the progress of their mission. Loiram Medhi of Xildubi and Modhu Keot of Barhampur, Mayong had already been urgently summoned to Doipora Xatra. Modhu was asked to bring along his single barrel buckshot hidden in a length of bamboo. They were to set out the next afternoon.

Just before the appointed hour on the afternoon of 21^st November, all seven of Gosain’s compatriots in the grim task congregated at his Doipora Xatra Ashram. The small group comprising of Mahada Gosain, Bhibiram Bora, Dhanpur Laskar, Manik Bora, Bhugram Deka, Dodhiram Bardoloi, Modhu Keot and Loiram Medhi set out along a forest track to their next sanctuary till they carried out their task, Mahada Gosain’s other ashram at Amlung on the southern bank of Kalang. The crossed the Kalang at the ghat near Kamarkuchi just after dusk and arrived at the ashram that night. Next morning, on 22^nd November, Loiram Medhi was sent to raja Mayong to fetch Bhagirath Konwar and the Gosain set out for the Kamarkuchi village to meet associates and proceed with their preparations. It was just before dusk when Gosain had come out to the Hanhara-Kamarkuchi Chariali, he noticed three persons slowly walking towards him. He was pleasantly surprised when he recognized one of them to be Benudhar Deka, DOC of Xanti Xena in Nagaon and a close associate who had come to Mayong countless times and the one who perhaps first broached the idea of train derailment. He was accompanied by Rupram Sut and Kameshwar Bardoloi. After exchanging pleasantries, Gosain was even more surprised to learn that Benudhar Deka and his compatriots had come to carry out the derailment of the military special train on the instruction of the President of the Nagaon District Congress Committee, Mahendranath Hazarika. They were to carry out the task with the help of local associates in Hanhara-Kamarkuchi. It was only providence that had brought both the groups acting independently together and decided to close ranks to accomplish their common objective. Overjoyed, all went back to the ashram to spend the night and carry out their final briefing before the final assault next day.

The next afternoon, on 23^rd November, the eleven who had gathered at the Amlung ashram set out for Panikhaiti. The most direct route would have been to cross the Digaru river, and through the Borbila reserve take a forest track to Panbari near Panikhaiti. But the reserve had a large habitation of Nepali herdsmen and the movement of the large group, if noticed, would have raised suspicion and compromised the entire mission. Therefore the group decided to take an alternative route. One by one they slipped out of the ashram and regrouped near the hill at Amra. Walking through the forested track they descended to the Amra Kalang ghat at dusk and crossed the river to Mayong on its north bank. They walked along the reed beds along the bank of the river in bright moonlight and arrived at an isolated farm not far from Kajali Chowki late at night. The farmhands keeping a watch on their mustard crops made arrangement for their meal that night and stay at one of the three thatched huts.

Early on the morning of 24^th November, while performing ablutions in the open on the river bank, they found a boat which had been left ashore. This made them immediately change their plans and rather than crossing the Kalang at a crowded Gobardhan ghat in the day time, they decided to cross over immediately. The farmhands were still asleep and they quietly slipped out. Crossed the river and entered the Borbila reserve, taking a track which took them through the forest at a safe distance from the Nepali settlements. The forest and hills were still shrouded in the morning mist and the dew drops falling like a drizzle from the trees drenched their clothes to the skin. They reached the Digaru river when the sun had come up and the mist had faded away. As there were no boats, they swam across the shallow but ice cold and fast flowing river. Rupram Sut and Kameshwar Bardoloi couldn’t swim, so they had to be left behind. Mahada Gosain stayed back with them to search for a safe crossing somewhere. While they were still contemplating what to do, they noticed a Nepali herdsman accompanied by his wife and daughter rowing towards them carrying grass for fodder. They requested him to help them cross the river and he happily obliged. Reaching the other bank, they now set out at a fast pace to catch up with the others. Loiram Medhi proved particularly helpful in guiding them to their destination at Panbari as he knew most of the forest tracks like the back of his hand from years of hunting in those jungles. The group finally arrived at a small stream on the hillock and settled down to have their meal. On discovering that they had left behind their supply of salt at the farm, Loiram, Dhanpur and Modhu ventured to the nearby Garo village and obtained some salt for their meal. Finishing their meager meal, they set off in a hurry towards the railway track.

They came up on the railway track at a place with dense bamboo thickets on both sides, offering an ideal hiding place to the saboteurs till the appointed hour. The track, at that place passes through the hillock at an elevation and then descends downhill in a gentle gradient while going into a curve. They chose to remove the tracks on that very spot. But they had to wait, as they would have to let the train coming down from Upper Assam and crossing that point at about half past six in the evening cross unmolested. So the wait began. Every body was briefed time and again on their specific task and there was no confusion now. Afternoon turned to dusk, and dusk turned to night. After what seemed like an endless wait they heard the train coming down from Upper Assam and in a few moments it hurtled past them towards Guwahati. The group now sprang into action. In bright moonlight Dhanpur Laskar and Bhibiram Bora unbolted the fishplates from the rails and the sleepers, Modhu and Loiram remained as sentries with gun ready in hand, the others used bamboo levers to prise aside the rails. The rails were set aside barely by an inch but that would be enough. Their mission accomplished in a matter of just 10-15 minutes, the group now hastily retreated towards Kalang ghat.

Reaching Kalang ghat they were overjoyed to see a boat tethered to the ghat. They learnt later that it was left for them by Bhagirath Konwar of Mayong. They quickly crossed the Kalang in two batches and rested for a while at the foot of the Gobardhan hill. It was then they heard a train leaving the Panikhaiti Station and approaching Panbari. They waited with bated breath and before long there was a earth shattering sound of metal crunching against metal, followed by shrieks of humans in acute pain. There was no doubt that the train had derailed. Scared out of their wits for a moment, the group now hastily hiked along a forest track over the Gobardhan hill, staggering and tripping in the darkness, trying to get as far away as possible and as fast as their feet could take them. Finally descending from the hill they rested to catch their breath outside a village and while debating their next move prepared and had some tea as well. Avoiding villages, the group moved through marshes and thickets and finally reached Loiram Medhi’s home at Xildubi at about 3 o’clock in the morning. Leaving all those who had come from Nagaon there, Modhu Keot, Bhugram Deka, Dodhiram Bardoloi and Mahada Gosain went to their respective homes. There weren’t any opportunity for all of them to meet once again.

Epilogue

The man-hunt that began immediately after the derailment to nab the culprits compelled all of them to go into hiding and stay as far away from Mayong as possible. All of them, accept Mahada Gosain, were arrested subsequently from various places. Fortunately for them, like many others, they too were arrested on general suspicion and no connection of their involvement emerged during the investigation. Neither did anyone come forward with any information. It was just as well because for a similar incident in Golaghat, Kushal Konwar, was arrested, tried, convicted and sometime later, hanged with the most tenuous of evidence.

India won her freedom in 15^th August, 1947 and this brave deed was almost forgotten till a fictionalized account of the exploit won the Janapith Award in 1979 and once again brought it to limelight for a while. The incident of the train derailment at Panikhaiti is now remembered, but little is known about the eleven brave souls and those who had helped them outside their local communities, remaining marginalized in the periphery of our collective consciousness in discourse of India’s freedom struggle.

When the Strategic Research & Analysis Organisation began its panoramic programme for re-exploring South and Southeast Asian History called “Reviving Forgotten Histories” in late 2007, the many ‘undocumented’ or marginalized narratives of this epic struggle for freedom in the region of India’s North East, which is still struggling with the challenges of ethnicity and nation building, became an immensely important thematic component of the programme and owing to the nature of these narratives, oral history became an indispensable tool to explore, record and interpret them. On the 67^th anniversary of this incident, we at the Strategic Research & Analysis Organisation humbly pay our homage to the eleven freedom fighters by recounting “their story” of the Panikhaiti train derailment. Lest we forget.