Bodofa Upendra Nath Brahma: The Father of The Bodo Nation

Upendra Nath brahma, the founder of the modern Bodo nation is a memorable figure among Boros. Upendra Nath brahma was born on 31" march 1956 in a village called Borgari under Dotma block of Kokrajhar district. His father's name was Mangalram Brahma and Mother's name Lepsri Brahma. They were very poor. Upendra Nath had two brothers named Bimal Brahma. Shyameswar Brahma and two sisters named Timpri Brahma and Ramba Brahma.

               Upendra Nath had to face hardship right from his childhood as his parents were very poor. He Seemed to have an aim of life from his carly Childhood. Perhaps, for this reason, he was able to get through the myriads of problems in life.In 1968, he took the primary scholarship examination and was awarded a merit scholarship. Upendra Nath Brahma passed his matriculation examination in 1975 with first division with letter marks in General Mathematics and higher Mathematics. He graduated from Cotton College in 1981 with letter marks in Physics with Pre-University (PU) and B.Sc. in physics with Honours. He passed his M.Sc. from University of Gauhati in when he was a law student. He was forced to join the job of an Income tax inspector. Due to severe financial problems, however, the poor socio-economic condition of the Boros didn't allow his conscience to remain in Government's works. He edited 'Bidangsri' the annual mouth piece of Gauhati Bodo students Union in the session 1977-78. He was selected the president of the undivided Goalpara All Bodo Students Union in 1978-79.Although it was the first entry of Mr Brahma into the Organization if he had been associated bels closely with the ABSU. In 1980, Mr. Brahma was also an editor of the 'Orkhi' Was also an editor news magazine published from Kokrajhar. "Orkhi was published to raise the voice of the Bodo people. Mr. Brahma ventilated his Philosophy and the destiny of Bodo people through this news magazine. He was selected vice president of ABSU in 1983-84. In 1986, he was elected as the eighth one-year president of the All-BoroStudents Union held at Routa. The following year he resigned from government job and devoted his life to save the Boros from isolation. Although his life was plagued by problems and there was no secondearner in the whole family. He didn't give upon his goal of establishing Boro people as a large ethnic group in the world. Upendra Nath Brahma believed that a tribe, with respect has the right to live in the world with its own language, literature no matter how large the population. The strong community or nation has no moral right to oppress the weak, rises at one time and falls at another. Therefore, the principle of living and living can bring lasting happiness and prosperity to human society on this earth. He was also strong promoter of principles, freedom, equality and brotherhood. This idea was introduced in 1789 during the French Revolution in an attempt to give equal rights to all people. The French Revolution was the face of more idealism than guns and it threw away the old and inequalities of society and began to reshape the world. Upendra Nath Brahma is also a struggled tobring about change in the contemporary society.It will bring equal dignity and rights to backward classes like the Bodo's. He tried to ensure that the Bodo's, like other people of the country could enjoy equality and live in peace free from oppression and exploitation. Brahma was determined to promote the nationalism and language and culture of the Bodo's at the national and international levels. He expressed his desire to spread this message to the deprived and underdeveloped societies of the world. When he found no way reach his great mission, he launched a massive movement for his people. He is also known as 'Bodofa' meaning Father of Bodos for his immense contribution to Bodo society. Upendra Nath Brahma died on 1" May, 1990 almost completing his work. The government of Assam has called for the celebration of his birthday on 31 March as Student's Day throughout Assam.

Bodoland Movement:

As stated, earlier land alienation has been the major problem of the plains tribal people of Assam. In this connection Indira Das wrote, "Perhaps one of the gravest problems of the Bodos have had to face over the years to relates to land. Despite restrictions on land transfers between tribals and

non-tribals, immigrant Bengali Muslim and Hindus have gradually taken over large areas of agriculture lands. Laws protecting tribal land were mis-interpreted and misused to deprive the tribals of their lands. With this unfortunate results almsont 60 percent of their land was taken over by non-tribals"The process of insidious attack on the vitality of the Bodo people suddenly appeared on the surface as an immediate threat to the people, When the A.GP. government launched a programme of evicting the indigenous people from forest villages simultaneously with imposition of language and culture on non-Assamese speaking people in the state to implement the Assam Accord signed in 1985. The fear was quite large in the mind of the people. The in-conceived design of the new Mahanta government was the last straw that broke the camel's back. A vigorous uprising was imminent. The tribal eviction stopped and the imposition of language and culture stopped. But it became a defining moment to convince U.N. Brahma that the Bodos must have a protective suit in the form of a separate state to live and flourish without fear.                    

          As a consequence, the Bodoland Movement was formally declared on 2 March, 1987. The All Bodo Students' Union submitted a memorandurn of 92 points of demand including a separate state to Sri Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the then chief minister of Assam. The same memorandum was also submitted to Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India on 24 February, 1987; to Buta Singh, the then Home Minister on February 24 and to Giyani Jail Singh, the then president of India on February 28. The 92 charters of demand reflected all the grievances of the Bodo people, their aspirations and visions. The cluster of demand revolved around three political demand: creation of separate state on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, the creation of regional council for non-Karbi people living in Karbi Anglong and an autonomous region for the Bodo people living on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river.

      

Jintu baro 

Department of Modern indian language and literary studies, Gauhati University,PG- Frist Semester