GUWAHATI: Assam on Thursday paid rich tributes to over 140 people who lost their lives in a peasants’ uprising at Patharughat in Darrang district, about 60 km from Guwahati, back in 1894, with chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal describing the sacrifice as a “glorious chapter of valour in India’s freedom struggle”.
After paying floral tributes at the martyrs’ memorial, Sonowal said, “The Patharughat uprising of 1894 occupies a special place in the history of India’s freedom struggle. It was an incident where over 140 peasants attained martyrdom in a remote village in Assam 127 years ago.”
The uprising, which took place 25 years before the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre, was triggered by a British government decision in 1893 to increase agricultural tax by 70-80%. While peasants across Assam began protests through a series of raij-mels (people’s conventions), it turned violent on January 28, 1894 after police opened fire to disperse agitating farmers at Patharughat.