Guwahati, Sunday, January 02, 2008
My affection for the Assamese people comes from my experience of the State
since childhood. They retain today many of the characteristics they had then —
practical, sensible, down-to-earth, warm, and generous. With them I feel
comfortable. I feel at home”, were the reflections of social anthropologist Dr
Audrey Cantlie after her recent visit to the State.
Dr Audrey Cantlie expected that she would see a new Assam where things are
happening for the good and betterment of the society. However, she was taken
aback when she, to her dismay, found that today the Assamese find themselves a
minority in their own State. “It is hard to be a minority in one’s own
country,” Dr Cantlie remarked during an online interaction. “The Assamese have
an ancient and proud tradition. They should not lose it. It is for the people
to keep their distinct cultural identity intact.” Dr Cantlie was shocked when
she noticed that the Assamese seem to have given up their cultural identity. A
woman clad in the traditional mekhela chaddar has become a rarity.
“All I see are girls clad in jeans and T-shirts. I was appalled when I came to
know that the Assamese women have stopped wearing their traditional clothes and
very few have their own handlooms today. I know that the forces of
globalisation in their wake have swept away many a culture and tradition. But
one must be able to face it headlong. Enjoying the benefits of globalisation
doesn’t mean that one should give up one’s culture and traditions. Changes may
be inevitable but change must be gradual.”
Dr Audrey Cantlie is concerned about the identity crisis gripping the Assamese
as she has a special love and affection for the people and the region. There
are reasons behind it too. She was born in Shillong in 1923. She had spent her
early years in Jorhat where her father, Sir Keith Cantlie, was the Deputy
Commissioner. In fact, her father spent his entire working life in Assam until
his retirement from service in 1947. “As my father worked in different
capacities in Assam and I too grew up here, so, in a way, I consider myself as
a daughter of Assam. Even today, I remember the way my father spoke with
affection of old Assam. A land of outstanding natural beauty, with distant
views of the snows of the Himalayas, where there was ample grazing grounds for
cattle and villagers ate two-year old rice because it tasted sweeter. These
days have gone. But what remains is a far greater asset, the character and
disposition of the people.”
Recounting her observation of the region during her recent visit, which she
terms as her homecoming, Dr Cantlie candidly disclosed that she had witnessed a
lot of changes creeping in. Some for the better and some for the worse. The
roads have improved. The population has grown up by leaps and bounds. The land
is scarce and grazing grounds are nonexistent. The region had become
fragmented, with the hill tribes now having their own states. Now I feel that
the task of the North East is to accommodate the process of change in such a
way as to respect the ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity of the region.
Besides which, we must learn to live at peace with our neighbours.”
As a part of her homecoming visit, she, along with her son Clive, daughter
Emma and granddaughter Karsticos went to Jorhat. “In Jorhat, I visited the
Deputy Commissioner’s bungalow, where my father had lived with my mother in the
1920s when he was the DC. Later, I lived there with my husband Thomas Hayley
when he was the DC Jorhat at the time of Independence. They are all dead now. I
found it a moving but uncanny experience, talking to the ghosts of the past.
Perhaps, all people feel the same looking back on their childhood. Those days
are gone and cannot come back.”
Her husband Thomas Hayley joined the ICS during the Second World War. After
independence, he became the first Deputy Commissioner of Sivasagar. The then
Chief Minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha appointed him as Secretary and Director of
Rural Development, responsible for creating Panchayat Raj in the villages.
Dr Audrey Cantlie, after taking a degree in Sociology at the London School of
Economics, returned to Assam for fieldwork and carried out a study in a village
near Jorhat which was later published under the title of The Assamese. “I would
like to think of it as a small contribution to our knowledge of the rich
cultural diversity of North East India.”
Though she had all along had an emotional bond with the region and its people,
with the passage of time, Dr Audrey Cantlie lost contact with the Assamese. It
was sometime in September 1998 that she met Rini Kakati, an Assamese NRI at the
School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She was excited when Rini
Kakati, who is a Legal and Social Counsellor of Ethnic Minority, Department of
Social Service, London, introduced herself as an Assamese. Dr Cantlie enquired
how many Assamese families are there in London. She expressed her keen desire
to meet them. Soon, she got actively involved with the Assamese community in
London. As a chief guest at the 550th Sankar Jayanti at Wembley, she captivated
the gathering with her analytical and highly informative speech. For the
Assamese society in London, soon Dr Audrey Cantlie became popular as Cantlie
Baidew.
As she always evinced keen interest to visit Assam along with her children,
Rini Kakati facilitated her in the recent homecoming visit. Dr Audrey Cantlie’s
love for the region, of which she considers herself a daughter, can be best
surmised by her remark that if she did not have a family living in the UK, she
would have lived in Assam.Manish Goswami
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