From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), anti-talks faction, on Friday announced that from now onwards all the surname of its leaders and cadres would be same and the common surname will be ‘Asom’.
In a statement issued to the media through e-mail here, the ULFA faction said to replace the surnames of its members with ‘Asom’ was aimed at reflecting the outfit’s commitment to expedite the evolution of the ‘great Assamese nation’ irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
The ULFA statement said, “The process of formation of ‘great Assamese nation’ was disrupted once Assam went under forceful occupation of ‘colonial Indian rulers’.
Though the intellectuals of Assam have tried had to analyse the reasons that were hampering the formation of ‘great Assamese nation’, they have failed to project that the real reason behind all problems of Assam is the ‘continued occupation of Assam by Indian colonial rulers’.”
The ULFA stated that, “ In a fresh attempt to revive and accelerate the process of formation of great Assamese nation the ULFA has decided to start it from the floor of the organization. So, we have decided to replace surnames of all our members with Asom.”
It may be mentioned that the surname of a person in Assam usually reflects his/her caste, clan ,tribe and religion. Some of Assamese surnames are Gogoi, Barua, Rajkhowa, Bora, Bhuyan, Saikia, Deuri, Ronghang, Hajong, Rabha, Taku, Pegu, Moran, Rajbongshi, Kalita, Nath, Phukon etc.