SHILLONG: On the 50th anniversary of the struggle for the hill state, one of the volunteers, LR Lyngdoh, recollects the day and remembers the volunteers who were instrumental in the struggle.
Lyngdoh who was one of the volunteers who participated in the struggle for the hill state said in a statement issued here that there were approximately 30 volunteers who demonstrated, entered inside the compound of the Assam Civil Secretariat building and sat in front of the main door on September 10, 1968.
Lyngdoh, now 70, reminisced about the leadership and guidance of some of the All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) leaders to court arrest through the process of non-violent direct action.
The former volunteer said he stumbled upon an article by an anonymous writer given under the headline, ‘Non-Violent action volunteers of the A.P.H.L.C. – A Tribute’.
It stated that the struggle for the separate state by the hill people under the APHLC was a unique event: not only because of the achievement of the objective in a comparatively short period of time but also because of the manner in which the movement was conducted.
“The volunteers’ role in the struggle reached culmination on September 10, 1968, when they came out in hundreds to paralyse the administration of the Government of Assam at Shillong by peacefully picketing the Secretariat buildings in a most disciplined way,” the article said.
“They were courting arrest and thousands and thousands more in the hill districts were ready to go to jails in order to bring about the fulfilment of hillmen’s objective for a separate state,” it noted.
The writer stated that September 10, 1968 was a red letter day in the history of the movement of the hill people as the next day, the Government of India announced creation of the autonomous hill state.
“One and half year later, on April 2, 1970, the autonomous state of Meghalaya was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi. Two years later, Meghalaya was raised to its full stature becoming a full-fledged state,” the writer said.
The article mentioned about the “unflinching support of the people” and said, “Although the movement for the state was mass-based, the APHLC took care to see that the movement should be guided by a disciplined force of volunteers and workers.”
The adherence of the APHLC to peaceful and constitutional struggle ultimately had crystallised into Non-Violent Direct Action (Satyagraha) volunteers, both men and women carefully selected by leaders and made to pass through an intensive training in the basic principles and techniques of the movement, the anonymous writer said.
The article added that on many occasions, the volunteers were put on duty in various hartals, public demonstrations, processions and the like.
