Guwahati: The 135-year-old Jorhat Races, a landmark event in Assam’s rich tea heritage in Jorhat district, begins on Monday with a car rally thrown in for good measure together with regular equestrian events and races.
“We have decided to combine a car rally and equestrian events for wider viewer appeal,” president of Jorhat Races Prabhat Bezbaruah told PTI.
The six-day event, organised by Jorhat Gymkhana Club under the stewardship of a Race Committee, will comprise equestrian events, a riding exhibition and a dog show by the Assam Rifles Dog Unit, Jorhat.
The race will begin on February 19 and will also take place on 21 and 23 with eight races on each of the days.
Bezbaruah said the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, the organisers of the oldest horse races in the country, provided technical guidance for the races.
Governor J B Patnaik will give away the Governors’ Cup in keeping with tradition of a governor being the Chief Patron of the Races since 1949.
The meet has been funded by the tea industry and the oil sector with 30 per cent of the collections to go to charity.
The remaining funds will be spent on horses and riders, a member of the Jorhat Races and eminent tea producer Bidyananda Borkakoty said.
The Jorhat Races, the only one of its kind in the Northeast, is Assam’s equivalent to European or American festivals like Oktoberfest in Bavaria, La Tomatina in Spain, or even Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Borkakoty said.
“While those festivals have beer, tomatoes or music as their anchor points the Jorhat Races have horses and racing as its central theme,” he said.
The first Jorhat Races were held on January 16, 1877.
The event has witnessed highs and lows of the tea industry from the British Raj to independence and beyond.
The idea behind the Races was to showcase the equestrian skills of planters in a carnival like atmosphere where all levels of workers in tea plantations could be thoroughly entertained, Borkakoty said.
The Races remain a reflection of the past and a major milestone in the tea industry’s history and heritage, he added.
In the mid 1900s, planters stopped using horses for their daily rounds and the very existence of the Races came under threat, but Scottish ingenuity prevailed and a way was found by bringing in the riders of the Mishing tribe and horses from Kokilamukha and Jhanjhimukh for running the races.
The Mishing tribesmen have raised horses for generations to assist them in farming and transportation. Subsequently thoroughbred tea garden horses were replaced by Mishing ones and the Races were reborn with the tribals riding bareback.
The Jorhat Races suffered a setback in 1990 and were not held for three years since 1991 due to disturbances in the state but were revived in 1994.
Even, the races could not be held during the period 2004 to 2007, probably due to the economic crisis that had gripped the tea industry, but it was again revived in 2008. (PTI)