Chord of Harmony: The Sattras & Dargahs of Assam, like the subjects themselves, is actually a reflection of the philosophy of humanism and universal brotherhood propagated by the great saints of Assam, Srimanta Sankardeva and Azaan Pir—a philosophy nurtured and carried forward by the later apostles and followers of both the saints. The Sankardeva movement, spearheaded by the Vaishnavite monasteries called the sattras, not only watered down the system of discrimination on the basis of caste, but also strived to save the society from practices of religious bigotry and untouchability by creating a system of harmonious co-existence. If the sattras remind people of Sankardeva’s contribution to social cohesion and the socio-cultural and literary resurgence in Assam, the dargahs, as the graves of the Muslim spiritual leaders are known, have remained the strongest symbols of the teachings of the Muslim pirs who did come to spread Islam, but stressed on unity among people of all faiths. No wonder, these dargahs spread across Assam are a favourite destination of both Muslims and Hindus, besides people of other faiths. Wasbir Hussain and Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta bring out the stories of these religious leaders who were great unifiers of people by featuring some of the sattras and dargahs.
15 Aug 2009 - 10:41am | bishwajeetsinha
The menace of ‘Ragging’ is so much that hardly anyone can believe that there is any positive effect is involved in the whole process of getting to know each other in due course of time....
2 Sep 2014 - 11:01am | AT News
After a brief lull, poachers struck Kaziranga again two days before the visit of the Union Forest and Environment minister Prakash Javadekar. The one horned was killed by poachers in the wee hours...
20 Jun 2013 - 10:48pm | Dibya J Borthakur
At a time when the state education department claims better functioning of government schools, the ground reality tells a different story.The Arts and Science stream students of Raha H.S.School are...
18 Jan 2017 - 6:13pm | AT News
A collection of Assamese short stories titled Dhusar Diganta and penned by Gajen Deka was released at Guwahati Press Club on Wednesday. Eminent educationist and commentator Dr Amarjyoti Choudhury...
The 28th Assam Convention was held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1 amidst much fun fare. For the first time ever in the history of Assam Association of North America (AANA) conventions, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam addressed the gathering on June 30 in an attractive ‘Town Hall’ format meeting, where everyone got a chance to ask the Chief Minister, Mr.Tarun Gogoi about their home state Assam. The Chief Minister was accompanied by A.K.Sachan, IAS and Hemanga Sarma, IAS and answered questions on a variety of topics ranging from flood situation in Guwahati to NRI investment in Assam, education, AIDS/HIV etc....
Agartala: Gandhism is catching and fast. This time it is the turn of surrendered militants of National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT-BM) to follow the Gandhism path alleging that the State Government has still not fulfilled their demands. Mantu Koloi alongwith 72 armed cadres had surrendered before security forces in May, 2004 following an agreement with the State Government. But Koloi says that till date the State Government has not taken any steps towards the fulfilment of promises which were made at the time of their surrender.The former rebel leader said that as such they have been compelled to organize a semi-nude march towards the Governor House on July 25 to apprise Governor DN...
Indian companies are rapidly expanding their global footprint, often through acquisitions funded by canny investors who have recognised the competence of Indian managers and the skills they bring to the table. But there is a flipside to this. An estimated one-fifth of India’s current workforce from shop-floor workers to top managers which has played a crucial part in the transformation of Indian business will be out of the workforce by the year 2010. And the reason is that they would have passed India’s absurdly low retirement age of 58 in most corporate organizations and 60 in a few. It is a well know fact that it is felt that India’s much-touted ‘demographic...
GUWAHATI : Indian Bank opened its first all woman manned branch of in the GNB Road in the city. According to the Bank sources, this is the first all woman branch of Indian Bank in the country.The bank was inaugurated by Ms Sundara Rajan, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Indian Bank. Ms Rajan speaking on the occasion had high expectations from the Branch and said that if the is model is successful, Indian Bank would look at opening many such branches in the Country. The Reserve Bank of India, Regional Director, Ms Sewali Choudhury was also present on the occasion.
Guwahati : Assam’s flood situation has taken a grim turn on Tuesday as the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are flowing at an alarming level. The situation has gone from bad to worse following incessant rainfall during the last 24 hours.Officials here say all surface communications in the worst-hit Dhemaji district are still remaining disrupted which has left lakhs of people displaced. With fresh rainfall in some places in the morning more areas in the district have come under the surging waters. The water levels had showed a receding trend on Monday. According to officials engaged in the relief works, the district administration is providing shelter to the marooned people in four...
As what is seen as a precedence for many such moves in the future, a proposal to raise the retirement age from 58 to 60 years for employees of profit-making central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) has been approved by the Union Cabinet. The ministries which are responsible for the administration of the respective companies would be empowered to approve the proposals of CPSEs to enhance the age of retirement of its employees from 58 to 60 years, provided that these companies have made net profits for the last three years continuously and should have positive net worth on a sustained basis, government officials said. “This benefit will be available to only those PSUs that have not...
There are floods in Balipara now. Reports have come in that there are twelve villages which are under water. Water is receding but the situation is still grim. Emergency services have been pressed into operation
GUWAHATI: Caught in a Catch-22 situation, Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, is willing to hand over the probe into the killing of Phul Chand Ram to the CBI but has said that this will not stop the flow of investments into the state.Talking to the reporters on Monday, Mr Gogoi says his government will soon order a CBI inquiry into the crossfire which left the FCI executive director Dr Ram killed.“We are always against allowing rebel groups to hold people for ransom by kidnapping officials and setting conditions for their safe release. I rejected the plea of the Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to release ULFA top guns Mrinal Hazarika and Pallab Chetia for release of Dr Ram as...
Guwahati: In connection with the abduction and recovery of the dead bodies of the CCI Manager Kailash Jha and PWD junior Engineer Ajay Kumar Deka, the City Police has arrested five persons, inlcuding an Army officer, for kidnap and murder of Deka. They have been identified as Lance Naik Akon Kumar Das, Jitu Choudhury, Rinku Choudhury, Subhas Das and Amar Thapa. While Jitu and Rinku, both brothers, were arrested from Baksa district last night, Subhas Das and Amar Thapa, both surrendered ULFA rebels, were arersted from Pathsala, Barpeta today. Sources said that the late Deka took Rs. 7 lakh assuring to provide them jobs.Meanwhile the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has condemned the incident...
Mumbai : Sunita Bhuyan, daughter of famed violinist, Minoti Khaund has been carving her own niche in India’s cultural and corporate world. Bhuyan has been performing in various functions and meets in India alongwith her mother as well as independently. With corporates, she has been presenting workshops on music as a tool for holistic development of corporate executives across various international forums. Recently she had given a performance at NCPA in Mumbai about the influence of classical ragas on some of the Assamese folk music styles. “Bihu is a popular form of folk song as well as dance,” said Bhuyan, who explored the folk, devotional and contemporary music of...
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