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## Maniram Dewan's Personality and Life Story Maniram Borbhandar Barua came to be known as Maniram Dewan. He had not only been a witness to the Burmese invasion of Assam and how the Assamese people had suffered, but also to how the British came to lord over Assam in 1826. Initially, he was not op...

## Maniram Dewan's Personality and Life Story Maniram Borbhandar Barua came to be known as Maniram Dewan. He had not only been a witness to the Burmese invasion of Assam and how the Assamese people had suffered, but also to how the British came to lord over Assam in 1826. Initially, he was not opposed to the British rule. In fact in 1828, he had been appointed as Shirastadar (Revenue Book Keeper) by the British in Jorhat. While working in this position, he brought in many reforms in the Revenue department and proved his capacity. When King Purandar Singha was re-established in Upper Assam, Maniram Barua joined his service as the Dewan. But for reasons unknown, he resigned from this post and joined the Assam Tea Company, which was owned by the British and established in 1839. In 1844 he resigned from there as well and set up his own tea garden in Jorhat. The fact that he could not gain any exemption from revenue payment, like the British tea growers, agitated him. Moreover, Captain Holroyd, who joined as the Chief Officer of Sibsagar district in 1851, deprived Maniram’s family of the revenue that they had been enjoying since generations. Although the career of Maniram Dewan as an authoritative officer began under the British government, it was also under the same government that he was reduced to a common man devoid of post, position, wealth, and prestige. Maniram Dewan realized one thing that his fortunes would not change for the better under the British domination. For that to happen, the Ahom Monarchy had to be restored. Like the Ahom Prince Kameswar Singha, Maniram Dewan too, refused to accept the pension of 1000 rupees from the British. When KameswarSingha expired in 1851, Maniram Dewan fully supported the idea of establishing his son, Kandarpeswar Singha on the royal throne. In 1853, when the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Moffat Mills came to Assam to investigate the administrative situation, Maniram Dewan presented two applications before him. In one of these, he gave an account of his services rendered to the British company and requested the government for some suitable remuneration. In the other, he requested that Ahom Prince Kandarpeswar Singha be reinstated on the Ahom royal throne, and also the details of the sufferings and miseries of the aristocratic class. In this application, though he mentioned about some of severe punishment like body and negative effects like-awarding punishment to the standard of the common people. Though, on the basis of his correspondence with the English government, he did not consider Maniram to be a conspirator. The report of Mills dashed the hopes of Maniram against the British. As he understood the confrontation with the British, he made an appeal to the British government, but he never got an opportunity. At that time he came to join the Indian army in Northern India and sought the help of the Indian soldiers. He sent some secret letters to some other trusted people. In these letters, he requested that Golaghat be contacted and armed with arms and ammunition. Unfortunately, many of these soldiers in Jorhat district, Captain Holroyd and his supporters in Jorhat and Sibsagar were arrested. Maniram Dewan was arrested on 26 February 1858. ## 3.1.01: Causes of the Failure of Maniram Dewan From the above discussion, we can see that the political and organizational efforts of Maniram Dewan could not ignite the fire of the rebellion. First of all, the number of Maniram Dewan's supporters were comparatively less and they could not gained any support in November 1857 Second, the leaders could not realize the importance of time and so, the opportunity to make a successful rebellion was lost.