Freedom fighter draws up unique `will'

Freedom fighter draws up unique `will'
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, JUNE 28: Fifty-Three years after the country achieved Independence, what can a neglected and forgotten freedom fighter in an obscure village in Upper Assam ask for? Believe it or not, Indreswar Phukan from Ghiladhari village in Golaghat district, has a unique request.

``I want to be cremated in a traditional moidam. I want that the first and the last spadeful of earth on my grave be put by a Harijan,'' says Phukan, now in his mid-eighties, in a ``will'' submitted to Golaghat district Deputy Commissioner Ravi Kota. A ``moidam'' is an earthen pyramid that used to be in vogue during the rule of the Ahom dynasty in Assam between 1228 and 1826.

Phukan was an associate of Kushal Konwar, general secretary of the Golaghat District Congress during the freedom struggle, and was implicated along with Konwar in the Sarupathar train derailment case of 1942. He was jailed for 10 years. ``I am an ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He had given top priority to Harijans. I want them to perform my last rites,'' he says. Every Ahom king, queen, and members of the royal family used to be cremated in the typical Ahom way, similar to the ancient Egyptian way, with a pyramid made of earth built on it. Phukan himself is an Ahom and a descendent of a family of noblemen belonging to the court of one of the Ahom kings of the pre-British era.

More interestingly, Pukhan has got his coffin ready and has even authorised Kota to make use of the Rs 40,000 in his savings account in the local branch of the Lakhimi Gaonliya Bank.

Pukhan does not believe in religious practices and has specifically stated in his ``will'' that no religious function related to death be organised when he passes away. ``There are many religions, but I have not found any of them correct and flawless,'' he has stated.

Kota has sent copies of the ``will'' to the district police superintendent, the officer in-charge of Ghiladhari police station, apart from sending one copy to the Chief Minister's Secretariat in Guwahati.