Work for Farmers’ Institution Stopped as Excavators Hit 1894 Assam Peasant Martyrs’ Mass Grave:

• A project expected to change the future of farmers in Assam’s Darrang district had to be suspended after excavators dug up the locals’ emotional link with the past — a mass grave of 140 peasants killed in a farmers’ revolt 123 years ago.

Historical Background:

• The uprising was triggered by a British government decision in 1893 to increase agricultural tax by 70-80%. At least 140 peasants died in police firing after the protests turned violent in Darrang district’s Patharughat, about 60 km northeast of Guwahati, on January 28, 1894.
• The spot believed to be the mass grave place was cordoned off and construction activities stopped.
• There is no monumental evidence of the spot having been the mass grave of the martyrs of the 1894 revolution. A positive outcome of the inadvertent incident is that there is attention on the mass grave area that was in a state of neglect.