When the whole country was preparing for the start of the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930, students in Assam also played a key role.
To discourage and stop students to participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement, J.R. Cunningham, the then powerful Director of Public Information of Assam, issued the Cunningham circular in 1930 imposing a blanket ban on any anti-British and pro- swadeshi activity by students.
It forced parents, guardians and students to furnish assurances of good behavior and also asked them to sign an undertaking that they would have to quit their schools and colleges if they participated in anti-government demonstrations or movements.
The circular was aimed to forbade students from participating in political activities and so, it raised a very strong response.
Thousands of students, throughout Assam, left their educational institutions. Many swadeshi educational institutions like Kamrup Academy of Guwahati and Sibsagar Vidyapeeth were also established at the same time to accommodate the students leaving British Govt. school & colleges.
The Kamrup Academy, the first swadeshi school in the Northeast, was conceived with Rai Bahadur Kalicharan Sengupta as its president and Gaurikanta Talukdar as its secretary.
The school started functioning on July 15, 1930 and initially, lessons were imparted in both Bengali and Assamese language.
Physical education was greatly stressed upon and many students became disciples of Khudu Mahanta, the legendary sword and stick trainer who taught the skills of self defence in the academy.
Many other prominent educational institution of Guwahati like B. Baruah College and J.B. Law Colleges started from these premises of the Kamrup Academy. The school stands as a symbol of a great heritage, sacrifice and commitment
During Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s visit to the school as the Union education minister, he was very impressed and said, “What India needs is man making education as prescribed by Swami Vivekananda. Nationalist institutions like Kamrup Academy should serve as the model for the country.”
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