Assam: Why This Village Has Not Celebrated Harvest Festival 'Magh Bihu' for 25 Years

Assam will be celebrating the Magh Bihu with grand feasts everywhere, but a village will remain in darkness on the night of Makar Sankranti.

On ‘Magh Bihu’, every household eats dinner together and some places also arrange a community feast. But, a small village has not been able to overcome a bitter memory from 25 years ago.

It was at 8.30 pm on January 13, 1998, like the rest of the state, Kekerikuchi near Rangia sub-division of Kamrup district was also busy preparing for the feast and bonfire. Suddenly, some gunmen, allegedly members of a Bodo militant group, entered three houses in the village and started firing. At least 17 people died on the spot, and the gunmen were never to be found again.

The deceased were members of three families in Kekerikuchi near the Indo-Bhutan border were killed: Jaymati Kalita, Hemchandra kalita, Dwipen Kalita, Pratima Kalita, Hiran Kalita, Geetarani Kalita, Nabajit Kalita, Kunjaprabha Kalita, Kabite Kaita, Pramod Kalita, Feleni Bhuyan, Beena Bhuyan, Lipika Kalita, Geetanjali Kalita, Geetarani Kalita, Dhaneswar Kalita and Maheswar Haloi.

For the people of Kekerikuchi, however, that night brings back terrible memories as they said they can never forget what they went through. Feleni Bhuyan’s daughter-in-law said: “On January 13, at about 8.30 pm, some militants entered our house and killed seven persons of our family. Since then and till date, we don’t observe Bihu. Our children don’t know what Magh Bihu is. On this day, we offer prayers at their tombs. We stay here the whole night.”

Bhuyan’s grandson said: “We have no of experience ‘Magh Bihu’, they killed 17 persons of our village, so we don’t observe ‘Magh Bihu’ or have feast on Uruka.”

Another relative of one of the deceased said: “We were shocked by this incident and since then we never observed ‘Magh Bihu’. But, we are surprised that the home department could not find any evidence. No one has been arrested or punished; could not even identified.”

Ever since, residents of Kekerikuchi village arrange a special community prayer. They clean the funeral site, where 17 people were cremated together and we light 1,000 earthen lamps.

(With inputs from Inamul Islam)