— Aziz-ul Haque
Reverend Dr Miles Bronson played a decisive role in the history of Assamese language and literature. It will be worthwhile to remember him on his 196th birth anniversary. Bronson was born on 20 July, 1812 at Norway, in New York. He graduated from Hamilton Literature and Theological Institute in 1836. The American Baptist Missionary Union appointed him as a missionary to Assam. He and his wife, Ruth, reached Sadiya on 17 July, 1837 and joined Nathan Brown and Oliver Cutter who came in 1836. Bronson worked in different places in Assam, but mostly in Nagaon. He was instrumental in founding Assam’s first Baptist church at Panbazar, Guwahati on 25th January 1845. He pioneered in establishing Assamese schools in different parts of the state. However, Bronson’s most successful work was the Orphan Institution in Nagaon (1843) where orphans and destitute were cared for and given education.The British rulers imposed Bengali in 1836 as the official language of courts and schools in Assam, justifying that Assamese was a colloquial dialect of Bengali. Strangely, except for a very few, including Anandaram Dhekial Phukan, the Assamese people by and large did not protest this. It seemed providential that at the same time the American Baptist Missionaries came to Assam to struggle for restoration of its language.Bronson was a linguist par excellence. Very soon he mastered Assamese and appreciated the beauty of this language. He established that Assamese was most widely understood in Assam and that it was a language distinct from Bengali. Moreover, in contrast to the government, the schools founded by the missionaries used Assamese as the medium of instruction. Bronson was deeply involved in teaching, translating and preparing books in Assamese. Many of his translated hymns are still sung in churches in Assam. He published A spelling book and vocabulary in English, Assamese, Singpho and Naga. His translated books include Subarnar tul, Dharam avatar and Pap mochanar satya upai.However, Bronson’s magnum opus was Asomia aru Ingraji Abhi-dhan(1867), the first dictionary in Assamese containing 14,000 word entries covering 609 pages. In the preface to this dictionary Bronson stated that Assamese was the most spoken language in the Brahmaputra Valley, and in spite of political upheavals and influx of different peoples down through the ages, the language had remained intact. This dictionary became a veritable fortress for the war he was waging.Bronson was actively involved with Nathan Brown for Orunodoi. the first news magazine in Assamese published from the Mission Press at Sivasagar from January 1846. He contributed many articles for this magazine. He shouldered full responsibility for editing and publishing it when Brown was on leave. The magazine brought news from all corners of the globe. With illustrative articles on science, geography, astronomy, history and many other topics it soon found an encouraging readership among the Assamese intelligentsia and thereby paved the way for Assamese journalism. Many Assamese scholars like Anandaram Dhekial Phukan, Gunabhiram Baruah and Hemchandra Baruah also contributed articles in this magazine that became a launching pad in the struggle for restoration of Assamese language.On the language issue, Bronson was in constant touch with Anandaram Dhekial Phukan, who was a Civil Assistant and a great Assamese scholar. In 1853, Lt. Governor F James Haliday directed A J Moffat Mills, the Judge of the Sadar Diwani Adalat in Calcutta, to investigate and report on the administration of Assam. Mills reviewed the government’s education policy and took into account the language issue from Assamese scholars for which Phukan submitted a memorandum and missionaries supported demands for Assamese as the medium of education. Mills recommended it for favourable consideration stating, “I think we made a great mistake in directing that all business should be transacted in Bengali, and that Assamese must acquire it ... I would strongly recommend... the substitution of vernacular language in lieu of Bengali...” Phukan’s book, A Few Remarks on the Assamese Language and on Vernacular Education in Assam (1855), published from Sivasagar Mission Press advocated the cause of Assamese and its distinctiveness from Bengali. But nothing availed in restoring Assamese. However, Bronson did not keep silent on the issue.As a last resort, Bronson spearheaded the struggle by voicing public opinion through memoranda. Such a memorandum issued on 9 March, 1872 called The humble memorial of the Assamese Community at Nowgong, Assam, bore the signatures of 216 persons led by Bronson himself. Such representations came from Sivasagar, Guwahati and other places through missionaries’ inspiration to put pressure on the government. The struggle was long and after 37 years; on 25 July, 1873 the British Government ordered reinstatement of Assamese as the language of the court as well as the medium of education in Assam. Bronson, upon his return to US in 1879 said, “I must go back; I wish to be buried in Assam”, the land and its people that he so loved and cherished. However, he died on 9 November, 1883 at Eaton Rapids, Michigan in US.
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