# Ambikagiri Raichoudhury

Ambikagiri Raichoudhury (1885–1967) was an Assamese poet, lyricist, singer, powerful prose writer, news worker, magazine editor, patriotic, social-worker and the leading freedom fighter of India's freedom struggle. He is known as Assam Kesari. He was elected president of the Assam Sahitya Sabha in 1950.

## Quotes

* India is not a country; it is a continent—a totality of many countries.According to their own social systems, customs everyone is a nationality—­and as a result of combination of all these nationalities is growing the great Indian Mahajati—therefore India is the Mahadesh of the Indian Mahajati.Though the people of various provinces may be of same ideology yet they have distinct customs, dresses, eating habits, social norms and distinct natures, system of thoughts are different, literature and culture are different. None of them want to disappear.
** quoted in Nani Gopal Mahanta - Citizenship Debate over NRC and CAA_ Assam and the Politics of History (2021, SAGE Publications India)
* The Muslim league members declared war against the eviction policy of Congress government and had started forcible encroachment of reserved land. Their main aim is to create lawlessness and anarchy and in the process settle such imported people in the rural areas of Assam. They have brought hooligans from neighbouring areas and have started disturbing the peaceful plural character of the state and society.
** quoted in Nani Gopal Mahanta - Citizenship Debate over NRC and CAA_ Assam and the Politics of History (2021, SAGE Publications India)
* Assam is a Hindu-dominant state, and the Assamese will make Assam a Hindu-centric society. That is why from the moment India was brought under the domination of the Britishers, we have been waging a struggle for the last 30 years against the import of Bengal’s Muslim Mymensinghia immigrants through the Sangrakshini Sabha and Jatiyo Mahasabha.
** quoted in Nani Gopal Mahanta - Citizenship Debate over NRC and CAA_ Assam and the Politics of History (2021, SAGE Publications India)
* The entire Assamese nation is dismayed and anguished by a Mymensinghia procession in Barpeta where in front of two prominent Assamese Muslims,so-called Mymensinghia leaders in their speeches had lambasted Assamese people, their tradition, language and culture in inexplicable languages.The saddest part is that as Muslims they had surrendered in front of the Mymensinghia Muslims; and as Assamese Muslims, they could not make them accept Assamese culture. I truly believe the common Mymensinghia Muslims would not adhere and endorse such communal utterances of their leaders who are immersed in the idea of East Pakistan.
** quoted in Nani Gopal Mahanta - Citizenship Debate over NRC and CAA_ Assam and the Politics of History (2021, SAGE Publications India)

## Quotes about Ambikagiri Raichoudhury

* In his essay titled ‘An Appeal to the People of India and Constitution of Atma Rakshi Bahini’ Ambikagiri Raichaudhury gave details of how the Muslim League through its Direct Action programme indulged in property looting, arson, murders, killing and forcible conversion of Hindu girls in places such as Calcutta, Dhaka and Noakhali.
** quoted in Nani Gopal Mahanta - Citizenship Debate over NRC and CAA_ Assam and the Politics of History (2021, SAGE Publications India)