Orunudoi: The Birth of Assamese News-magazine

The printing of the Orunodoi magazine is considered the beginning of a new era in Assamese literature. This not only boosted the Assamese language and society but also paved the way for the development of the generation that started taking pride in calling themselves Assamese.

A Copy of the Orunudoi News-magazine | Source: Partition Studies

The fate of Assam was already decided by the Treaty of Yandaboo. The British East India Company finally got a chance to administer the Northeastern part of the country. As they took over the Northeast, part by part, Baptist Missionaries also intervened in this territory. They were dedicated workers aiming to revive society through education and moral values.

In 1836, American Baptist missionaries came and settled in Assam. They crossed the city of Guwahati and settled in the Upper Brahmaputra valley. It took them time to get accustomed to the language of the people in their neighbourhood as they had to work not only with the Assamese people but also the Shans, Wanchos, Khamtis, etc. Dr Nathan Brown, a Baptist, took time to learn the language and finally established a printing press at Sibsagar in 1846. This marked the birth of Orunodoi, which meant ‘The Rising Sun’.

Orunodoi served as a magazine and newsletter for a long time. From 1846 to 1850, it was circulated as the 'Orunudoi Newsletter'. For the next decade, the newsletter was rebranded as ‘Orunodoi’. Finally, in 1861, the name Orunodoi was changed to ‘Arunodoi’. The publication of this magazine-cum-newsletter finally came to an end in 1880.

The education system in Assam during the medieval period was based on Varnasrama dharma. The Ahoms ruling over the Brahmaputra valley did little to change the age-old Sanskrit ways. Moreover, education was limited to the upper caste, and just like any part of the country, priests had the liberty of studying and teaching the scriptures.

The Baptist Missionaries had their ulterior motive of propagating Christianity in the Northeastern part of the country. However, instead of diving into the teachings of the saints and the narration of the gospels, they paid attention to spreading knowledge in Assam. This knowledge included learnings from the fields of science, geography, astronomy, health care, etc.

Initially, the focus of these learned missionaries was that the monthly publishing of the Orunodoi Newsletter would primarily deal with the subject matter of religion, science, general knowledge, etc. They ensured to act slowly, but their time-to-time propagation of Christianity made many people lash out their frustrations on them. However, these Baptist Missionaries did not travel all the way from the West to the Northeast of India just to back off.

They kept their mission on. A large number of people from the region converted themselves into Christianity. These also included the orphans that these missionaries gave shelter to and provided them with the facility of education. Meanwhile, Assamese people benefited from the magazine. They became accustomed to Indian history, new inventions and discoveries in the West, and also to moral education.

Orunodoi, or rather Arunodoi, introduced the Assamese society to the modern world. The use of print as a device to uplift the education of the people is noteworthy. For its contribution to shaping Assamese society, the magazine indeed was the light of hope for the future.