34 SOCIAL SCIENTIST province (hear, hear). There can be no gainsaying on it even if the government stand or fall on it. (hear, hear). So the quesion of languages is solved once for all. The question of languages for the minority communities in Assam is also solved ... At least Assamese people as a whole will not and cannot tolerate any other language or culture im' posed on theirs. All the languages of different communities and their culture will be absorbed in Assamese culture ... We, the Assamese people will resist to a man and will never allow any other language to establish permanently as the state language in Assam. Claiming to speak with authority in the matter regarding the mind of the people, he asserted, "We will have Assamese alone as our state language and the state cannot nourish any other language in this province.5'43 Bardalai's assurances and assertions were not honoured by his suc-cesors and the good work of the past was undone. The Assamese language was restored to the position it deserved. The States Reorganization Corn-mission prescribed a population percentage of seventy or more for any state to be unilingual and distinctly admitted the multilingual composition of Assam. Thus all the happenings in connection with the language during the last twenty-eight years, too well known to be recounted here, were totally unwarranted from any reasonable point of view. It may be of interest to note that Sarat Chandra Sinha, present chief minister of Assam, had expressed the same view as Phukan in 1948. But he had to witness the worst ever manifestation of the language malaise in 1972 and is yet to fulfil the aspiration so vehemently expressed then. Suffice it to say that the language question has become a favourite expediency of the politicians and has to be settled de novo. 1 H K Barpujari, Assam in the Days of the Company, p 46. 2 Ibid., p 266. 3 Ibid. 4 Assam Secretariat File (hereinafter abbreviated as ASF) No. 171G of 1874, No 1. 5 Mill's Report, Appendix J. 6 Ibid. 7 Bengal Government Resolution dated 19 April 1873 on introduction of Assamese language, a Ibid. a Ibid. ^ Ibid. 1l Ibid. 1 a Ibid. ^ Ibid. i ^ Ibid. 13 ASF No. Home A, November 1896, Nos. 142-43. '6 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 ASF No 145Gofl881,p35. 19 ASF No. Home A, November 1896, Nos. 142-43; Edn-B, March 1883. ao Ibid. al Ibid.