Dr Soumitra Puzari writes on advertisements in pre-Independence Assam and their connection to the prevalent socio-economic scenario.
Travel back in time to pre-Independence Assam, and pick up a newspaper from the stands. What do you see in the advertisements? A Chevrolet truck up for sale for just Rs 2,345! A bicycle for just Rs 37!
Hold your horses. There's much, much more. The ad section might also tell you that Joymoti had first been released as a 'palla' (a kind of drama) in a gramophone record of the Sonala company, directed jointly by Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwala, before it was released as the first Assamese film by Rupkonwar in 1935.
You will also come to know that the first privately owned school in Assam came into being in the early 1930s at Hajo. So, the private tuition system existed even in the early decades of the 20th century! Such rare gems of information are missing in conventional books of history. But if you glance at the ads published in the newspapers of Assam under British rule, new tidbits of information would come to your notice.
Since the inception of Jonaki (1889), advertisements have been a regular feature in newspapers and magazines published in Assam. Some newspapers like The Times of Assam, Asomiya, Deka Asom, etc., used to get a good number of advertisements at that time. In 1922, out of 12 pages of Sadiniya Asomiya, five were used for advertisements alone. There were not less than 100 advertisements in each issue of Asomiya. Dainik Batori, the first Assamese daily, got, on an average, 50 advertisements for each of its issues in the year 1935. Interestingly, in the first edition of Dainik Batori, there were as many as 17 advertisements on the front page of the paper and eight ads on its second page.
Different advertisers published different items in these newspapers. Advertisements of different jobs, books, readymade clothes, cosmetics, hotels, train fares of railway companies, conducted tours, cars, house building materials, medicines, gramophone records, guides of tourist places of religious interest, nurses, nursing homes, etc., appeared in the papers and magazines regularly. The collection of these advertisements from these scattered and mostly ill-preserved sources and their analyses has revealed diverse information on the social, political, economic, and cultural life of the people of Assam in the colonial period.
From this primary source, we get to know about the economy of colonial Assam, too. We find the names of the European tea companies who published ads regularly in the newspapers. Interestingly, many ancillary industries sprang up in the State, along with the tea industry. Industries for making culvert pipes, well rings, iron fencing, iron gates and grills, etc., were established in different parts of the State. JN Barua and Sons, The Assam Iron and Steel Company, Assam Engineering Works, etc., were some of the firms that advertised their products regularly in different newspapers of Assam. Apart from the European population, many Assamese people began to use in their day-to-day life items that were normally used by Europeans as advertisements of these products: confectionaries, chocolates, beer, cosmetics, readymade clothes, etc., were all published in the Assamese newspapers. To know the prices of different commodities, no other source can help us more than the advertisements.
The annual subscription of a weekly paper was Rs 2, the monthly rent of a room in a hotel in then Calcutta in 1929 was Rs 28, the price of a wristwatch was Rs 3, the price of a pressure cooker was Rs 4, the price of a Burton Humber bicycle was 37, the price of a 1928 model second-hand Fiat car was Rs 1,000 in 1932, the price of a Chevrolet truck was Rs 2,345, and that of an iron bucket in 1930 was 4 annas, etc. Similarly, we also know about various jobs and qualifications required, salaries, service conditions etc. The monthly salary of an ME school teacher was Rs 30 in 1932, the pay scale for a lecturer of Cotton College in 1929 was Rs 175-325, the salary of an LMP doctor was Rs 75 per month in 1939, etc., and various other information are found in advertisements.
The notion of some historians of Assam that the Assamese people were not keen on saving money is challenged by these non-conventional sources of information, like the advertisements of 14 banks and 27 insurance companies published in the newspapers. The frequency and sizes of these advertisements prove that the establishments did good business in Assam. Probably, advertisements are the only source that informs us that the Railways organised package tours called Tirtha Bhraman for the people of Assam – covering many holy places of India. Precious information like the arrangement of a Haj pilgrimage by a private company Mughal Line can also be seen only in advertisements.
Publication of a legal notice relating to the Income Tax Act, 1922 provides us with first-hand information about the tax and tariff system as well. Advertisements are closely linked to consumer psychology and, hence, the advertisers always depict something in their ads that is acceptable to the society their consumers belong to. Moreover, to exploit this psychology, the advertisers use some local socio-cultural elements in their ads. Hence the advertisements can also be regarded as a reflection of the local society and culture.
In those days, print media was the most convenient mode of disseminating information. Various socio-political organisations, educational institutions, etc., used ads as a tool for spreading their message. From the advertisements, one can also have an idea of the developments in the field of culture. Various advertisements of cultural activities were published regularly in the newspapers and magazines of colonial era Assam. In the initial period, when the people of the State first came to know about musical instruments like harmonium, accordion, tabla, violin, trumpet, etc., there were no local sellers of these instruments. The manufacturing companies and big sellers of these instruments advertised their products in the newspapers.
Assamese songs and drama became popular at that time through gramophone records. Legendary Assamese artistes like Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Kamalakanta Bhattacharyya, Phani Sarma, Bhupen Hazarika, Charu Bordoloi, etc., adopted this medium to reach the masses. The Sonala Music Company of Calcutta produced many records of Assamese songs, drama, comedy, etc. The company published an advertisement in 1939 wherein it mentioned the names of 14 records produced by the company. The Sonala Company published advertisements of a set of eight gramophone records on the life and works of Srimanta Sankaradeva. HMV also published advertisements of their products. One of the most important dimensions that become apparent through advertisements is that except for a few legends like Rabha, Jyotiprasad and Bhupen Hazarika, the names of other singers, who initially recorded songs in audio records of various companies, have been lost in obscurity. The ads, therefore, have become a very important source for highlighting the names of those singers, who have made immense contribution to the growth of Assamese culture.
(The writer is HoD, History, Jorhat College.)
