Neither religious nor ideological differences posed much of a barrier for British Major General, Francis Jenkins (1793 – 1866) and Moni Phutuki, until death did them apart and quite literally so.
Currently, Jenkins’s grave is near the Guwahati railway station, about half a kilometre away from the Dighalipukhuri graveyard where his wife Phutuki was buried along with her brother Shekhawat Hussain and their parents.
The legend of their love – a Christian British major general marrying an Assamese Muslim girl – were still alive among those who lived in and around the Tayabullah Road until 2015 when Jenkins’s grandchildren wanted to visit their grandmother and could not find the grave among rubbles of half constructed buildings. A major part of the Shekhawati Kabarstan, named after its founder Shekhawat, is currently being encroached upon by one of the successors of the family.
“It was very shameful for us that Jenkins’s family members had come all the way from the United Kingdom to visit their grandfather and grandmother and left just visiting the former’s grave. They had plans to make documentaries and provide an aid for beautification of both Phutuki’s and Jenkins’s graves,” Sajjad Zaheer Hussain, one of the kins of Shekhawat said.
Jenkins, who sailed from Europe was appointed by East India Company in 1810 and appointed as the fifth chief commissioner of Assam in 1828. He is credited as the discoverer of Assam tea industry according to Dr SK Bhuyan’s book “Early British Relations with Assam.”
During his tenure in Guwahati, according to Ismat Alam (great-neice of Moni Phutuki), it was “love at first sight” for his granduncle (Jenkins) when he saw Phutuki (grandaunt).
“I heard the story from my mother. She told me that Moni Phutuki was a very beautiful woman and Jenkins got mesmerised by her beauty. Initially, her family members were not ready when he asked for her hand in marriage. But eventually, after several pleas by Jenkins, they agreed. After the marriage, she was called Phutuki Mem (short for madam, a title associated with British employees’ wives in India),” Alam said.
He added, “Since then, they were inseparable until 1866 when Jenkins died. He was not buried at the family graveyard as he had never converted to Islam. A few years later, Phutuki too died and was buried alongside her parents.”
After Jenkins’s family left empty handed, the Dighalipukhuri Kabarstan Suraksha Committee (DKSC) was formed by the kin of the same family to protect the graveyard.
The encroachment and the legal battle:
The Shekhawati Kabarstan, set on a patta land of 1 bigha, 1 katha and 3 lechas, contains the graves of some prominent figures of Assam such as freedom fighter Tayabullah, Mani Phutuki and many other eminent personalities of Dighalipukhuri area. But it is in dire straits today due to encroachment.
The land was earlier a private graveyard for Shekhawat’s family members since 1843 but later, after 1900, public burials were also conducted here which gave it a public graveyard status in 1992.
“After the Curzon Hall (presently the Nabin Chandra Bordoloi (NCB) Hall and Library) was built in 1900 to honour the visit of Lord George Curzon, the then Viceroy of British India, the Muslim people who were on the Dighalipukhuri side of the Hall started burial activities in this graveyard. Due to this reason, the circle office of the Kamrup (Metro) district administration recognised this grave as a public graveyard,” Zakeer Hussain, Vice President of DKSC said.
Hussain said that the first signs of land grabbing began in 2006 by one of the family members. The locals tried to protect the land when the land grabbers filed a case in the Court of the District & Sessions Judge, Kamrup and the committee responded through an appeal.
According to the Appeal, “…since the year 2006, land mafias have been continuously trying to grab the land of the Kabarstan. The local residents as well as other locality people had been consistently trying to protect the Kabarstan….on failing to take possession, the mafias have very recently filed a Land Grabbing Case (7/2016) under the Land Grabbing Act before the Court of the District & Sessions Judge, Kamrup against the committee (DKSC).”
Hussain said, “One of the grandsons of Shekhawat Hussain actually tried to grab the land. He is one of the patta holders by virtue of heredity. But since the land is now a public graveyard, he does not have any claim over it. Thus, his charges against us for claiming the land hold no ground. Still, he had put his claim over half the land and has constructed an establishment.”
However, last year, all the surviving family members of the Shekhawat family have signed a No Objection Certificate for this land to be converted into a public graveyard.
A plan for the parted lovers to meet again
Beautifying Moni Phutuki’s grave and building a memorial for Major General Francis Jenkins is among the priorities for the Dighalipukhuri Kabarastan Suraksha Committee (DKSC) once the disputes are settled in the Shekhawati Kabarstan.
The committee has decided to stop burial activities and convert this place into a symbol of love and as a recreational site.
“The Sarania Kabarstan in Ulubari is in the vicinity and one can bury there. This area will be developed into a memorial and recreational site,” Sajjad Zaheer Hussain, general secretary of the committee said.
He added, “Moreover, people do not know the history of this region (Dighalipukhuri area) and its contribution to the Indian freedom struggle and in building today’s Assam. Mohammad Tayabullah’s parents' grave are also here. But besides the road that is named after him, people hardly know much about the man,” Hussain added.
Tayabullah was the person mainly responsible for organising the annual general meeting of the Indian National Congress that was held in 1929 at the present Gauhati University here under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
“Due to a thunderstorm, the tents at the venue got destroyed. So, Tayabullah sold a part of his land at Tayabullah Road to SK Bhuyan (author of “Early British Relations with Assam”) to get money for arranging the meeting and make it a success. We still have a letter of condolence on Tayabullah’s wife’s demise from Bapu. We will make all of these public in the graveyard after the renovation,” Sajjad Zaheer Hussain, General Secretary of DKSC said.
