We have all heard about Curzon Hall. It was Guwahati’s first community gathering hall, built with public money.
Till the 1900s there was just one public hall in the city - the Arya Natya Samaj and the Assamese intelligentsia greatly felt the need of more such spaces as the independence movement gathered momentum. In 1900, Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India (1898-1905) visited Assam. A committee was formed for the reception of the Viceroy with Manik Chandra Barooah and B.A. Jagannath Barooah as the office-bearers.
The committee collected Rs. 14,000, a substantial amount during those days. However, Manik Chandra Barooah felt that given the state’s economic situation, especially in the aftermath of the Great Earthquake of 1897, the whole amount need not be spent on momentary decorations and fanfare only. Instead, he wanted a simpler and sober ceremony and utilize the remaining budget in the construction of some permanent public utility that may be named in the Lord’s honour.
After meeting all expenditures of the reception ceremony, Rs. 6000 was saved from the budget. So, Manik Chandra Barooah expressed his desire to construct a much needed public hall and the idea was seconded by Jagannath Barooah and Rai Bahadur Bhuban Ram Das. With appreciation from the Chief Commissioner J.B. Fuller and Commissioner Henry Gordon a plot of land was found near the now Meghdoot Bhawan, Panbazar (the old dak bungalow) and construction started. Its construction was completed in 1903 and it was named the Curzon Hall. It also housed a public library.
Lord Curzon was immensely satisfied about this development and the place reportedly found mention even in the Viceroy’s dairy.
However, as Cotton College expanded, the authorities felt that the presence of a public gathering space adjacent to the educational institution was affecting the campus’s environment. So Manik Chandra Barooah purchased a plot opposite the Dighalipukhuri from the father of Maulana Md. Tayabullah.
So after 10 years of the old building, a new public hall was constructed near Dighalipukhuri, funded by the Assam government. A hall measuring 100 feet by 30.5 feet was made. In 1912, the public library shifted here, the old building continued to be used as the College’s library. The new building was named the Nabin Chandra Bardoloi Hall, as it was at that very place where Bordoloi gave the call to the students to boycott Cotton College during the national movement. However, Manik Chandra Barooah did not want it to be left only as a library but also as a museum to keep the old Assamese manuscripts, epitaphs of historic events etc.
The hall continues to be popularly known as the Curzon Hall, and has witnessed some of the major historic events in the city. When Henry Cotton revisited Guwahati in 1914 as the president of the Indian National Congress, the public reception was accorded to him in the hall. The educational conference demanding the establishment of a law college was held in the Curzon Hall in 1912. Rabindranath Tagore was also given a public reception in this hall when he came to Guwahati in 1919. The first formal University Committee demanding the establishment of the Gauhati University was formed in this very hall in 1935.
It has also seen many visionary luminaries like Subhash Chandra Bose, Jayaprakash Narayan, C.R. Das, C.F. Andrews, Ashutosh Mukherjee, amongst others who have delivered lectures.
