Kuladhar Saikia | |
---|---|
Director General of Police | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1959 Rangia, Kamrup, Assam, India |
Children | Aranyak Saikia |
Education | Post Graduation, Doctorate |
Alma mater | Delhi School of Economics, Pennsylvania State University, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati |
Occupation | DGP, Assam-Meghalaya cadre |
Awards | President's Police Medal, Katha Award, Sahitya Akademi Award |
Kuladhar Saikia, is an ex officer of Indian Police Service who had retired in 2019 as Director General of Police [1] [2] at Guwahati has been involved in issues relating to Community Development and Community Policing. He was awarded President's police medals twice for his outstanding contribution to policing. He was the initiator and Nodal officer of Assam Police community empowerment initiative called “Project Prahari”. [3] and one of the founders of Economic Policy Research group called Assam Prakalpa. He was awarded the prestigious Katha Award in 2000 and Sahitya Akademi Award in 2015 for his short stories. He was elected President of Asam Sahitya Sabha in January 2020. [4]
A three-part case series had been published by Harvard Business Review titled, "Being a Change Agent" [5] set in a rural district of Assam in India. It describes the efforts made by Kuladhar Saikia, then Deputy Inspector General of Police in the early 2000s, to tackle witchcraft-related crimes that were prevalent in this isolated and economically backward part of the country. Determined to end the social evil that still haunts rural and backward areas of Assam, Saikia's initiative and perseverance has resulted in raising awareness about the scourge of witchcraft that is often used bizarrely to settle personal scores and land disputes in villages. [6]
Kuladhar Saikia initiated the project in 2001 by running campaigns involving village chiefs and elders, said the involvement of entire communities and the lack of evidence due to the fear of being ostracised had made the task of apprehending the culprits quite challenging. Project Prahari has brought together different stakeholders – student groups, science clubs, mahila samitis and other social activists on a common platform. [7]
Saikia is the president of Asam Sahitya Sabha and he has appealed on social media to contribute to the field of Assamese Wikipedia as well as various methods for the preservation of the Assamese language in digital plateform.This has helped many people to learn about the Assamese Wikipedia and many interested people to create accounts on Wikipedia. [9]
Bhabendra Nath Saikia was a novelist, short-story writer, editor and film director from Assam, India. Saikia received his doctorate in physics from the University of London. He began his career as a reader in the Department of Physics, University of Guwahati. He later played an important role in the publication of college level textbooks in the Assamese language during his tenure as the Secretary of the Co-ordination Committee for production of textbooks in regional languages.
Lakshminath Bezbarua was an Assamese poet, novelist and playwright of modern Assamese literature. Commonly known as father of Assamese Short story .He was one of the literary stalwarts of the Jonaki Era, the age of romanticism in Assamese literature with his essays, plays, fiction, poetry and satires, he gave a new impetus to the then stagnating Assamese literary caravan.
Hem Barua was a prominent Assamese poet and politician from Assam.
Arupa Kalita Patangia was born in 1956 and is an Indian novelist and short story writer and known for her fiction writing in Assamese. Her literary awards include: the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad award, the Katha Prize and the Prabina Saikia Award. In 2014, she received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for her short stories book named Mariam Austin Othoba Hira Barua. Her books have been translated to English, Hindi, and Bengali. Her works touch upon Assamese history and culture, addressing the lives people from middle and lower income brackets, and focus specifically on concerns of women, violence, and insurgency.
Rebati Mohan Dutta Choudhury was a noted Assamese litterateur, Sahitya Akademi Award winner and an academic from Gauripur in Assam, India. Popularly he is known as Sheelabhadra, his pen name.
Nabakanta Barua was a prominent Assamese novelist and poet. He was also known as Ekhud Kokaideu. As Sima Dutta he wrote many poems in his early life.
Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya was an Indian writer. He was one of the pioneers of modern Assamese literature. He was the first ever Assamese writer to receive the Jnanpith Award, which was awarded to him in the year 1979 for his novel Mrityunjay (Immortal), followed by Indira Goswami in 2001. He was also a recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award in Assamese in 1961 for his Assamese novel Iyaruingam, which is considered a masterpiece of Indian literature. In 2005, a translation of the work published by Katha Books with the title Love in the Time of Insurgency was released. Another famous novel written by Bhattacharya is Aai (Mother).
Ambikagiri Raichoudhury (1885–1967) was an Assamese poet, lyricist, singer, powerful prose writer, news worker, magazine editor, patriotic, social-worker and the leading freedom fighter of India's freedom struggle. He is known as Assam Kesari. He was elected president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha in 1950.
Arun Sarma was a writer of Assam. Arun Sarma was one of Assam's contemporary playwrights and is particularly known for his unconventional plays with some elements of drama. Besides drama, he also authored over six novels detailing the Assamese way of life. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2010 in recognition of his contributions to Assamese literature. He has also been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 for the novel Ashirbadar Rong. He has won the Asam Sahitya Sabha's Best Playwright Award for two consecutive years and also has the rare distinction of having won the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2003 for his contributions to drama and the Sahitya Akademi award in 1998 for literature. He was also the recipient of the Assam Valley Literary Award in 2005.
Dr. Dhrubajyoti Bora, a medical doctor by profession, is a Guwahati-based Assamese writer and novelist. In a literary career spanning around three decades he has published many critically acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction including more than twenty four books – Novels, monographs on history, travelogues, collection of articles etc. Most notably, he was honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009.
Mahim Bora was an Indian writer and educationist from Assam. He was elected as a president of the Assam Sahitya Sabha held in 1989 at Doomdooma. He was awarded most notably the Padma Shri in 2011, the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2001 and the Assam Valley Literary Award in 1998. Assam Sahitya Sabha conferred its highest honorary title Sahityacharyya on him in 2007.He also participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942 held in Kaliabor town in the Nagaon district of Assam.
Nagen Saikia is an Indian writer. He was formerly a professor of Dibrugarh University. Saikia had also been a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1986-1992 and was the vice-chairman of the Upper House from 1990-1992. Saikia started his career as a teacher and went on to serve in different reputed institutions in various categories. He also delivered lectures on various topics about Assamese literature, including in the US and England. He has published numerous literary essays, short stories, novels, books and articles, to his credit. Saikia was conferred with the Sahitya Akademi award in 1997 for his short stories collection Andharat Nizar Mukh and was honoured by the Mohan Chandra Sahitya Sabha in 1980 for Chinta aru Charcha. He was conferred the Fellow of Sahitya Akademi, the highest honour conferred by the prestigious Literary body of the Nation, the Sahitya Akademi on the most distinguished Indian writers.
Professor Maheswar Neog was an Indian academic who specialised in the cultural history of the North East India especially Assam, besides being an Assamese-language scholar and poet. He was a top Indologist, and his work covers all disciplines of Indian studies, folk-lore, language, dance, history, music, religion, drama, fine arts, paintings, historiography and hagiography, lexicography and orthography, epigraphy and ethnography. His research includes multi-dimensional features of Vaishnava renaissance in Assam through Srimanta Sankardev, Madhabdev, Damodardev, Haridev, Bhattadev and other Vaishnava saints of Assam.
Chandra Prasad Saikia (1927–2006) was a writer from Assam, India. He was the president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha held at Hajo and Jorhat district, Assam in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Saikia was born on 8 July 1927 in Jalukgaon, Jhanji in Sivasagar district, Assam. After having primary education in Sivasagar he had left for Kolkata for higher education.
Dr. Dinesh Chandra Goswami is an Assamese writer and winner of the Sahitya Akademi's Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2014.
Nirupama Borgohain is an Indian journalist and novelist in the Assamese language. She is a Sahitya Akademi award winner, best known for her novel Abhiyatri. In the year 2015, she decided to return her Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the rising intolerance in the society. She was a recipient of the Assam Valley Literary Award.
Karabi Deka Hazarika is an Indian writer from the state of Assam in Northeastern India.
Surjya Kanta Hazarika is an Assamese litterateur, an eminent scholar, author, journalist, poet, publisher, playwright, lyricist, composer, cultural activist, feature film and documentary maker, social worker and philanthropist. Hazarika is a recipient of the Padma Shri Award in 2008 for his contribution to Literature & Education. He is the current president of Asam Sahitya Sabha.
Suchibrata Roychoudhury was an Assamese litterateur and poet, and the first female Judicial Magistrate of Assam as an Assam Civil Services officer. She received the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize in 2001 for translating Suvira Jaiswal's The Origin and Development of Vaishnavism in India.