Assam, Pincode-781001
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ndia Club was the brainchild of a few sports minded nationalist leaders in Guwahati. The pillars amongst them were Late Rai Bahadur KanakLal Barua, Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi and Late Dr. Harekrishna Das. During the British rule, there was one European Club for Tennis and other sporting activities, and was located at the site where the present Gauhati High Court is situated. It was a club exclusively for the Europeans, and only a few high-ranking Indians like Late Fakharuddin Ali Ahmed, the Ex-President of India and Late SudhindraNathDutta, the then IGP of Assam.
During that period, there were a lot of other Indian tennis enthusiasts, who wanted to play the game, but were barred from entering the European Club. So, they started working to give shape to an Indian Club in Guwahati.
On August 8, 1928, a group of sports enthusiasts, senior government officials, barristers, lawyers, Cotton College professors and merchants, assembled at a place, and drafted the provincial rules of the proposed Indian Club, Guwahati. Membership fee was set at Rs 10, while for outstation and provincial members, it was only Rs 5.
Rai Bahadur Kanak Lal Barua, who eventually became a powerful minister in the British regime, had requested senior government officers to recommend the lease of a land to the Indian Club.
On August 23, 1928, Dr. Jyotish Chandra Das, the then Chairman of Gauhati Municipality, and 36 other prominent Indians of Guwahati town, submitted a memorandum to the then Chief Secretary of Assam through the Commissioner of Assam Valley Division and Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup.
“An Indian Club in a town like Gauhati is a dire necessity and it’s want is keenly felt by all concerned. As an Indian gentleman, I am enlisted as a member, and on account of the dual capacity, in which I stand it is difficult for me to press the point adequately. European officers and planters all know the advantages of a club and I am sure one for Indian will be equally appreciated on the same grounds and will be a nucleus of exchange of good thoughts and advancement of fellow feeling along with personal recreation. I would hence recommend the case for favourable consideration,” the then Deputy Commissioner, S L Mehta, ICS, had written in his recommendation.
.H.W Bentinck, Commissioner of the Assam Valley Division was an active officer, and on December 4, 1928, he submitted the draft of the lease and a sketch of the proposed land to be handed over to the Indian Club to the Secretary, Revenue Department. At last, on January 8, 1929, Secretary of Revenue of Assam Government approved the proposal to lease 3 bighas of land (Dag no: 1695), a marshy jungle just behind the then DakBunglow to the Indian Club. Once the Indian Club got going, it became a popular hotspot for the Indians interested in tennis. In 1938 the name of Indian Club was changed to India Club.
The club was buzzing with tennis activities but World War II came as a big blow to the club. The British Army shut down the club and took possession of it on 8th August 1942. Dr. K. C. Barooah was the President and Sri DharanidharChoudhury was the Secretary of the Club at that time. But most unfortunately, Sri Choudhury lost his wife on 10th August i.e. two days after the Club was taken over by the military.
The British Army threw away all books and files from the Club and as Sri Choudhury was in mourning, he could not go to collect the papers. After completing the sraddha ceremony of his late wife, Sri Choudhury went to collect the papers. He found the bundles just thrown out and he could not find anything from the garbage. Thus the precious records from 1933 to 1946 of the Club were lost. The Club was again handed over to the management by the Garrison Engineer.
It is difficult to write the history of an institution without any records. Records are only available from 1966. The pre-war and post-war records till 1966 are not traceable.
Various ex-Presidents, ex-Secretaries and old guards were consulted and whatever little information was collected has been presented. Any part of the history which has been missed may be please excused.
From the verbal records till 1966, It was found that many luminaries like late B.P. Duara, late Dr. Jyotish Das, Dr. K. C. Barooah, Mr. Justice S. K. Dutta, Mr. Justice P. K. Goswami, Mr. Justice K. Lahiri, late Sri Nalini Kumar Das. Late Sri Bibekananda Bharali, late Sri Sarat Das, late Sri Phanidhar Dutta, Md, Omoruddin, late Ziauddin Yusuf, late Mr. Blankley, late Sri Shamsuddin Ahmed, late Joy Kanta Barooah, Sri, R. B. Kenny, Late Dr. Hiranya Chandra Bhuyan, Sri Tungabhadra Saikia, including veterans like Sri Premadhar Chou-dhury, Sri S. N. Das, Sri Hari Shivdasani, Prof. Raihan Shah, Dr. Jagadish Medhi, Sri Chidananda Das, Sri Punya Prasad Duara, late Iswar Bhuyan and many others played here and kept the light of the Club burning.
he Club house was built around 1966 with an amount of Rs. 1,500 received from the auction of a shed made by the military. Before that, the Club had a small house on the southern side, constructed by the then famed contractor Late Eda Khan. The then President late Nalini Das, who was an Income Tax Officer, enrolled five Rajasthani businessmen as life members an collected a tidy sum of Rs, 2,500 with which the old Club house was reconstructed. After the war, contractor Eda Khan earned enough money and all members pressed him to forgo his claim on balance dues from the Club. He agreed. Thereafter during Dr. K. C. Barooah's presidentship, the Club purchased a second-hand Billiard table at Rs. 400 from the Gauhati Telegraph Club, then dominated by the Anglo-Indian community.
The Land (3B 4K 10L) of the Club House was a perodicPatta Land and the then Secretary Sri S.N. Das, took the lead in making it a permanent Patta land and he was helped in this work by his relative, the then S.D.C. Sri AtulBarua, who became the President the Assam Sahitya Sabha later.
he Club can proudly claim to be the pioneer of organised Table Tennis,the Club purchased one left over TT Board from the British Army camp in the Botany Department of Cotton Coll¬ege in 1946. Late P. P. Duara and Late P. C. Das were then Assistant secretaries and the Club organised the first Table Tennis Competition in Guwahati. In the final, Late Salil Das became the champion, The AIR, Guwahati, gave the first running commen¬tary of sports by covering the final match played in the present Nabin Chandra Bardoloi Hall, Md. S. All and Md, Shahabuddin of Steamer Company were the Commentator and Umpire of the match respectively. Thereafter, the Club went to Shillong to play the first Inter-District type match with AIR Club, Shillong. That was the foundation of organised Table Tennis in Assam.
o encourage the sons of the members of the Club, a Junior section was opened in 1966. Some of the junior players were Messrs, Prasanta Das, Chittananda Bharali, Dr, Banajit Choudhury, Devajit Govinda Baruah, Dalim Gogoi, Dr. Ashim Choudhury, Pabitra Das, Siba Goswami, Bidyut Gos¬wami and Ashok Das. From the Juniors, Prasanta Das and Chittananda Bharali later became Assam Tennis Champions. Pabitra Das had gone to USA as Tennis Coach. Bidyut Goswami later on became the National Men's Champion. Other laurels were also won by some of the Juniors.
With the increase in pressure of more junior players, the then President Justice (Retd) P. K. Goswami took up the matter of developing the Stadium Tennis Club into a full-fledged ‘Juniors Club’. This was possible with the help and concurrence of the then AALTA President and Chairman of the Stadium Committee Sri R. G. Baruah. Thereafter the Junior section was aboli¬shed in our Club and all the Juniors started playing in Stadium Tennis Club.
he membership fees of the club had been increased from Rs. 5 per month to Rs. 50 per month then. Entry fees had been increased to Rs. 200 to a new member and life membership fees had increased to Rs. 2,000 due to the increase in expenses in running the Club. The Club was under occupation of the British army from 1941 to 1946. With the compensation of Rs. 10,000 received by the Club, the then Secretary late Bibekananda Bharali constructed another gravelled court, which is now known as Court No. 1. It was later converted into a flood-lit court to enable members to play in the winter.
n 1975. The enrollment fee was meager Rs. 50/- for the gentlemen playing tennis; the monthly subscription was Rs. 20/- and for the ones who did not swing the racket it was just Rs. 10/-. Presently, the admission fee quite contrary to the amount mentioned above is segregated into 3 categories - precisely General, Donor and Corporate, the fees being Rs. 1.5 lakhs.Rs. 3.5 Lakhs and Rs. 6 Lakhs respectively. The monthly subscription is Rs. 1000/- doesn't matter if you serve and volley or not. At that time for the tennis enthusiasts the morning hours, there were 3 clay courts. There was a passage through the 2 tennis courts that led to the Assam-type Club house, which eventually gave way to the palatial mansion that houses the club now. The 3rd court and the new club-house, presently used as a fitness center, were constructed in 1986.
As the nineties arrived, the club was faced with two major problems, one being the scarcity of water for the tennis courts and the second being non-payment of electricity bill by the tenant “FIGURETON”.The year 1992 was crucial in the history of the club, as under the initiative of P. G. Agarwal and other people of prominence, the boundary wall and the two tennis courts were renovated and the parking lot was shifted towards the wall demarcating the club from the RBI. Even the water problem was tackled by boring a deep tube well inside the premises. Mr. Swapan Das and Mr. J. M. Choudhury were the major force for the above developments.
In the year 1994, Dr. Jyotish Das was the General Secretary and Bijan Kumar Choudhuri was the tennis secretary. There were no lights in the club then inspite of the club committee pleading its heart out; “FIGURETON” had not cleared the dues of electricity. The club finally decided to go to the ASEB office and requested them to convert the payments into a long-term installment. The board finally consented and we payed them a whopping Rs. 1,63,000/- out of which the club could recover only Rs. 90,000/- from the tenant.
1998 witnessed the formation of a Development Committee presided by Mr. P. G. Agarwal as the chairman, Rahul Baruah, Bimal Bharali, JC Pegu, Prashant Das, Biresh Goswami and Bijan Kumar Choudhuri being the honorary members.
The first mission this committee accomplished was erecting floodlights on court no. 1 and 2 by spending Rs. 90,000/-. This money was collected from the members who were interested in playing under lights. They had to pay refundable amount of Rs. 7000/- as a security deposit to play under lights. Onto 1999, the bar was introduced for the club members in the Assam type house currently harbouring the fitness centre and we got our first canteen in a temporary shed behind court no. 2. Work for the swimming pool and the palatial mansion mentioned above commenced in 1998.
By the year 2000 members could take a dip in the pool and the ground floor of the mansion was accomplished. The revenue for such an endeavor was generated by allotting corporate and donor membership. The year 2003 witnessed the completion of the first floor of the new club house and the old bar was shifted to where it is now. And the Billiards table was laid in the New Building and the fitness centre was fitted in the Assam Type House. These developments heralded the dawn of a new era by 2005; the 2nd floor was completed and an elegant lobby found its place on the 1st floor. In a short while, India club would become the first of its kind to have an air conditioned restaurant and five guest rooms now extended to nine rooms on the second and third floor.
India Club has now become a cultural hub along with the sporting activities. Musical extravanzas of various genres be it Assamese, Western or Indian are organised on a regular basis. The club now boasts of its exclusive Ladies Wing and the ladies are very actively involved in multifaceted activities. The New Year’s Eve celebration in the club is the talk of the town and is the Grandest party in the City. Prominent Rock Bands of the country feature in the New Year celebrations. So it seems, what started as a small club catering tennis players, has transcended itself into an institution that clubbers all around the city desire.
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