Life Timeline

Prof Tabu Ram Taid was born in a small village called Ghunasuti in erstwhile Lakhimpur district on August 1, 1942. His family had nine members: five brothers and two sisters, along with his parents. He was the sixth child. He completed his primary education from Ghunasuti Tamulsuk Primary school between 1946 to 1950.

The Great Assam Earthquake of 1950 changed the course of the river. Floods washed away his village, and his family was driven to penury. He was just 8 years old. Despite these severe hardships, he completed his matriculation from North Lakhimpur Higher Secondary School in 1958.

Prof Taid had to work extremely hard to complete his education. He had to take a long and arduous journey from his home to Narendrapur where he completed his BA in English.

The journey involved taking a ferry from Dhemaji to Neemati Ghat in Jorhat, a bus to Mariani Train Station, a train to Pandu Ghat in Guwahati, another ferry crossing, a train to Katihar, and then changing trains to reach either Howrah or Sealdah in Kolkata.

Although Prof Taid’s family could not bear the cost of his education, the Ramakrishna Mission at Narendrapur sponsored his post-matriculation education as he was a brilliant student. He graduated with honours in English from Calcutta University in 1963 and then earned an MA in English from Delhi University in 1966.

In 1974, he completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading, UK, and a certificate course in Distance Education at the University of London’s Institute of Education in 1982. To fund his MA, he worked as a teacher first in Assam and then in a school in Delhi. It was during one of his teaching assignments in Assam that he met his wife Basanti Chayengia (later Taid) in 1967.

After his MA in English, he taught in Dhemaji College, North Bank College, and Dhakuakhana College in 1966. He joined the prestigious Cotton College in 1967 and worked there for 14 years, four of which were as a professor. He was selected for the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1970 but was declared medically unfit; he would have been the first person from the plains tribes of Assam to join the civil services.

He joined as a Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DPI), Department of Education Assam in 1981, and rose to Joint DPI in 1989. He served as the Founding Director of the Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art & Culture (ABILAC) from 1990 to 1997, Director of SCERT (1993-97), Director of Higher Education (1995-96), and Chairman of the State Education Board of Assam (SEBA) from 1996 to 2002. He built up ABILAC as a premier research institute for indigenous languages.

Prof. Tabu Ram Taid was instrumental in making Mising a written language. He scientifically studied the language and its sound systems, bringing discipline to its orthography and spelling. His seminal works, including Mising Bhashar Banan Poddhoti (1983), the trilingual dictionary A Dictionary of the Mising Language (1995), and the vocabulary treasury Mising Gompir Kumsung (2010), standardized orthographic principles with Assamese and English equivalents.

He published nursery rhymes (Poman Moman, 1984), research papers in the Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area journal, and a compilation of Mising Folk Tales (Sahitya Akademi, 2013). He also played a key role in introducing Mising as a language subject in Assam schools in the mid-1980s.

Prof Tabu Ram Taid showed a keen interest in music since his school days. He wrote, composed, and sang folk songs, becoming the first solo Mising singer for All India Radio. He created Asi Jili Jiliko, the first Mising audio album, serving as music director, lyricist, and vocalist. It was released as an LP record in 1986.

Prof Taid also wrote the screenplay for the 1990 telefilm Miri Jiori, directed by Dr. Bhupen Hazarika. Dr. Hazarika had struggled with screenplay blocks for a long time until Prof Taid traveled to Gogamukh to write it. Prof Taid stayed on the set to oversee production and ensure Mising cultural accuracy was maintained.

In 1968, Prof Tabu Ram Taid along with researcher Nahender Padun set up the Guwahati Mising Kebang. In 1972, they founded the Mising Agom Kebang (Mising Literary Society or Mising Sahitya Sabha).

Guwahati Mising Kebang set the foundation for orthography and lexicography work. They experimented writing Mising using Roman and Assamese scripts. Prof Taid was the Founder President of the Mising Literary Society from 1972 to 1980, which published the first spelling guideline booklet in 1983. He also served on the regional committees of the Sahitya Akademi, National Book Trust, and the Education Reforms Commission of Assam (1993).

In recognition of his vast contributions to Mising language, literature, and the education sector in Assam, Prof. Tabu Ram Taid was conferred with numerous honors:

• Conferred the title ‘Agom Migang’ (Member of Parliament of Letters) by the Mising Agom Kebang in 2007.
• Awarded the prestigious Bhasha Samman Award by the Sahitya Akademi in 2010.
• Conferred the Sukapha Award (2011-12) by the Government of Assam.
• Awarded the Basudev Jalan Award (2012) by the Asam Sahitya Sabha.
• Awarded the Axom Shreshtho title in 2015 by The Telegraph.
• Awarded the Anundoram Borooah Award (2018) posthumously.

These personal photos document the private life of Prof. Tabu Ram Taid. They highlight his deep affection for his family, including his wife Basanti, his children Milindo and Miranda, and his travels across India (from the snows of Kashmir to the backwaters of Kerala).

Prof. Tabu Ram Taid passed away on August 17, 2019. He was laid to rest with state honors in his home district of Lakhimpur, leaving behind an indelible legacy as a scholar, teacher, administrator, and cultural hero of the Mising people.