Every generation has something to say. What it does not always have is a space where it can say it, be heard, be questioned and, perhaps most importantly, learn to question itself. In Assam, where conversations about identity, language, culture and society have always carried an unusual intensity, the need for such spaces is perhaps even greater. Yet meaningful platforms for young people often appear with enthusiasm and disappear with time. Some remain confined to a single occasion; others lose momentum after the initial excitement fades. Swadesh Swabhiman has followed a different trajectory. It has survived not because it remained unchanged, but because it has continued to grow with the young people who have carried it.
The idea took shape during the tenure of Kuladhar Saikia as president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha. Conceived with the younger generation at its centre, the initiative was never intended to be simply another public-speaking programme. Its deeper intention was to cultivate a habit of thought. Young people were encouraged to select subjects of their own choosing, investigate them, develop an argument and then stand before an audience to defend what they had found. At the centre of this process emerged ‘Axom Kotha Got’, a collective of young people who gradually became not just participants in the initiative but its custodians, carrying its work forward through their own collective efforts.
There is something deceptively simple about the format of Swadesh Swabhiman. A young speaker gets five minutes. Five minutes to take an idea that may have occupied days or weeks of reading and thinking and make it understandable to another person. Five minutes to decide what matters and what does not. Then come the questions. That is where the exercise becomes more interesting. A speech can be memorised; an argument has to be understood. A prepared presentation can conceal uncertainty; a question can expose it. The format therefore quietly teaches a lesson that extends far beyond public speaking: if you want to speak about something, you must first be willing to know it.
Over the years, the subjects that have emerged from this platform have been remarkably varied. History, literature, language, communities, the environment, the economy, culture and contemporary society have all found their way into these conversations. Some speakers have looked backwards, attempting to understand the Assam that existed before them. Others have looked at the Assam they inhabit today, with all its contradictions, anxieties and possibilities. There have been conversations about achievements that deserve recognition and questions that remain uncomfortable precisely because they have not yet been resolved. Taken together, these subjects form something larger than a collection of speeches. They create a constantly changing portrait of Assam, assembled not by one author but by many young voices.
And perhaps that is where the initiative’s real character becomes visible. Swadesh Swabhiman has never depended entirely upon a single stage. It has moved from place to place, entering different institutional and social spaces and meeting young people who may otherwise never have encountered such a platform. Every new location has altered the conversation in some way. A new audience brings new questions; a new group of speakers brings unfamiliar experiences; a new setting changes the way an idea is heard. The initiative eventually travelled beyond Assam as well, reaching Shillong and later New Delhi. These journeys carried more than a programme from one city to another. They carried conversations about Assam into spaces beyond the immediate geography of the state.
There is another aspect of Swadesh Swabhiman that is easy to overlook because it happens away from the stage. The young people involved are not merely speakers waiting for their turn at the microphone. They participate in organising the programmes, discussing decisions, coordinating activities and taking responsibility for the functioning of the initiative. There is no elaborate hierarchy separating those who decide from those who participate. The work is collective. This makes the initiative, in its own small but meaningful way, an exercise in democratic participation. A young person learns that a platform does not simply exist for them; sometimes, they have to help build and sustain it.
This distinction matters. Speaking before an audience teaches confidence, but organising an event teaches responsibility. Answering a question develops intellectual agility, but working collectively develops patience and negotiation. Choosing a topic encourages curiosity, while listening to another person’s argument teaches restraint. In this sense, Swadesh Swabhiman’s education happens as much outside the five-minute speech as within it.
Its openness is equally important. The platform brings together young people from different communities and backgrounds, allowing ideas rather than political allegiance to determine the terms of conversation. At a time when public discourse can so easily become divided into camps, the value of a space where people can disagree without becoming adversaries is considerable. The presence of established thinkers, intellectuals and public figures adds another dimension. Young speakers are not only given an opportunity to present their ideas; they are also placed in conversation with people whose experiences and intellectual journeys are considerably longer than their own. The exchange moves in both directions. The young learn from the experienced, while the experienced encounter the questions and concerns of another generation.
The most convincing measure of such an initiative, however, cannot be counted in applause. It lies in what happens to the people who pass through it. Many of those who first appeared on the platform did so as students, sometimes standing before an audience with the uncertainty that accompanies any first attempt. With repeated participation came greater confidence, sharper arguments and a stronger command of their subjects. Some have gone on to pursue higher education at institutions within India and abroad; others have found their paths in different professional fields. Their individual journeys may no longer have much to do with the stage on which they first spoke, but the confidence to stand there in the first place remains part of the story.
On 1 August this year, Swadesh Swabhiman completed its twenty-fifth edition at Sangeetacharya Lakshmiram Barooah Sadan in Guwahati. Twenty-five is, of course, only a number. But numbers acquire meaning when placed against the reality of how difficult it is to sustain collective initiatives over time. The twenty-fifth edition therefore represents more than the completion of another programme. It marks years of preparation, participation, disagreements, cooperation, travel, research, conversations and, above all, persistence. The young members also brought out a commemorative volume carrying the name Swadesh Swabhiman, giving the silver jubilee edition a form that could outlive the event itself.
There is a tendency to measure intellectual initiatives by their immediate visibility: how large the gathering was, how prominent the speaker was, or how much attention the programme received. Swadesh Swabhiman offers a quieter measure. Its significance lies in the accumulation of small transformations. A student who learns to research a subject before speaking about it. A hesitant speaker who gradually finds confidence. A question that forces someone to reconsider an assumption. A young organiser who discovers that leadership is less about authority and more about responsibility. A conversation that begins in one room and continues long after the programme has ended.
The original idea may have been to give young people a platform, but the platform itself has changed through their participation. It has travelled geographically, expanded intellectually and matured organisationally. What began as an exercise in public speaking has become something much more difficult to define and perhaps, therefore, much more valuable. Because ultimately, the purpose of a platform for young people should not be merely to teach them how to speak well. It should teach them when to speak, what to speak about and why their words matter. It should make them curious enough to research, confident enough to question, humble enough to listen and courageous enough to reconsider what they thought they knew.
Swadesh Swabhiman, at its best, attempts precisely this. It does not simply place a microphone before a generation. It places that generation in conversation—with ideas, with history, with society, with one another and with the Assam they have inherited and will eventually shape. And perhaps that is the journey worth celebrating: not the journey from one edition to twenty-five, but the journey from finding a voice to discovering what that voice can do.
Pratyashee Priya is a young writer based in Guwahati. She can be reached at [email protected].