Killed in police firing in the riots of 1960, Ranjit Barpujary was the first martyr of the language movement in Assam. Then it was Assamese language versus Bengali, a history which goes back to 1836 when the British had made Bengali the official language of undivided Assam. That conflict eased out only when Assamese was recognised as the official language of Assam in 1960.
