Assam has achieved a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of handwritten notes submitted for a common purpose. The authorities of the record keeping organization handed over the certificate to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at an event held in Guwahati today. Around 43 lakh handwritten essays on Lachin Borphukan were submitted by the people of Assam and everywhere else in the world.
A total of 42,94,350 handwritten notes on the Ahom general were submitted, which were put together to create the largest online photo album of handwritten notes, according to the website of Guinness World Records.
The essays were submitted as part of the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan after the govt of Assam had appealed to the people to pay tribute to the legendary Ahom army commander by writing essays on him as part of the celebrations. In November 2022, the Assam govt launched a portal as part of the initiative, where people from all across the world could upload their essays. Apart from the portal, a mobile app was also launched for this purpose.
People could write their essays on paper and upload the images of the handwritten essays, could type and print the essay and upload its scanned copy, or also had the option of directly typing on the portal. The essays could be written free-form, while the govt had also provided a pre-formatted booklet based on which the essays could be written.
Over 57 lakh essays on Lachit Borphukan were submitted during this initiative, but the Guinness World Records considered only the images of handwritten essays, as the title of the record is a photo album of the largest number of handwritten notes. Therefore, 42,94,350 handwritten essays among all the submissions were considered for the record, as the rest were scans of printed copies or directly uploaded text on the portal.
After the essays were submitted, they were thoroughly checked to confirm that they were not images of blank pages or pages with random text, and this verification was accepted by the authorities.
It is notable that when the essay initiative was launched, it was not started with the aim of creating any record. It was only an effort to get common people to participate in the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan. The fact that it may have created a record came up incidentally some time ago, during the preparation for an event specifically designed to create a Guinness record, the largest number of people dancing Bihu.
Assam govt is creating this record with over 11,000 people dancing the Bihu dance on April 14 this year, the first day of Bohag Bihu. Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Assam govt has invited all governors and all chief ministers in the country and the G20 representatives in the country to attend the event to be held in Guwahati. The record is aimed at popularising Bihu globally.
While working towards creating this record on Bihu dance, officials realised that Lachit Borphukan essays may have also created a record. When they contacted the Guinness World Records authorities, it was confirmed that it is indeed a world record.
After that, the representatives of the Guinness World Records verified the records, and handed over the certificate of the record to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma at an event in Guwahati.