Born on October 10, 1896 at Jorhat, Assam, Jananayak Debeswar Sarmah was a front-ranking freedom fighter. A Gandhian to the core, he was drawn to the nationalist movement while he was a student of law in the Calcutta University in 1916. He graduated in 1920, and plunged headlong into the freedom movement, working as a law student he came into contact with volunteer at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. Also, during his days as a Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and a long-standing friendship developed between the two.

In 1921 he was imprisoned for three months for participating in the Non-cooperation Movement. Later, he served further jail terms, including one of about four years between 1940 and 1945. He was C-in-C of the volunteer corps of the Indian National Congress at Pandu in 1925. In 1927, he joined the bar at Jorhat but gave up in  1930-31 to join the Satyagraha Movement.

Sh. Sarmah entered electoral politics in 1937 and was returned to the Assam Assembly under the 1935 Act. He was also an architect, along with the then Congress President Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, in installing the first Congress Government in Assam in 1939. In 1946, he adorned the chair of the Speaker. In 1948, he was selected as the Dominion Agent in Manipur State. In 1952, he w as elected to the Lok Sabha. He was also a member of the Estimates Committee of the Lok Sabha for two successive years.

Debeswar Sarmah's contribution towards uplifting the downtrodden, the handicapped and development of education is immense. He established the School for the Blind in Jorhat, the Regional Research Laboratory, the Jorhat Engineering College, the Science College and the Jorhat Girls' High School and started the Assam Prakashan Parishad.

He is credited with establishment of a Hospital in Jorhat and setting up of the Assam Fly Club. He was also the founder of The Janambhumi Group of Publications which has three papers-the Dainik Janambhumi, the Weekly Janmbhumi and the English Daily, The Estern Clarion.

Debeswar Sarmah breathed his  last  on August 1, 1993 at Jorhat.

The Department of Post is happy to bring out a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion of birth centenary of Jananayak Debeswar Sarmah.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India