[6] The situation became especially tense in Nowgong, whose deputy commissioner at the time, Lieutenant Herbert Sconce, dealt peremptorily with mass protests outside his office.

Unable to make headway through discussions with the British bureaucracy, the farmers organized a meeting of their own, called raijmel (people's assembly), in which they conducted long debates culminating in a consensus on the next steps that was binding on all participants.

[1] Sconce ordered reinforcements to the area, and 13 additional policemen, including the Nowgong Daroga, arrived in Phulaguri on 16 October 1861.

The daroga reported its inability to make headway, and Sconce responded by sending Lieut G B Singer, Assistant Commissioner in Nowgong, with 20 more policemen.

He discussed the situation with their spokesman, Jati Kalita, telling him that the meeting was illegal, and the farmers could write a petition to the authorities on their issues.

In the ensuing melee, Singer tried to disarm a farmer called Mora Singh, when a fisherman, Babu Doom, struck him on the head with a lathi.

[1] Fortuitously for the British, Major Henry Hopkinson, the agent of the North East Frontier Governor General and Assam Commissioner, was in Tezpur, on board a steamer.

Learning of the uprising on 19 October, Hopkinson requisitioned the steamer and with the help of fellow-passenger Major Campbell, recruited a force from the 2nd Assam Light Infantry to leave immediately for Nowgong.