Gunabhiram Barua (1837-1894) was an enlightened Assamese intellectual who ushered in new ideas about social reform in the early years of colonial rule in Assam.
Schooled in Calcutta like many other Assamese after him and was deeply influenced by the intellectual opinions of the Bengal Renaissance. He was among the first few Assamese who formally entered the Brahmo Samaj and propagated the liberal ideas of Brahmoism through his writing.
After his first wife's death, his marriage with a Brahman widow, Bishnupriya Devi, created a sensation in the orthodox society of Assam. The first social drama in Assamese - Ram Nabami Natak - was written by Gunabhiram in 1857 and published as a book in 1870. The play tells the tragic story of a young widow and her lover Ram, both of whom were compelled to commit suicide because of social disapproval of their relationship.
He advocated the cause of women's education and also took the bold step of sending his daughter Swarnalata Devi to a boarding school in Calcutta when he was working in the small town of Nowgong in Assam as an Extra Assistant Commissioner.
Both Swarnalata and Bishnupriya were encouraged by him to write and publish their work. Gunabhiram himself is remembered as a historian and a biographer. He also wrote regularly on issues such as women's education and marriage reforms in the first Assamese journal Orunodoi, started by the American Baptist missionaries in 1846.
His only son Jnanabhiram Barua was a well known Bar at Law who participated in India's freedom struggle along with Satyanath Bora and Hemchandra Goswami.