Hijam Irabot and His Collection of Poems

Oinam Manibabu Singh *

File Photo of Hijam Irabot at the inauguration of Chinga Meefam :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao / Kangla Facebook Group

Hijam Irabot once bloomed in the west ern side of Chinga Hill, which is one of the important historical places of Manipur. Though passed away long time back on the 26th September, 1951, nobody can forget his teachings and ideologies. He was torch bearer of the then Manipur.

Still today, he shines as the pole star in the garden of Manipuri literature. During his lifetime, the work of administration of Manipur was in the hands of the British with Manipuri kings reduced to only nominal heads. Nobody dared to speak against the defective administrative system of the then British ruler.

Jananeta Hijam Irabot's mind was all the time restless to think of his motherland. He tried to move heaven and earth to awaken up the consciousness of innocent people of Manipur.

Through public meetings and discussions, he pointed out to the people of Manipur that we were not goof to remain silent even though we were guided wrongly and imposed taxes unlawfully by the British administrators. He set forth through his journals, pamphlets and books that we, the people of Manipur should adopt non-co-operation movement against the British people. He did not like to use the cloths produced by the British. He wanted to use only the cotton cloths made by the Manipuri women weavers. He wished for the unity and co-operation among the people of Manipur. He even wrote lyrics for the encouragement of the farmers and for the solidarity of the youths of Manipur.

When circumstances demanded, he used to call the youths near hi, narrated important stories on the diplomacy of turning out the British people. Sometimes, he made them delighted with his comic speeches. He established many organizations for bringing a new order of society in which people can exist freely and achieve an ideal status in life. He started rebellions against exploitation and injustice in the society. Luckily or unluckily, he was compelled to lead the life of an underground with effect from 21st September, 1948 till the end of his life. He became a true and popular leader of the masses. In 1939, he led the historic Nupilal (Women's War) against economic exploitation.

Coming to discussion on his literary contributions, I would like to say something about his collection of poems entitled "Imagi Puja' (Prayer to Mother). This anthology of poems contains altogether 49 poems.

First of all, according to me, Hijam Irabot got a special style of writing. Just like a teacher teaching his younger students in the classrooms, we are taught valuable lessons through his poetry. Various experiences are reflected in the minds of the readers. We can collect important information from his poems. He did not express what he wanted directly like the modern poets. We are, firstly, motivated and carried to the land of his imaginative world.

We are given rest for some time and then a stream of beautiful words is poured into our ears. For instance, in his poem 'Imagi Puja', he carried us to his land of dream and conveyed his anxiety over seeing and knowing about the situation in his motherland Manipur while staying within the confined of the prison cell. He is a quotation of his beautiful rhyme-

'Who are you?... Who are you?
Calling mother and mother
In such a calm night of late hours!

Secondly, being a man who stayed long years outside Manipur, Hijam Irabot got various experiences of life. As a writer, he had his own style of comparison. His description of the rising of the sun is different from other poets. In his poem 'Dikhou', Irabot saw the rising of the sun as the bathing of the sun in clear water. It is taken to be similar with the bathing of saints in the holy water. In his poem 'The Sea', Irabot compared the moving and floating of the ship to the movement of ducks on the vast water surface of Loktak Lake.

Thirdly, some of his poems have similarity to some of the poems written by English poets. The way of his imagination in the poem 'If I were a bird' reminded us of William Cowper's imagination in the poem 'The solitude of Alexander Selkirk'.

Just like Swift and Poe, Irabot was also not afraid of satirising the colonial powers and he used irony to speak out against the feudal monarchical system in Manipur. Like John Donne, one of the famous metaphysical poets in English literature, Irabot used metaphors quite effectively in some of his poems. Like PB Shelly, Irabot used symbols in his poems profusely. These styles of his writing can be seen in the poems like 'Flag of Natshi', 'Can you bear the burden?', 'Civilisation', 'The Smiling of Bone' , 'O! The bank of Dikhou', 'Lizard', etc.

Fourthly, being a man frustrated over injustice in the society, Hijam Irabot was very much conscious of the frustrated lives. He could describe vividly the lives of the downtrodens. For instance, in the poem, 'O, They are!', 'Factory' etc, Irabot depicted the shocking and sorrowful living condition of the deprived workers. We feel very much shocked on reading the poem

'Factory' where he described:
"Oh, smoke stained heads
Smeared their lives with dust
......................................
Oh, World of smoke stained!

In the poem 'O, they are!', Irabot described farmers as being accompanying all the times with leeches and insects in the field. Some lines from the said poem are reproduced below -

"Sunlight makes than bath!
Living together with leeches,
Accompanying with insects!"

Moreover, some of his poems like 'Meiteileima' and' Imagi Puja' were devotional and patriotic in expression. In 'Meiteileima', the poet talked of his longing to sacrifice life for the betterment of his motherland and he emphasised that any kind of obstructions should be overcome for peaceful existence among the people in his native land. Irabot was unbearable to the pang of separation from his motherland. He wished forever to see his motherland even though he was lying behind the tall prison house of Sylhet.

Fiftly, as a poet, Irabot never broke the principle of rhyme in writing poems. In some of his poems, we find some loan words like 'Khallashi', 'Jamander', 'Jailor', 'Kripa', etc. He took references from religious books like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Moirang Kangleiron, etc. In the poems like 'Can you bear the burden?', 'So and so', 'Nam Mantra', etc, we came across such references.

Lastly, the poet described natural beauties in some of his poems like 'Sharat', 'Sakhangnaba', etc. 'Sakhangnaba' also got romantic elements. From the above discussion, we come to know that Hijam Irabot was not just a versatile and genius poet but also a pioneer who heralded renaissance in Manipuri literature, culture, theatre and social outlooks, etc.

To conclude, I present this tribute to the immortal leader of the people:

"O Father, Father of Nation
It is in the true sense
Nobody can deny it
Let your soul rest
In peace in Heaven forever."