Troubled Homeland: "Angst for homeland" in Tattooed With Taboos
- Part 1 -

Dr. Ph. Jayalaxmi *

"Tattooed with Taboos" - An anthology of poetry by (Chaoba Phuritshabam, Shreema Ningombam and Soibam Haripriya) was released at Imphal on September 09, 2011 :: Pix - Chaoba Phuritshabam

Manipur has witnessed the rise of violence that remained unresolved for many years. Generally when we discuss the writings emerging during this era we cannot overlook the lurking violence that shapes the mental frame of the writers. Poetry has become one of the popular genres through which the writers from the violence-affected areas have taken recourse to as a purgative consolation.

This present paper discusses the yearning for the lost homeland due to the violence, the loss of innocent childhood, the nostalgia for the memorable past, and the fractured identity in the section "Angst for Homeland" in 'Tattooed with Taboos: An Anthology of Poetry (2011) by Three Women from North-East India namely - Chaoba Phuritshabam, Shreema Ningombam, and Soibum Haripriya. These young poets belong to the group of writers who write in English or are bilingual.

They are educated outside Manipur and most of their writings reflect their vexations regarding the deteriorating condition of their homeland called Manipur due to conflict. "Angst for Homeland", the second sub-section in this collection of poetry, generally evinces the disenchantment owing to the violence prevalent in the region which disrupts the political, economic, and social system. In the introduction, they have written:

'Angst for Homeland' looks at the dying landscape of a land of belongingness and seeks truth that seems like a mirage of oasis in wilderness. The predicament is of an emotional flux of our inability to love or hate; embrace or reject this land that we call home. [Chaoba and inter alia, 2011: ii]

The shifting perception of home, from a place of protection which provides shelter, care, safety, and security to the place of hostility, aggression, and death which disorient the tranquil existence, is being described here.

In the contemporary Manipuri poetry, we could discern the imageries suggesting to the menace of gun owing to the escalating armed struggle and its repercussion on the ordinary people who are trapped in-between the two potent forces. In the words of Robin S. Ngangom, the aftermath of the Second World War has transformed the medium of Manipuri poetry.

The poets shift from the theme of romanticism in the pre-independence era to the realistic depiction of society where there is "a loss of traditional values in human affairs, the tyranny of those who wield economic and political power, rootlessness, dispossession, fragmentation of home, and family,' and so forth. These are some of the shared experiences which many writers from this part of region have in common. While talking about the predominance of motifs in the contemporary poetry, Robin Ngangom states the Manipuri poetry is replete with the images of 'bullets, blood, mother, the colour red and paradoxically flowers too' [Robin, 2011: 297-299].

The Northeast India is understood by the mainstream India as the 'other' culture with its history of armed conflict. The incorporation into India has led to the emergence of various separatist crusades and often 'the presence of a common enemy – India - often generated a degree of cohesiveness and a sense of shared destiny within these generic identities' [Bhaumik, 2009: 2]. Manipur that forms a part of these diversified eight states is considered one of the most conflict-ridden regions. The recurrent motifs of Manipuri contemporary poetry are interwoven with violence, bloodshed, atrocities, and other numerous issues related to the imposition of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958).

It may not be wrong to say that this draconian law is accredited as the root cause for many quandaries which persistently provoke violence. This inhuman law that resorts to fake encounters and inhuman activities results in the mass protest and the famous fast unto death of Irom Sharmila. Due to these factors, Manipur has become an insignia of the anti-AFSPA movement. As Shruti Pandalai has rightly enunciated: One cannot also shake off the memory of the Meira Pabi movement in 2004, where 12 Manipuri women stripped in front of the Kangla Fort, the then headquarters of the Assam Rifles, shouting: 'India army come and rape us all'—a dramatic protest to draw the attention of India and the world to the alleged abuse of AFSPA in the Northeast. As one recalls these episodes - the emotions that arise are contempt, distrust, helplessness and anger against the security forces. These emotions colour perceptions and with story after story these perceptions become belief systems. [Pandalai, 2013: 90]

Now AFSPA has become one of the belief systems of Manipur and it has ingrained profoundly in the consciousness of every Manipuri. The perpetual confrontation between the state forces and the non-state forces has become the essence of literature from the war zone. The ceaseless violence has made the home, the troubled home where people run for safe haven.

The troubled homeland suggests the tumultuous situation prevalent in the conflict-ridden region that has swallowed the subsistence of common people in the place called home which brings only restlessness and pandemonium of dead souls. The homeland mythology includes the cultural narrative of the magnificent past but for the children stemming from the violent area the mythology of homeland embraces the uncertainty, callous laws, fake encounters, rapes, violation of human rights, and many other apocalyptic movements. These three poets emphasize the sinking feelings which are ensnared in the labyrinth of conflict, violence, bloodshed, and rising crimes against women and men in the armed struggle.

Another significant aspect of their poetry is the intertwining of the nostalgic home with the excruciating past that affects the semblance of their present circumstances. Why is memory so important? While talking of the memory, Temsula Ao, in her preface to 'These Hills called Home: Stories from the War Zone', has encapsulated the importance of memory of the past and its remembrance to the people who are living in the conflict precinct. She says, 'Memory is a tricky thing; it picks and chooses what to preserve and what to discard… memories are often sifted (filtered) through an invisible sieve and selections are made, of both the good and the bad, either to be preserved or discarded'.

She further questions what about the memories of people whose experience is of pain and pain alone. With the intention of compensating the lost lives or to learn about the pain of a fellow human being it seems pertinent to 're-visit the live of those people whose pain has so far gone unmentioned and unacknowledged" [Temsula Ao, 2006: ix]. Many people may disown the painful history but it reverberates in the terror lore. Ao has rightly pointed out that "in such conflicts, there are no winners, only victims and the results can be measured only in human terms" [ibid. x].

The conflict has created a nihilistic feeling in which people have lost the valid sense of existence. When the homeland is created out of broken and fractured images of the thing of the past, it disorients the subject position of the individual. In that situation, they entangle between the past and the present thereby leading to anxiety and in order to overcome that anxiety they have started re-imagining or recreating their homeland by means of 'memory but also memory's stepchild, nostalgia' [Walder 2011: 49]. Dennis Walder has given the relationship with nostalgia (past) and future (present).

He comments that: The dynamic of memory is that its existence is always in the present, even as it struggles to reclaim the past: this means that it constantly acts as a drain on the future, which cannot be imagined without reference to the past. [Ibid., 139]

The poems of these three writers demonstrate how memory and nostalgia grasp their existence on the individual level and facilitate in visualizing the bleak future. Remembrance of the past often intermingles with the disintegrated social realities of the present time. Memory interpenetrates the present thereby blurring the gap between the past and the future. When the dynamism of memory is lost it leads to the breakdown of the land of dreams which is lying before us with no certainty, no harmony but only affliction.

Nostalgia and memory of the past existence help the writers in chronicling the indelible past that is burdened with painful history. The nostalgia for the homeland often provokes the imaginary homeland where they lived their childhood without fear and terror. Despite the abhorrence of the not so convincing life at the homeland which becomes a home for ethnic conflict, degrading law and order situation, the corruption, the political subjection, the repression of the struggle for right to self determination, social and economic neglect, the writers often look back at his/her homeland. However, their vision is often blurred with memory that is no longer part of the present. While looking back at their memory, it reminds them of the conflict, the old scars, and bitterness. Thus, the nostalgia for the glorious past and bountiful nature has been the recurrent themes. The yearning for lost homeland, myths, love, and hills, are some of the motifs. The sense of nostalgia persuades their poetic imagination to visualize what they have lost in the route to modernity.

What enhances the pathos of human lives is they fail to comprehend the interrelationship between man and nature. The use of natural setting and imageries to show the impact of violence on the natural environment and human existence has rendered a new poetical sensibility that addresses the human predicament in a poignant manner. What happens when one fails to relate to the environment that is an essential part of our existence? Ecopoetics which means the place or home for dwelling proposes that 'we must hold fast to the possibility that certain text marks called poems can bring back to our memory humankind's ancient knowledge that without landmarks we are lost' [Bate, 2000: 175].

Natural landmarks are part of our identities and the amelioration of natural habitat would mean the destruction of identity marker. Ecopoetics goes beyond the nature poetry. Christopher Arigo explains that 'much of ecopoetry being written seems to take place more in the realm of the innovative, as opposed to more mainstream poetries. Perhaps, this is because innovative poetries are loci of resistance to mainstream poetic practices (and values) which presumably reflect larger social paradigms. Thus, innovative practices and ecological thinking/being/feeling combine to produce a site of resistance, of politics, of political resistance' [Ibid., 3].

Therefore, poetry merging from the conflict-torn area focuses on the resistance to violence and politics by infusing the metaphors of natural/ecological descriptions. The ecopoetry not only talks about the nature poetry but it also conjures up the symbolism of displacement of home and annihilation of the environment. The ecopoetics accounts for the poetics of pathos on the loss of metaphorical nature which is the habitation of human beings. It intones how the annihilation of nature leads to the loss of human lives.

Greg Garrard, the famous environmental and ecocritical critic has rightly touched upon the modern environmentalism concern that originates with 'A Fable for Tomorrow' by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) which expresses the angst for the lost environment. Carson's fairy tale opens with the words: There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above green fields. [Carson 1962]

He talks about the landscape of America with the great ferns, wildflowers, beautiful roadside, countless birds, houses, etc thereby 'invoking the ancient tradition of the pastoral… concentrating on images of natural beauty and emphasizing the 'harmony' of humanity and nature that 'once' existed' [Garrard 2004: 1].

Suddenly the pastoral peace has been disturbed and it leads to catastrophic destruction. Carson continues: Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community; mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. [Opcit., Carson]

A strange and mysterious malady has swept the land thus ruining the peaceful existence. This very fable will soon be the anecdote of Manipur's landscape as well. In the Manipuri poetry, we could find the image of crumbling and degeneration of natural environment that makes the writers to write about the idyllic past. The celebration of ecological grandeur of the region is reminiscent of the absence of the tranquil and serene pastoral life. In addition to it, the symbol of death is juxtaposed with the dying landscape to envision the apocalyptic and grotesque world with its impending end.

Along with the memory of the glorious past, the quintessential characteristic that enhances their poetic creation is the suffusion of the grieving mother in the form of nature imagery. The metaphorical image of the dilapidation of nature exemplifies the annihilation of the equilibrium of human chain due to conflict and its resultant impact on its inhabitants and environment at large. Consequently, like other ecocritical poetry, their poems put across the concern for the environmental degradation in the wake of war, violence, technology, counter-insurgency, etc.

Shreema Ningombam - Read Poem written by Shreema Ningombam here
Soibam Haripriya - Read Poem written by Soibam Haripriya here
Chaoba Phuritshabam - Read Poem written by Chaoba Phuritshabam here


(To be continued) ...