Hijam Irawat and political movements in Manipur and the Surma valley
- Part 2 -

Dr R.K. Sanajaoba Singh *

Lamyanba Hijam Irabot - A rare photo : Wallpaper

Irawat's activities in the Surma Valley were multi-faceted and manifold but were linked organically. His activities in the Surma Valley may be categorized as follows :-
(i) Political and kisan work,
(ii) Cultural activities,
(iii) Women's organization.
(i) Political and kisan work

Communist leaders of Sylhet consulted with central and provincial leaders (i.e. Bengal Provincial Committee) and decided that Irawat should stay and work in the Manipur-dominated areas of the Surma Valley, particularly in the Cachar district..

Hijam Irawat and political movements in Manipur and the Surma valley

Irawat went to all Manipuri villages in Cachar district as well as Sylhet district. Staying at Silchar, he did a lot of work to strengthen the Kisan Sabha. Its mass influence grew as Irawat took up kisan work in Cachar.

In 1943 Irawat attended the seventh All India Kisan Conference at Bhakna Kalan in the Punjab Province (2-4 April 1943) as a member of delegation of the Surma Valley Kisan Sabha. Among many resolutions the seventh Conference offered greetings to the heroic Red Army of the Soviet Union and pledged its support to the people of China in their war against Japanese imperialism.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) called upon all the kisans
(a) to unite in a campaign for Gandhi's release,
(b) to strive for a common effort to solve the food crisis and to organize a campaign for unity between the Hindus and the Muslims.

In respect of tenancy, the AIKS demanded that uniform legislation be adopted by all provincial government to prevent harassment and exploitation of tenants.

The Bhakna Kalan session also passed a resolution on the war-time situation in Manipur, manifestly on the initiative of Irawat. The AIKS referred to the intense suffering faced by the Manipuri people resulting from the Japanese bombings, evacuation of civil populations without arrangement of settlements, closure of local markets, steep rise in the price of rice, threat of dearth of bullock owing to large-scale purchase of cattle for the Army.

In order to alleviate the sufferings of the kisans and the people of Manipur State, the AIKS demanded that immediate remedial measures be adopted and urged on United Powers to see that this was done so that the popular rear of their troops facing the Japanese might be strengthened.

Being invited by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (CPI0, Irawat attended the First Congress of the CPI held in Bombay on 23 May- 1 June 1943. During the Congress itself he offered his application for membership of the Party.

After returning from the Bombay Congress, Irawat stayed in the Patharkandi region of Karimganj Sub-Division and built up the kisan organization. Men and women in large numbers thronged to hear the messages of awakening and struggle from him. In a very short period the entire region seemed prepared for greater struggle. Beginning with local demonstrations in the Patharkandi region, struggles were unfolded in the entire Karimganj Sub-Division.

In the early part of 1944 Irawat left Patharkandi for Silchar. Staying in the party office of Silchar, he organized the Kisan Sabha in the Barak Valley and started building the peasants' movement. In the Cachar District Conference at Katakhal village , Irawat was elected President of the Cachar District Kisan Sabha.

Irawat attended the eighth session of the AIKS held in Bezwada (now Vijayawada) in Andhra Pradesh in March 1944. The Bezwada session demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of the Congress Working Committee. Resolutions were also passed on Grow-More-Food, food procurement policy, extensive transfer of land leading to landlessness and destitution of kisans in the famine-affected areas and its restoration to them etc.

After the Bezwada conference, Irawat was deeply engaged in the Anti-fascist and Anti-Japanese campaign as also Grow-More-Food campaign in the Cachar district in accordance with the resolutions of the said session. However, the British government harboured suspicion on Irawat and other leaders on the basis of a rumour spread by the Japanese agents that they collaborated with Netaji Subhaschandra Bose who allied with the Japanese. In September 1944 he was arrested and detained at Silchar jail for four months.

Ten of his co-workers were also arrested and detained. The Central Kisan Council held at Calcutta on 30 November-3December 1944 demanded the release of Irawat , the veteran kisan leader of Manipuris both in the Surma Valley land in his home state of Manipur, who was then in detention without trial.

After release from the Silchar jail, Irawat was elected President of the Surma Valley Kisan Sabha (SVKS). As President he led a delegation of the SVKS to the ninth session of the AIKS held in Netrakona (now in Bangladesh) on 5-9 April 1945. He participated in the deliberations during daytime and at night he took part in the cultural programme.

In February 1946 a general election to the Asssm Proviincial Legislature was held. The Assam CPI contested in three general seats and one tea-labour seat situated in the Surma Valley. Irawat contested in the Silchar General Seat. Though he lost to the Congress candidate, Irawat won a large chunk of votes inspite of riding against the Congress wave. It established the Communists as a polltical force in Cachar

In the early part of 1946 the Tebhaga movement started in the Cachar district under the leadership of Irawat. Many Manipuri peasants participated whole-heatedly in the Tebhaga movement in the Surma Valley. Though Irawat returned to Manipur in March 1946, the Tebhaga movement continued in the Cachar district. The Tebhaga movement reached its epitome in November 1949 when five peasants, four Manipuris and one Hindusthani, fell martyrs to the bullets of the police during the movement at the Borkhola area.

(ii) Cultural Activities

Irawat was not only a political leader, but also a cultural leader.

In 1943, after being released from the Sylhet jail, Irawat stayed sometime in the Communist Party commune of Sylhet. There he met Hemango Biswas who was also putting up at the time. Irawat got intensely interested in the progressive writers and the people theatre movements, which Hemango Biswas and others were then organizing in Sylhet and Cachar.

In his work as a peasant organizer in the Barak Valley, he also mobilised the village artistes. Being himself an artist of versatile talent, perhaps he found it easier to work simultaneously at the political and the cultural level. It was due to his influences that Guru Kamini , the leading exponent of Manipuri dance joined the people's theatre movement.

Irawat built up some cultural squads in the villages, singing songs about the peasants' struggle for land and other rights. He composed songs in Manipuri narrating struggles of the people for freedom from the yoke of British domination and for resistance against the Fascist invaders. These squads were composed not only of the Manipuris alone.

Some ex-tea garden labourers and Bengali boys and girls were also there in these squads. Patriotic and democratic songs in Manipuri, Bengali and spoken dialects of the ex-tea garden labourers were sung by these squads, which used to hold shows particularly in the rural areas and rouse the people to liberate themselves from the shackles of feudal and other oppressions.

These squads commonly known as "Swadeshi Ganer Dal" were very popular among the masses. In the Sylhet district also the party had some cultural squads singing patriotic as well as class struggle- based songs which were organized under the guidance of Hemango Biswas. When the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) was founded in the Surma Valley, all the cultural squads of Sylhet and Cachar districts were incorporated in a single unit. Hemango Biswas and Irawat together took the helms of this unit.

The epitome of Irawat's achievement as a cultural leader was his performance at the All India Kisan Conference at Netrakona. Irawat virtually shone at Netrakona (now in Bangladesh) where he led a delegation of the SVKS consisting of a cultural troupe from the Cachar region. In the open rally he presented his vigorous dance composition "Thangol Adu" along with his troupe inspiring the memorable gathering of about two lakh. While a wide variety of cultural activists from Bengal and Assam came to Netrakona, according to P.C.Joshi vide the People's War (6-13 May 1945), "Dancing honours went to the Manipuri squad." P.C. Joshi, General Secretary of the CPI highly appreciated and encouraged the cultural programme prepared under the guidance of Irawat in which he himself also participated.

To be continued....